Western red / Alaskan cedar...cost and delivery to Maine?

[Mainecoast]

Howdy, I was curious if anyone had any sort of lead or idea on what it would cost to get a load or eve just a few western red cedar, Doug for, or Alaskan cedar delivered out here to Maine? 

I love working with the wood but boy is it pricey and it's always a bit less wood than advertised. Due to price I'm always just using scraps from work projects rather than filling the back of my truck with red cedar. We can't afford that stuff! 

Maybe it's a pipe dream..but maybe it's reasonable to even just get one huge log delivered and I can saw it for years to come! 

[Southside]

I think the trucking and USDA regs would kill you by the time it landed there, if it could even be done.  Sometimes it's less complicated to send lumber to the EU than it is to send a Walnut log to the next County over.  

[Crossroads]

I'm kinda in the same predicament. I want to have a mixed load of Red Alder, maple and oak hauled over from Oregon. As southside has said the logistics of crossing Washington and into Idaho with a load of logs don't seem to be in my favor. My thought now is to find a place over there were I can have the logs delivered. Take my mill over and cut it all, then haul the "finished " product back on a flatbed trailer. 

[Ianab]

I think it's always going to be efficient to transport dry sawed wood rather than logs. Exception might be BULK logs (as in whole ship loads). Local feeling is that if you are more than 70 miles from the mill or port, then your logs drop in value. If you were 700 miles? Freight is probably more than the log value. 

But think about it, once you saw and dry the wood, it's maybe 1/3 of the weight, and it's in a nice stackable shape. 

Issue is shipping just a few boards, any long distance. If you can fill a container, then it's easy to move any place in the world, and the per board cost is small. A whole shipping container can land any place in the world for ~$3,000. Spread that cost over 20 tones of wood, and it's OK. Want to ship 10 boards? Yeah, that's awkward. It has to go through too many hands / forklifts / trucks to get to you. 

[firefighter ontheside]

I would think northern white cedar was comparable in many ways.  Have you sawed that?

[DMcCoy]

WRC is very expensive even out here.  I sold a few log truck loads this year @$9K per load, over $2,000 mbf.
WRC lumber locally is $4+ bf, if 1.5"x 5.5" 12" is a BF.  This is second growth with wide rings.  That nice tight grain stuff is even higher.
I do not know for a fact but heard from a logger that Caffel Bros. out of Ranier OR sells train car loads.

[tacks Y]

No idea of cost, but have heard of a local man that bought wood from Africa. Had it shipped in a container. Just depends on the depth of ones pockets.

[mike_belben]

it is the absolute worst time to try this operation.  Fuel, trucking and logs are very very high and no ones wanting to work. 

Wait for great depression 2.0 and theyll be begging you to take it

[Stephen1]

I just read a shipping container from China to the West coast is 20k. Not sure how true that is. But for sure the costs have gone up.
I agree Mike Belton. Hang on,a recession is on its way

[Satamax]

Howdy, I was curious if anyone had any sort of lead or idea on what it would cost to get a load or eve just a few western red cedar, Doug for, or Alaskan cedar delivered out here to Maine?

I love working with the wood but boy is it pricey and it's always a bit less wood than advertised. Due to price I'm always just using scraps from work projects rather than filling the back of my truck with red cedar. We can't afford that stuff!

Maybe it's a pipe dream..but maybe it's reasonable to even just get one huge log delivered and I can saw it for years to come!

Just an idea. 
Nobody planted WRC or doug fir in parks where you live? 
Sometimes, for the small guys, it is not too shabby an idea to get in contact with guys looking after town parks, and see if they have something you could be interested in. 

[SwampDonkey]

Just an idea.
Nobody planted WRC or doug fir in parks where you live?
Sometimes, for the small guys, it is not too shabby an idea to get in contact with guys looking after town parks, and see if they have something you could be interested in.

We don't have the climate unless it is interior strains from BC away from the rain belt.

Prince George has interior western red cedar. But it's not abundant in that region to obtain seed if I recall.

[charles mann]

I think the trucking and USDA regs would kill you by the time it landed there, if it could even be done.  Sometimes it's less complicated to send lumber to the EU than it is to send a Walnut log to the next County over.  

I tried to research on the usda and fs.usda on regs pertaining to transporting wood across state lines. I was unable to find anything and hoping you or someone else could share the link for the regs. 
A co-worker that live in oregon want to trade wood, and the wood i would bring him would already be milled, but the wood from him, id have to transport in log form to mill it at my house. 

[Crossroads]

Where in Oregon does your co-worker live? I do mobile milling jobs over there 2 or 3 times a year. 

[Southside]

I doubt there is a central database. Some quarantine is by County, as in Black Walnut, some in crossing state lines as in Gypsy moth, get into California and it's another planet all together.

Myself I would call the County Forester at the point of pickup and go from there. At least he or she can give you the local and State info, from there you have a starting point. 

Bark on makes things a lot more complicated, lumber form simplifies both the transportation and costs. 

[Percy]

In our area, we have the coastal WRC and Alaskan yellow cedar. No Doug Fir unfortunately. Right now, I believe WRC can't leave the province unless it has been turned into a product. No WRC log exports in other words. Years ago, a group of saw millers I was associated with collaborated on a few 30,000 bf orders of WRC lumber to Australia. Some of the boards had dirt on the bottom of the lifts that had stuck there when fork lifting....and some other boards had wane(bark).....The whole load was in quarentine for a few weeks and fumigated as well...all at our expense.......

[charles mann]

Where in Oregon does your co-worker live? I do mobile milling jobs over there 2 or 3 times a year.

Somewhere in southern oregon, around the medford area i think. Im looking at trees in the 60+". 

I doubt there is a central database. Some quarantine is by County, as in Black Walnut, some in crossing state lines as in Gypsy moth, get into California and it's another planet all together.

Myself I would call the County Forester at the point of pickup and go from there. At least he or she can give you the local and State info, from there you have a starting point.

Bark on makes things a lot more complicated, lumber form simplifies both the transportation and costs.

Walnut is one of the trees im looking at trading for, plus redwood. As for commiefonia, yea, id prefer to stay out of there, even though it would be a more direct route home by going 5S, then cutting across to truckee and into nevada , but id rather deal with mountain roads and pig trails in oregon, winding my way down to nevada than run through cali. Heck, we are in northern cali now, lodging in yreka and flying out of scott valley. 
Ill talk to our FS manager tomorrow and see if he can put me in contact with someone in the southern oregon area and get the skinny if possible.