I think I am going to be sick!

[GF]

I cut a 40" diameter clear white oak into 3x12 planks for a guy this past weekend that is going to be used for a bridge.  When he picked it up he could not believe how nice the grain was in it.  It would have made some nice cabinets or furniture.

[BlakeChorselogger]

another way to look at this is the value of the trees as seed stock, gene pool, diversity, habitat - along the lines of how dumb it is to cut 1000 yr old trees for newspaper....

locally in MN i cant believe all the waste with housing developments in the suburbs... trees totally wasted- little effort to preserve them for property value, cut them for lumber.  hundreds of 12-20inch dbh cedar wasted at one local development - chipped

[Daren]

locally in MN i cant believe all the waste with housing developments in the suburbs... trees totally wasted- little effort to preserve them for property value, cut them for lumber.  hundreds of 12-20inch dbh cedar wasted at one local development - chipped

That is the FIRST thing I did when I bought a sawmill, got to know all the developers, excavating contractors,tree services within 50 miles. I don't even know a logger. The picture above is a couple cedar and the rest walnut, that was the first of 2 trailer loads that came off that clearing job. FOR FREE. They were just going to pile them and burn them. I have a buddy who is retired and just does odd jobs for something to do, he runs and fetches stuff for me for little or nothing. I am far from getting them all that are going to waste, but I get quite a few.
I have told this story before, but I'm going to tell it again. My brother was doing a moonlight job plumbing a guys house before I had a mill (we are both ex-plumbers). The guy bought 10 acres of hardwood timber and a bulldozer. He pushed out and piled up 7 acres of oak,walnut,ash,hickory and some cedar... BIG ones. My brother was out there several times over the 9-10 months it took to build the house, and he said you could see the smoke for 5 miles. To make a long story short, the guy put oak flooring and trim, cedar lined his closets..., but never put 2 and 2 together. He burned all that good raw material he could have had processed(or sell and buy store bought) .Now he spends all day on a mower, mowing around little ornamentals he planted on the bare acres, just so when people drive by they can see what a nice house he built. When I drive by, I can't stand to look at his place.

[Kirk_Allen]

Daren you pics reminds me of my place when I got started.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=4654.0;all

[Daren]

Wow, Kirk you were really in the middle of the neighborhood weren't you. I bet the guy next door just loved that. :D I am not QUITE as cramped, I am zoned commercial and have 1/2 a block (but it is full of junk, trailers, logs... and my little 40x40 sawshed). My wife is ashamed of the whole deal, my yard is nothing but mud, bark and sawdust. I have a couple empty lots around town for stacking logs too, I'm going to get run out of town before long :