Top twenty forestry questions???

[Bro. Noble]

Speaking of old trees, wouldn't "old maid timber"  be a more accurate lable than "virgin timber" ?

Noble

[Gordon]

Now some good stuff on timber sales. Also quality of wood being sold in stores.  Haven't even started talking about replanting and thinning. Excellent weblink.

Also a few good ones on when to mill your timber.

How old is old growth, another good question to be answered.

Maybe this should be titled the top 100 instead of the top twenty.

Gordon

[Ron Scott]

Although a useful indicator of "old growth", age is often considered less important than stand structure.

[Tillaway]

Your right Ron S, except to an environmentalist.  They also think by the individual tree.  If the tree is 12" DBH and 200 years old it's "Old Growth".  If it's 35" and 50 years old it's "Old Growth" even if the stand shows no other typical signs of "Old Growth" structure.

[Ron Scott]

The true definition of old growth can be quite complex. It is not well understood by most who advocate old growth as just old aged trees.

We have  some old growth red pine plantations here that are only 35 years old. The other ecosystem factors such as geology, soil, climate, etc come into play on certain sites.

[SawBilly]

At the risk of asking a stupid question, here goes:

I talked to a local house builder the other day and conversation led to the sawmill, I told him I was cutting and storing lumber for a house of my own in the DISTANT future. He asked what I was cutting and I told him Pine for the framing....

he said "you are going to use Pine for framing??"

 He was in total shock! The local Lowes store has a stamp on the framing studs "#2 spruce/pine/fir or something like that.

Am I missing something? Pine is ok for building right?

Maybe I could buy a fir stud cheaper than a #1 Pine, but the land is mine, the trees are mine, the resulting lumber is mine, the mill is mine, the chainsaw is mine, the labor is mine, the only thing I have to buy is gas, and nails (later). I am planning on building it the "old" way, pine 2x6's for framing outside walls, 1x6 t&g for roof and 1.5x6 for subfloor...yea plywood is faster and cheaper but, the land is mine, the trees are mine, the resulting lumber is mine, the mill is mine, the chainsaw is mine, the labor is mine, the only thing I have to buy is gas, and nails (later)

Well I am also going to use the tops of the trees for knotty pine paneling.

SawBilly

[Bibbyman]

Q; How long can you saw?
A; Well,  I have an uncle that sawed well into his 80's :D

[Bro. Noble]

PINE IS FINE !
Especially our SYP.  It's much better than a lot of the western wood that finds it's way to the lumber yards in our area.  The strength of SYP is right up there with Douglas Fir.

Most of the old houses in our area are built of native yellow pine.  Some of the newer ones are built of pine that we have sawed with pleased owners in each case.  The house my son lives in was built of pine by my grandfather and was sawn on his father's mill.

FINE IS PINE !

Noble

[DouginUtah]

As a follow-up to the second and third posts by Jeff and Tom on this topic:

(The tree in my backyard is worth thousands of dollars.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1787758595

$13,995!  :D :D :D :D

[Tom]

I would sure hate to spoil that first bidders day by jumping in there and raising the price :-/

I think I'll let him have it. ;D

[Ron Wenrich]

Yes, but he will take Paypal.

[SawBilly]

Hey did anybody do the math on that 200yr old tree:

cir=15.5 ft
2 pi R = Cir
2R=diameter
diameter=cir/pi (3.14)
dia=15.5/3.14

equals a whopping  4.94 feet :D on the big end, probably bark to bark since they measured circumfrence!!!!!!

It would be 4.14 feet on the little end.
How many board feet can you get out of that 16' log

That's a pretty big log!

[Paschale]

#15 (I think)  I've got some land--What kind of tree should I plant in order to be able to harvest for income when I retire?

This is a question I've asked myself on the board here, and have seen several others ask as well.   If I remember correctly, most people told me to plant a fast growing pine since if someone wanted to harvest hardwood when he retired, those trees would need to be planted while the guy was still crawling!

[Andre]

That would be 4.93 feet on the big end and 4.14 feet on the little end.  You switched units someplace. ;)
I figure about 6 or 7 dollars per board foot, note that the reserve price has not been met.

[Jeff]

Too funny.
 There is not a bid yet. First bid is the sellers. Could it be it comes with a beautiful neked environmentalist that had a tree house in the branches? :D I'd bid $13.95 to see it

[SawBilly]

Andre,
My math may need some work, but the 'puter skills seem ok ;D

Welcome to the Forum

[Jeff]

If they sell that tree for enough, they could bid on this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=980451705

 :D

[Gordon]

Here is a question on spacing that I found on a very recent weblink. Ok here goes see if you have the correct answers.

A common recommendation for planting tree seedings is to plant 1,000 seedlings per acre at a 6 foot by 7 foot spacing (trees 6 feet apart in rows 7 feet apart). If I have a bundle containing exactly 1,000 tree seedings and I measure carefully to space the trees 6 X 7 feet, will I be able to plant my entire acre or will I have tree seedlings left over? I will be short or over by how many seedlings? How many seedlings will I require per acre if I decide to instead plant the trees at an 8' X 8' spacing?

Gordon

[Ron Scott]

You will need 1037 seedlings so you will be 37 short. If you plant on a 8x8 spacing you will need 680 seedlings.

[Bro. Noble]

Better go with the 8x8 because 1000 trees / acre is too thick and requires thinning before the trees are big enough to sell for any purpose.  Besides with a 6x7 spacing 1000 trees would only plant 42000 sq ft. and there are 43,560 sq ft in a flatland acre.  Around here an acre is often more like 60,000 sq. ft.  Maybe it would be best to plant about a bundle and a half per hectar.

Now if you get 80% survival  and thin down to 10% of that in the next 200 years and they sell for 13,950 each it won't do you much good.  Inflation will have increased the price of jockstraps to about a grand per each.

Forget the DanG trees and buy those JOCKSTRAPS !!!

Noble

[woodman]

Noble i like your math  

[Jeff]

We do have a tree spacing calculator in the tool box. Link to the left.

[WV_hillbilly]

I always thought the rule of thumb was its not what something is worth its what someone is willing to pay for it .If someone would even bid on that live oak theY have to much money any ways and not enough brain cells left to think clearly. Isn,t there an old saying about seperating a fool from his money? :

hillbilly   :D :D

[Ron Scott]

Determine the objectives for the species bieng planted and then determine your spacing ie: wildlife cover, wind protection, timber, recreation, aesthetics, Christmas trees, endangered species habitat etc.

One might even want to vary the spacing some based on the landscape factor of the area considered.

[Ron Wenrich]

For inquiring minds:

The live oak log has 2025 bf Doyle scale, 1795 bf Scribner scale and 1843 bf International scale.  Price ranges from $6.91/bf to $7.80, depending on log scale.  Footage computed from the toolbox, at the right.

As Ron S stated, the number of trees is 1037 trees/acre.  Again, from the toolbox.