California fire

[trey_w]

I've been keeping up with the news and watching the devastation in California, it truly is a tragedy.  My thoughts and prayers are with those people, especially the lady who collects my groups timesheets.  She's been put on notice to be ready to evacuate. :(

In a lot of the shots you can see trees burning (of course)  and I was just wondering... Can those trees be recycled?  I'm just wondering if the intense heat would ruin the tree beyond being able to salvage lumber from it.  I remember reading that some of the trees that were felled by Mt. Saint Helens were able to be salvaged but I don't know if they were knocked down by force or by fire.  Just curious.

[beenthere]

I'd be interested in what species and size of trees you are asking about. I was thinking that these fires were burning brush, and small trees, etc.

From my limited knowledge, live trees caught in a fire usually are just killed by the heat. They continue to burn if there is internal decay that has caused the wood to be drier and more easily burned. However, these CA trees have been on the dry side for quite some time. If the trees are hardwood, then the wood in the stem is likely still good for lumber, as the heat won't affect it (that is why wood beams last longer in a fire than steel beams).  If the trees are softwood, then the wood will still be good if the tree remains standing, and if the fire doesn't stay concentrated around the tree very long such that it continues to burn.

Sawing burned timber is a dirty job, as the ash and soot gets everywhere. Also, the now-dead timber has a short span of time that it remains good for lumber. Bugs and things start to work on dead timber pretty fast (i.e. 6 months or so).

[Ron Wenrich]

They are showing that there are some sawtimber sized trees.  They look pretty spread out, and they could have been yard trees, and they take pictures of them because its so dramatic.  I thought that area was chapparrel (sp).  They also said they hadn't had measurable rain since early May.

There really isn't any reason they couldn't salvage the timber, if they had any mills in the area.  I imagine the red tape involved in CA would drag on until the trees were unusable.

I know that after Mt St Helens, Weyerhauser salvaged their timber and the government dragged their feet.  I'm not sure how much the government salvaged.  

How much of a problem would bugs be?  You would think they would get toasted in the fire and would take awhile before their populations would build up enough to have much of an impact.

[Jeff]

Isnt dead burnt over timber supposed to be a great source for cabin logs? Seems I remember seeing something about that.

[AtLast]

I saw an article about 1 of the neighborhoods that they wanted to go in and cut a fire line removing the mature trees to hopefully retain the blaze...the residents refused to let them cut....so their house burnt down..... ???

[trey_w]

Do firemen have to get permission from a community to cut a fire break?  That's nuts if they do.   ???  I hope noone got hurt because of that if the article is true.

[MemphisLogger]

We need to send Fla._Deadheader up Mt. St. Helens.

I heard the lake at the bottom of the mountain has millions of bdft of oldgrowth in it from the blast.    

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Best way to get them logs is with one of them helio-mo-choppers. Lake logs must be VERY easy to get. No current, no brush piles in the props, no stoopid 100 mile-an-hour bass boats whizzin by : ;D ;D

[Stan]

Up above 5000' there is a lot of pinon pine.