I had a forester help me select cut my 40 acres. I had a nice 18in. red oak scraped up by the skider. One that was not to be cut. The bark is damaged from ground up about 24in. and 9in. wide. Will this tree heal or will it die? Also they damaged several young cherry trees. Can they stand the bark being scraped off one side? Thanks for your help, Jim
Yes they will likely survive the damage you described. However, they are now very vulnerable to entry of pathogens including rot, and the site of the damage will be a defect in future log quality whether or not rot becomes present.
Welcome to the forum jimmac71.
Not fun to have that happen to the leave trees. Talk to the forester and see if the logger is supposed to pay you for damaged "leave" trees. Not that it will amount to much but the logger should at least discuss them with you. Pretty impossible to not damage some trees while selective logging.
What were the guidelines for doing the selective logging?
I would like to meet the logger that can log forty acres and don't skin a tree on a inside cruve ! If you have a concern about the scar get some trailer house roofing patch and cover it with that and the tree will grow right over it. Bill
Can we assume that it was a tree length logging job? Cut to length might have been the better logging method to use in a quality oak stand. Any concerns for oak wilt spread in the area?
I agree that the likely impact will be the introduction of rot producing fungus in the wound. This will not kill the tree, and the rot will take decades to form. Some type of coating would help protect the tree. I would use anchorseal, but then I have some around all the time to coat the end of sawlogs.
I had a very good research paper on oak wilt, wish I could find it. :P ::) One item in the research was when red oak stands are disturbed, as in storm or harvesting damage, i.e. rutting, skinning bark, breaking limbs particularly in spring with sap rising and soil is wet, diseases are readily more infecting to residuals than in late summer and winter.
In our red oak stands, any damage to 'leave' red oaks usually equates to mortality in two or three years. I would cut and market the damaged oak soon.
In 20 years or so, when the next harvest is done in this stand, this damaged red oak will be of low value due to this damage, if it's still alive. I'd sell it now to the logger while he's still set up there. But he should have to pay double stumpage or similiar, which should have been a stipulation in the sale contract. If that wasn't included in the contract, I'd sell it to him at the going stumpage price to get the value out of it now.
I agree that such damage is unavoidable in a logging job. I think though, with that damage stipulation in a sale contract, a logger would take pains not to damage a valuable tree, but instead plan his skid trails and turns to avoid them. Bumper trees are needed to help get logs around turns, but most loggers will pick out a poor quality tree or low value species for this. Better if they cut down these skinned-up bumper trees at the end of the job. It takes a poor quality tree out of the canopy, giving the better quality neighboring trees more growing space, and makes the logging job look better to the landowner.
I wouldn't classify it as a low value tree in future harvests. What has been hurt is the future value of any veneer. The quality of the timber produced above the scarred area will not be affected from a quality standpoint. If it is veneer quality, those scarred areas can be cut off in the bucking operations and often sold as veneer. If its not a veneer quality tree, it can be kept long and the defected area can be cut off during the sawing operations. There is mainly a loss in volume if not harvested now. It may not yield that much of a loss. A lot depends on the amount of damage.
Some species will yield a mineral defect when there is logging damage. Most notably, tulip poplar will yield blue, purple or yellow hearts in the area of the damage. That can be viewed as a defect. Other damage may include heart rot, but, as pointed out, that will take a long time to develop.
Only one? Sounds like a logger savant, the "Rain Man" of skidder drivers. Keep his number for next time.