Recovering wood from Idalia, Debby and Helene

[Kit B]

Over a 13 month period spread over 2023 and 2024, the part of Florida where I have my farm was blessed with 3 hurricanes. Cummulatively this has downed hundreds of trees, both mature planted pine and hardwoods growing in old fence rows and wet bottoms.  

I have been trying to salvage as many quality logs as possible as I've cleared the interior roads and firelines.  I've been concentrating on the planted pines as they seem the most suceptiple to bugs.  Theres been a lot of cold weather this winter which has helped, but as things warm up I'm feeling like I'm in a race to save as much wood as I can.

One thought I've had is focus on cutting the SYP into larger posts, like 8"x8"x12' for later resawing.  This would go much quicker than sawing all the logs into boards and maximize the amount of wood I could salvage.  

Wonder if anybody has any thoughts about this or can think of any downsides.  Don't really have any experience resawing dried wood.  Is there a particular blade I should use? All the SYP will be used as framing material for future farm projects.

As far as the hardwood, the storms knocked down some real monsters, mostly Red Oak, White Oak and Sweetgum.  Some of the oaks are to large for me to get back to my sawmill with my loader.  I have a Stihl 881 with a 60 inch bar and an Alaska Mill.  
I think the CSM will cut up to a 12 inch slab.  I'm thinking bucking them to length where they lay, then cutting them into chunks that can be transported to the sawmill and cut into 2-3 inch slabs.

I'm in Portland now on a work trip and will be back in FL in a couple of weeks.  I hope to upload some picture of the work then.  In the meantime any advice is appreciated.

[KenMac]

My advice would be to attack the job just like you would eat an elephant......one bite at a time. You can get overwhelmed and then get careless in your work procedures and get lax on safety. Becareful! You are more valuable than the best log! Good luck!

[Andries]

Kit,
Depending on what kind of oak you have, it might be the most valuable wood that the storms have tipped over. It'd be a shame to let the termites munch it up. That Stihl 881 is perfect for running a blade down the middle of those oak logs. It's a mighty thirsty saw, as you probably know from Alaskan milling, but really good for breaking a big log down to sawmill size. Have a look at the terrific videos that were made at the yearly "Project" gatherings at @customsawyer  place in Georgia.He makes log halving look easy.
I've got more than a few stacks of cants that are stickered, stacked and covered. Sometimes you have an opportunity in the shape of a ton of logs before you get a cut list for the  next build project. Expect to trim those cants, to get rid of some twists and checking. In your (buggy) part of the world, a sprayer with BoraCare or similar borate product will minimize losses from those that eat wood.
Also, making up a bunch of lumber pallets, or open bottomed pallets will make lifting and handling cants of big wood a ton easier.
Good luck, and post some pictures ok?

[KWood255]

I cannot speak to SYP, but our red pine logs last a long time, provided they are kept off the ground. I had several mature red pine sawlogs that were in a pile for 4 years. I cut the last of them at Christmas time, and they were excellent. There was nothing wrong with them aside from a few seemed to have a brown coloured staining leeching in from the predominant sun exposed side. I was shocked. Spruce would have been infested with worms.

I just returned from Hernando Beach FL, and was very impressed with all the pine plantation. I am quite envious!

[Kit B]

My experience with SYP is that it needs to be off the ground with the bark removed or it will become infected/infested pretty quickly.  Seems the most  practical way to remove the bark is to mill it into boards or cants.

Kenmac, you are dead on with your advice not to be overwhelmed.  It's easy to do, especially after a hurricane.  But over the years it has been a key to successfully managing the farm, and the rest of my life.

Overall, I'm trying to look at it as a great opportunity to put my new mill to work.

[customsawyer]

If it was me, I would go ahead and make the logs into lumber while it is on the mill. If you take into account the amount of time it takes to handle a 8x8 vs. cutting it into 4 2x8s and stacking them you are way ahead to just make the 2x. It will dry better. There won't be the trim waste later, due to cracks, and it's ready to be used on the farm. With the volume of wood you are talking about, I would be looking at handling it the least. You are going to have some waste no matter what you do. I would rather waste a little wood and not my time.
On the big oaks. If you split them in half where they fell will your tractor get them out then?

[Peter Drouin]

Same here, cut it all up while on the mill, sticker, and done. 

[SawyerTed]

Make lumber while on the mill like the others have said.  

Advance planning with purpose for the lumber, cut lists and harvesting plans will make life so much easier. 

If 1x material is planned, consider a resaw in your operation and saw lumber with intentions to resaw later.  That way you can get more material cut and on stickers quicker. There's more handling later but it's a higher quality product than cants will allow. The resaw can come later.  

Having a plan for the lumber will be important to how and which logs to get first.  That way you can "cherry pick" the best logs for your cut lists.  Getting the highest value logs first.  If for some reason you don't get to the lower value logs, your losses are lessened.  

Maybe consulting with a forester would help find a market for the lower value logs?  You might not make a lot of money but it might help with the cleanup. 

[Kit B]

Good insight on milling boards vs cants for resaw.  That is what I've been doing but I was looking for ways to speed the process and hopefully save more wood.  There is so much wood down I can afford to be picky.  I have only been taking larger (12-16 inch diameter), perfectly straight logs.

I have somewhat vague plans for using the boards for a couple of projects I have in mind, but nothing as firm as a cut list.  I've mostly been cutting 2x4s, 2x6s and 2x8s.

I had my forester out a week after Helene, there is not enough timber down to get a logger out to harvet it.  As bad as I've been hit, others have had it much worse and of course the market is in the toilet because theres so much salvage wood out there.

I'll be back in FL next week and will spend the first couple weeks in March getting as much pine as I can on the mill.   After that we'll burn, to keep down the bugs.

Thanks again for the insight and one more question.  When you guys mill SYP do you cut it to nominal or actual dimensions?

[WV Sawmiller]

   I would suggest you try to saw the most time sensitive logs first. If you could debark the pine logs they'd last longer but that may not be possible. I would probably let the sweetgum lie unless you have a specific need or market for them. The really big oaks may be more trouble than they are worth unless you have access to some really heavy duty MHE and a slabber type mill to process them for specialty slabs and such.

   I have very limited experience in this area but if the trees broke off in the storms they may not be if much value as the winds twist them and they splinter inside. I had a big white oak do that in Super Storm Sandy many years ago and it definitely was not worth the time and effort I expended trying to salvage lumber out of it.

   Also uprooted and leaning trees will probably allow you some extra time if they are not in the way or a safety hazard. I have a decent Norway Spruce that uprooted a few months ago and is leaning against another tree. I'll leave it where it is and salvage it the next time I need some spruce lumber but it with stay green longer as it is so I will leave it as is till I need it.

[Ventryjr]

I did some volunteering in the fall, helping clean up in NC.   A friend and I hauled down some machines and helped tear down houses and clear roads.   We were moving some monster oak logs 36"+ that had fallen onto some roads.  A lot of nice timber laid down in the parts we worked. Trouble was most of down trees were caused by mud slides.  The logs were caked with thick mud and rocks.  Killed a few chains for my saw down there.   It was a shame to roll so many nice logs over the bank.  There just wasn't time or space to save them. 

[customsawyer]

Lots of folks are blaming the hurricane for the market being in a slump. Some are claiming that the mills are taking advantage of the situation. Y'all have to remember that there was two Interfor mills closed down by Savanna back in Aug. The market was already in a tough place when mills of that size are loosing so much money that they had to close. Now the hurricane did make it worse, for this area, but it didn't cause it. Lots of the mills in this area lost lots of their own timber land. Lost lots of tracts of timber they had bought. For them to survive this situation they have no choice but to go as hard as they can to salvage their own wood first. It is hard on everyone but if the mills don't survive, there won't be anywhere to take the wood to next year.

[Kit B]

I had planned to harvest timber in 2025 but have decided to pump the brakes to let the market recover.  Just hoping we don't get walloped by another storm this season.  It's a little hair raising as it's the mature trees that are most vulnerable.  

[Sixacresand]

I was overwhelmed when we drove through East Georgia after Helene came through.  Entire planted pine stands were blown down.  Timber harvesters everywhere salvaging their trees.  I saw thousands of nice trees laying in yards and on the side of the highways. I'm sure most were cut up and haul to a burn pile or landfill.  

For small time sawmillers with loading and hauling equipment, it would have been a great  opportunity to get logs which I Hope some probably did.    

[Magicman]

As a general rule I have found that when dealing with storm downed/damaged trees the juice ain't worth the squeeze.  Not too much different from the drought/beetle killed trees that I have been dealing with for a couple of years. 

For me it is now over and my answer to folks calling about those dead trees is NO.  They have passed their salvage life

[customsawyer]

If the trees are uprooted and the root is still in some dirt, the logs will last longer. If they are broke off part way up they are normally not worth the trouble, as the logs will be split and cracked, above and below the break. One of the things that got us around these parts, is that the ground was absolutely saturated and very soft. It didn't take much to blow them over. 

[Seachaser]

I'm in the same boat OP.  The cleanup is never ending.  Most of ours were uprooted.

[WDFL]

Same here in NfL.  I'm still working on getting the snags and downed pines to where I can mill them.  Here's a few pics.  Unfortunately a lot will be firewood.