Good Fellers on YouTube

[Frickman]

I watch a lot of YouTube.  Lately I have been watching a channel called Good Fellers.  A logger in the upper midwest of the U.S. shows himself felling large hardwood timber.  I have a question about the propagation of the timber he cuts.

Most of the stands this man cuts he does a diameter limit cut.  He is harvesting large, valuable saw and veneer logs.  Surrounding these trees the stand is typically post and pole size timber.  How did the trees he is cutting grow so straight and limb-free if they were spaced out in the stand as young trees?  I hope I am saying that correctly.  

Many of these stands look like they are abandoned pastures.  I have harvested tracts like that.  The pasture is abandoned and a new stand grows up around young trees already present.  The existing trees usually grow into worthless "wolf" trees with lots of limbs.  So how did these stands get so many nice trees scattered around an even aged stand of young hardwoods?

I hope this all makes sense.

[barbender]

I don't know the answer, but I've noticed the same thing. A lot of those videos show guys going after massive loner hardwoods that are surrounded by small junk wood. 

[Frickman]

I have been doing some thinking.  In a way, what I see may have been a shelter wood cut, where some pole size timber was left to seed the open areas.  That doesn't make sense, though, as the young timber is typically another species, usually soft maple, where the mature timber is walnut and red oak.  Does anyone else have ideas?

[Dave Shepard]

I can't answer your question, but I have questions about their technique.

[chep]

From what ive seen it's the final high grade of the stands. They are in good soils, those trees were prob not quite big enough the last time someone creamed it. When a guy is going in to buy 100 trees out of a lot, you can be pretty sure he isn't doing tsi along the way, but that's just to my critical eye. I don't know the area or their forests well or their 'forestry'

[Frickman]

Dave Shepard,
I too, question the felling technique.  I could never justify "match cutting","stump jumping", whatever it's called.  I grew up with directional falling using an open face cut, game of logging style, so that's what I know.  No tree is worth getting killed over.

Chep,
These harvests are definitely high grading.  I never did it.  But with the lots this man is working on he is not left with many other options.  Sometimes you just have to work with what you have.  If a stand was mismanaged in the past you just have to deal with what's there.

[SwampDonkey]

A lot of those videos show guys going after massive loner hardwoods that are surrounded by small junk wood.

Made me chuckle, usually the big ones are junk to. All the times I've been in high graded woodlots where they left really old wind swept, 10-15° leaning, hollow, hard maples. Everything around was broom stick sized to 4" diameter. None were logs or veneer trees. Just like looking up at big trees.

[Texas Ranger]

An axiom I have lived by: Never judge another man's dog or management.  

[Ron Wenrich]

Walnut and red oak do a good job of self pruning.  I like the pasture idea.  I had one tract that I cruised that had large tulip poplar on it that was scattered.  It was a pasture 60 yrs before that. 

Soft maple in the understory is basically what we get in PA.  They're pretty tolerant and they're light seeded.  I have an overgrown field that is seeded with soft maple and red cedar.

You also have no idea if they went in and harvested the sawtimber before cutting the veneer.  You also don't have any idea how long the contract is good for.  I know of some contracts where its a 10 yr contract.  They do one cut at yr 1, and another at year 10. 

I had a logger that would use a minimal notch when cutting veneer timber.  He was a really good cutter.  He got killed by a drunk driver while coming home from a hunting trip in Manitoba. 

[SwampDonkey]

Succession in a wonderful thing. I see acres and acres of old field all back to forest. It doesn't take long either. I've seen aspen mixed with fir run 38 cord/acre on old pasture. Both not all that long lived in the scheme of things.

[chep]

As for the felling aspect. The guy is a good cutter. He doesn't split his trees.  Critical for the high dollar wood he cuts. 
It's not a technique I am comfortable with. The no hinge thing. 
Always seems to cut with the lean so it's not an impressive display of accuracy in my opinion. But mostly his tree find the way to the ground and all good.  
I've heard his technique called spur cutting. It takes a lot of skill to not get pinched up hard doing it. 
Leaves the tree attached by the spurs, gutting out the whole thing. Then releases spurs according to the lean/weight. 
Our area we bore cut and modify the hinge accordingly in valuable trees. Not a lot of guys spur cut that I know. 

[BrandonTN]

Frickman: In the southern Appalachians, most of our stands have been high graded. A high graded stand can look like that. But also, "Two-aged" shelterwood removals with reserves end up looking like that 30ish yrs after the cut, where 10-20BA overstory of long lived species (mostly oak and hickory) are left for wildlife habitat, hard mast, and/or future timber value if form is good. To answer your first question, those large staright trees are remnants of the previous overstory, straight because they grew up with the previous cohort. The smaller trees, the new cohort, just grew up fast under them. Around here on a mesic oak site, new cohorts usually originate from a mix of advance regen, stump sprouting, and aggressive shade intolerant seeders like yellow poplar, birch, cherry, locust, etc.