Yes – greenie magazine article

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  • #39497
    Gabe Ayers
    Keymaster

    Well the original article is on our web site but this is a very reduced and somewhat changed version of what I sent them.

    Does anyone else not like editors? That is one truly cool thing about this site.

    But I guess it puts all of us (network) in front of some supposedly green consumers or readers eyes.

    I just resent people that don’t know diddly about what you are doing or writing about, reducing your writing…beyond grammar, diction, sentence structure and that kind of “help”.

    Anyhow this is the address to the article in YES magazine, let me know what you think, the original is in the understories section on the HHFF site. It was one of those hey can you write us an article by tomorrow deals, so I adapted one that hadn’t been printed anywhere else yet. I think it could have been better.

    Thanks DAP peeps. Let me know what you think, if you have any ideas about how I could do more to promote our approach, let me know what to do. But remember most magazines will edit and reduce what you have to say. Not SFJ, DHJ or for the most part RH

    http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2350

    Jason

    #45949
    Rick Alger
    Participant

    Thumbs up. Short is good for public consumption. The point about the added value of restorative forestry is crucial.

    If you or others could produce readable research on the real costs of conventional logging – such as your apprentice did – I think it would be very helpful to the cause.

    Right now in my area, the extractive value of low grade hardwood will not support a restorative forester. Typical “worst first” wood, pallet and tie logs, are worth about $100/mbf roadside. Pulp is even worse. To make the $35 an hour that Jim and LT mentioned, one man would have to cut and skid around 2,500 feet a day and get to keep the entire return.

    #45951
    Jim Ostergard
    Participant

    Jason and Rick,
    Firstly, I agree with Rick its important to get short correct information out to the general public. Lots of education is still needed. Much better for one of us to be putting out a truthfull description of what we are about. I wrote for the fishing trades and some popular press all during my years as a commerrcial fisherman and I know folks appreciated hearing from some one who had actually gotten there knuckles scarped (and more).
    I’m a bit embarassed to say I’ve been running a skidder for the last month. Rusty is coming off a bad case of scratches and with over two feet of wet, icey snow in the woods I haven’t had the courage to take him with me. After not being on a machine for over three years I can report that it is not very pleasant. I’m on a great job and it looks great, havn’t had to widen any of the old horse trails (this with a JD 540) and the brush is well ground up. But I can’t wait to finish and get back to it with Rusty.
    Prices are just marginal here. Pine pulp $35/ton delivered, 8′ pine for garden timbers at about $200+mbf, Hemlock pupl at $38/ton and popple groundwood at $41/ton. More and more interest in “worst first,” but the hourly rate is still a hard sell.
    Work safe guys…..peace….Jim Ostergard, Appleton, Maine

    #45950
    Rick Alger
    Participant

    Hi Jim,

    The snow shut me down too. The day I left there was 58″ of snow pack measured at the Errol Dam. The snow banks on the Swift Diamond Road were over 10 ‘ high.

    The up side is that it’s great for our sleigh ride business.

    On another note, have you ever used the horse to bunch hitches for the machine? I did that a bit last winter on a 30% thinning job where we were chipping the tops. It worked pretty well for long pulls.

    There was just one big skid trail through the lot and a bunch of feeder trails for the horses. I traded wood for the use of the machine. Damage was minimal, but production improved considerably. At $6 a ton to cut and skid the tops for biomass that was a compromise I was willing to make.

    #45953
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Jason,

    I had previously read your original piece, and its alot longer than the piece that YES eventually printed. I don’t know the details of the setup. But if you knew ahead of time the amount of copy they wanted, you might have been able to condense it more, and still say what you wanted to. Maybe they woulda cut it anyway, but you might have gotten closer to what you intended.

    Its still a good, concise piece, and the website has lots of follow-up info.

    I remember the same frustration about having articles written about my horse-logging; they especially tend to mangle and put out of context phrases like “its not sexy”, or in my case, “its not just grunt work.” Its the nature of journalism, I guess, and we have to do the best we can with the free advertising we get.

    I think you’re doing a good job trying to come up with understandable phrases like Biological woodsmen, and restorative forestry, etc. Its all a word game, but I’m glad you’re playing it a little to get the good word out there.

    #45952
    Jim Ostergard
    Participant

    Rick,
    Yes I have used the bunching system but the other way around. Used a small Mor-Bell sheer to clear a pasture for a client. He bunched the oak in 4-6 tree ricks for me. I limbed them so all the brush was in a pile and used the horse to haul out the tree length firewood to be fitted. A nice combination. I’m going to do a job in Wiscasset, Maine this spring on an island with resource protection on most of the lot. A strip down the middle with a road will be for the skidder/forwarder and I will pre-bunch into that from the sensitive areas. Looking forward to it. We will see what the numbers are when I’m done and I will share that with the group.
    JIM

    #45954
    cxb100
    Participant
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