heres one

I have cut 100’s of utility poles over the years and have found that they are reasonably easy to maneuver without much to-do. Felling and skid trail layout plays a huge role…..obviously. I think that using a pole trailer would actually be harder to control than just ground skidding.

Make sure that you let the LO know that low impact logging is not just about what equipment you use, but primarily about how the job is laid out, including marking for felling, and trail placement. You should not get stuck trying to fell a 70 foot stick into a place where you are going to have to swing it around a crop tree. Otherwise you might as well have a skidder.

This is a bit overreaching the original question, but it is a pet peeve of mine. We cannot continue to try to compete with machines by just replacing horses for the machine. The job has to be laid out to facilitate the animals, or using animals will not be an effective way to provide the desired results.

Anyway, if you can get the butts off of the ground with an arch, cart, or sled, then the load should move easily enough that you should be able to get them out efficiently. The other thing to consider is that many times pole harvests are exclusively poles, which means you have to work around sawlog of poorer trees that are not being cut because they aren’t part of the sale. In my experience those trees should be cut anyway. It may make the job a bit more complex in terms of managing the landing, but it will make all the difference in the woods.

Carl