Question re: Logging (Forester Came Today, 9-16)

[StupidBird]

You need to also worry about (as happened in ours and another nearby neighborhood)
Liability when the tree falls on neighbor's fence, your fence, nieghbors camper, etc.
Tree ordinances (residential areas might penalize big time for every inch diameter removed without proper permits)
Wetland and waterway setbacks (25 to 50 foot from TOP of Bank in Georgia, with many added conditions) and right of way setbacks (lumbering is 25 feet? something in this state)
Crushing of underground utilities by equipment - yours, neighbors, public...they can bill you for the damage
Fire hazard from all that debris, ruts and erosion from the equipment...
AND these idiots let the "company" take out all the prime lumber for free!

 

[Organics North]

I am a small scale logger, own a small sawmill and so forth. I can not help to much. Your markets and practices are very different than in the timber belt of the upper midwest.

Here are some of my thoughts:
1. Contact Woodmizer (A saw mill manufacture, they may be able to hook you up with a mill operator, that logs or knows a small scale logger.
http://www.woodmizer.com/us/sawmills/index.aspx

2. Try to contact people who sell fire wood. Maybe they can work on halves with you or they keep 3/4 you keep 1/4 they could split and deliver the wood to you.

3. Your contact (The by the ton guy) does not sound too bad. Not much profit in most timber anymore. Furniture is made in china these days..

*It is all about the clean up. No one will remove the slash and still pay you but you could find some one who will cut it up real small so it is low to the ground and decays fast.
Possibly the DNR should be able to give you a list of small scale guys that do clean work..

I believe the south does not have 100" pulp mills any more, so all the small guys are gone.. It is sad. All the work is in tree length know and that only favors the big guys with million dollar harvesters.. Luckily in northern Wisconsin this has not happened yet..

Good Luck
ON

 

[StupidBird]

Organics, the woodmizer tip is great! I have seen these on rare occasions on craigslist even in Georgia; if I had timber worthy trees, that would be an excellent option. Even to contract someone to cut and saw on site would be more practical than what happened in our area.

 

[speckledhen]

The forester was just here. The good news is that he pronounced the overall health of our woods excellent and the property beautiful. He was very surprised by the health of the biggest scarlet oaks, especially. The bad news is that he says the logger we consulted was pretty much offering the going rate in this area for our wood, that the hardwoods were just pulp and pallet wood. We have very few pines, relative to the oaks, maples, sourwoods, etc, so we don't have the cash crop they're looking for.

Within the last week, we've started cutting the small trees in one area at the front of the property beside the driveway, clearing the understory to showcase the huge oaks and make it more like what some call an English woodlot. His advice was to basically do the same thing in the back three acres and he advised us which ones were the best to take of the big trees, i.e., cut scarlet oaks and leave white oaks, etc. Pretty much, we are still at square one. We don't want to pay someone to cut the trees, we'd like to get someone to pay us for the wood, but just don't have enough of what they want, unless we call Mr. Rice back and tell him to go ahead. Or, perhaps he'd cut on one side and leave the other side as-is. Dunno. Could be that we can find someone who sells firewood and let them take some of the big trees in exchange for them keeping the wood for their business, just to open up the view some.