Low grade markets & forestry

[Tarm]

Mr Wenrich and I had an exchange about this subject in Cedar Eater's thread "The Magic Number". I thought I'd start a new thread and get other forum members imputs. So for you landowners, loggers, and foresters out there how does the availability (or not ) of markets for low grade wood impact your forestry activities. For me, I guess I need to give thanks for the good markets that exist here in northern Wisconsin.

[Ron Scott]

The availability of low grade and pulpwood markets has a definite affect on good forestry practices along with the logging methods and equipment in use.

In a true selection harvest one should remove the poorer quality, risk and liability trees first, thus the "worst first" (with exception of Animal Inns of course".)

If their is no market for the "worst" trees "first" then high grading takes place for the best marketable trees.

The higher quality crop trees and species of higher value are taken setting the stand back for a lifetime rather than provideing quality wood every 10-15 year cutting cycle.

A lot depends upon the marketing skills of the timber buyer and producer and wood using mills to work together to utilize all wood products to leave a "good looking" woods which most nonindustrial forest landowners desire.

Wisconsin is fortunate to have maximum forest utilization efforts in place.  

[Corley5]

When we cut our maple timber 4 years ago we planned to cut the basswood also.  The basswood market at that time and at the present isn't good so the basswood still stands.  I cut maple timber down to about 14" unless it was a rough tree and wasn't getting any better than I took them down smaller.  The 12"-14" trees that I left have grown a lot the past 4 years are well on track for another cut in 6 years.  We have a good stocking of smaller maples that will be the crop in 16 years.  As for the basswood.  When the market comes up I'll cut it.  But until I can make out good on the harvest it'll stand and isn't hurting a thing.  The way we do it with our farm tractor and three point skidding winch damage to the residual stand is very minimal.  Since it is our own woodlot we are even more careful.  I guess the answer would be yes that it does affect our management.  

[Norm]

The lack of pulp markets here (central Iowa) means that alot of the stuff that would be ground ends up left in the woods. It looks bad and gives loggers a bad rep. We have one mill that cuts pallets but is not buying much right now because of the slow economy, they have two cutting crews and are not working either one full time. On our farm we use the poor quality trees that need culled for firewood and to fill in washouts if they can't be used for firewood. We use a chipper on anything between 2-8 inches but have a hard time marketing it. The hardwood market is slow right now so we decided to let about 15 mature walnuts grow another year until better markets. Critter trees (mostly mature basswood trees) here mean mostly raccoon trees that are a real pest on our farm. They are hard on the bird population during nesting and have hurt our pheasant and waterfowl populations. They have almost wiped out the wood ducks along our stream. Since there is no market for hollow basswood we leave them but would rather get rid of them. The point is that there is no plan that works for everyone but variations for the area we live in.

[Paul_H]

We operate on Crown land and have to remove all merch.Since 1996,Fir pulp has been around $15-20 Cdn. per cubic metre in the water and boomed .Our logging costs(planning,engineering,silviculture,etc.)average $85 per m3,including stumpage.Hemlock pulp averages $42 per m3.
Even if we ignore our logging costs,trucking ,dumping,and booming eat up $15 per m3.Leaving $3-5 per m3 for the fir :-/To offset this,we are milling railway ties,and 6"x6" octogon posts with our little MD.This is helpfull,but the rest,because of twist,is good for nothing but pulp.We have just found a new buyer that will give us $20 at our sort,so that helps a lot.

We also cut firewood from our fir pulp and trim.Can't afford to waste a thing.

[Ron Wenrich]

So, here is where I have a problem with management.

Too often we manage the forests for what the current market conditions.  What may be a low grade tree today, may be a prime tree in future markets.

How much was hard maple 15 years ago?  I remember when you couldn't get rid of red oak.  Can you tell what the markets will be in 5 years let alone 75 years?

Some trees have historic low values.  Some trees won't grow very well in a particular area.  I wouldn't grow gum or beech, but I won't turn my nose up at nice black birch.

So, does it mean that if we don't have a market for the material to be removed we move on to the next job?  Or should we be out there looking for alternative markets?

I read this on another board.  It came from a guy on the West Coast.  He said that a cord of red alder firewood was worth $250.  But, you could earn $6-8000 over then next 4-6 years by growing shitake, mitsutake, and other mushrooms on that cord of wood.

Maybe we should be rethinking a marketing and management strategy that private landowners can grasp.  

[Paul_H]

Over the past four years, we have reduced our pulp sorts by 40%.We have added  from it a couple of low grade sawlog sorts.Also high end builders from nearby Whistler buy what they call " Beauty " or "Character wood".It is the kind of wood that Jeff and others make their table and stairs out of.We have seen pictures of some of the finished projects the builders have made.Stunning,from something that would have been chipped a few years ago.

The kicker in all this right now is,our higher grade fir sawlog prices are down about $30 below their average.Western Red Cedar on the other hand, is hot

[Cedar Eater]

My father had his woodlot "poppled out" about 12 years ago and when he noticed the loggers leaving undesirable trees, he told them to just drop the ones he didn't want left standing. Many of them were hollow and would have fallen unpredictably in the next high wind. Others were just undesirable species that the loggers couldn't market. This bothers me on several levels, mostly revolving around wastefulness, but on a business level, it made great sense. It cost very little to drop the trees. It would have cost much more and caused a higher impact on the woodlot to outhaul them. The loggers were willing to do it, and on a 20 acre woodlot, it wasn't a big job.

I realize that most woodlot owners wouldn't tolerate the apparent waste of whole trees, but those trees are mostly absorbed into the forest floor now and the forest looks very healthy. This obviously would only work for a relately small number of trees. I'm sure the loggers wouldn't weed out a lot of small trees.

I have one small geographically isolated section of hardwoods that I will "garden" intensively. I have to remove junk red maple and balsam fir until I achieve the balance I want. If I don't find markets for these, then I want to find uses for them. If the economics were different, I would probably let loggers take the red maples with my other hardwood area harvest, but the impact they would have on my roads isn't worth what they would give me for the trees. I can afford to be much gentler on the land.

[timberbeast]

Nothing that I cut on my land can be reached without passing "junk wood".  That's why I cut all of it out of the way,  on the skid trails.  The solid stuff that I can't saw,  or don't wish to saw,  goes for pulp,  posts,  or niche markets,  the main one being me ,  since I love spalted and stained stuff....If I took out every downed or soon to be down Balsam on the property,  I'm not sure if there would be enough rail cars in Michigan to haul it.  But!,  if ya throw it up on some cedar bunks for a year or so to dry,  it makes fantastic fire-pit and sauna wood.  Doesn't make me any money,  but it cleans up the woods a bit.  Being such a small one-man operation,  I don't think that I could clear my woods out in my lifetime if I wanted to.  The Cedar grows so fast,  I don't believe that I could keep up with it.  I've lost track of all the little skid trails going around the place,  some are almost impossible to find within 5 to 10 years.  But there are still some logs propped on stumps in certain areas that I could not get out due to weather,  etc.,  some maybe ten or more years in the woods.  I'll pull them all eventually,  even if they're only going to be kindling.  Long after I'm gone,  my grandkids and great-grankids will have a growing,  live and still-renewing source of wood,  a source of spiritual renewal among the trees,  and a love and respect for this land.  That's my management goal,  albeit uneducated.  But,  unchangeable.

[Ron Wenrich]

Cutting and let lay is an option.  The pros are that it is fairly cheap, it removes stocking from the stand and allows crop trees to grow, and there is little damage to the residual stand.

The cons are that it is an expense that can't be offset, there may be an increase in fuel on the forest floor (fire hazard), and slash may increase certain types of insects that will effect the residual stand. There is also the problem of stump sprouts on hardwoods.  They should be chemically treated to kill the stump, but there may be problems with the chemical going to other trees through the root systems.

I don't know of anyone doing TSI work where they cut and leave.  I had only one job which I did about 25 years ago.  There was a government co-pay, but that has pretty well evaporated.

It just seems to me that without any marketable material, the industry is extremely reluctant to offer any form of assistance to private landowners.  Without the privates, most mills would fold for lack of timber.

[Bro. Noble]

We dairy farm but decided about 10 years ago to log and saw our own timber. We are too particular to pay someone else to tear it up and leave the culls.  We wish we had all oak, walnut . and pine (and are working toward that)  but we have a lot of junk and wolf trees that were left behind from the past lack of management.  We started with a woodmizer but found cutting low value stuff was too slow to be profitable.  We added a scragg mill and resaw to speed things up.  The stuff too big for the Scragg mill, we cut into 4x6 on the woodmizer and then resaw.  WE slab big junk trees as thick as we can handle the slabs and send them to the scragg and then resaw.  We are lucky to have a good market for pallet stock.  IIf a tree is too bad for pallet stock, we girdle it and leave it standing.  I flushed 12 coons out of the dairy barn one night Dad got 11 of them as they went out the back door.

[Frank_Pender]

My 70 acre Tree Farm is primarely made up of Douglas Fir with an average DBH of 18" to 24".  I selectively remove them as the need to fill an order is received.