horse logging under attack!

I read that story that Mark posted and, as he said, other than some “colorful journalism” like the line about “rip-starting his saw”, I thought the article was pretty decent for the uneducated animal powered public.

I’ll need to look at the arborist site – I sure hope they’re not slamming Rick over there!

Thanks for the heads up.

Three or four years ago during that rainy summer, I worked my horses on moist soils within sight of the Dead Diamond River. Three mechanized crews were working in the general vicinity but on higher and normally drier ground.

They were shut down by the forester for around two weeks because of erosion. I didn’t miss a day.

McEvoy wrote a good book, but he didn’t get the soil damage comparison right. I wonder if this misperception is what was behind the negativity in the UNH report on good forestry in the granite state.

Also, it is over-simplification to see Low Impact in terms of soil disturbance. The real impact is on the ecosystem from cutting cycles and marking/harvesting methods that are designed to facilitate the operation of machinery.

If the forestry/silviculture is guided by principles that protect, enhance, and accommodate ecological factors, there is absolutely no comparison between machinery and horses. Not that using machinery is inherently destructive, or bad forestry, but there is no way to assert that any machinery operation is low impact…. That is why McEvoy chose toe coy title of Positive Impact, because the forestry industry needs to try to make excuses for the impact they can’t seem to avoid making.

😡 It irks me when foresters make those kinds of ignorant statements. They are entitled to their opinions, but when they dress their opinions up as if they are absolute facts, it is absurd.

Sorry, I just have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about Thom, and the ilk of modern foresters who promote their views in Northern Woodlands Magazine. They’re not bad folks, kind of likeable actually, and not ill-intentioned, just too firmly rooted in assumptions based on a predisposed notion that machinery is king in forestry.

Carl

I’ll admit that I stepped in over on the arborist site and added my 2 cents – for what it’s worth. I think Mitch added the component that they don’t discuss – wheel slippage. Our forest soils here are pretty thin as it is and a rooster of mud/topsoil can leave a bare spot for quite a while.

They cite a “Weyco study” of seedling growth or root growth in skidding trails but I have a hard time with Weyerhauser telling me that, according to their research, what they do has little to no impact on root growth etc. Give me an independent source and I might believe it.

Another “point to ponder” is a horse’s hoof may place more weight on a given spot but that spot is – duh – the size of a horse’s hoof while the skidder has compacted a continuous line (actually 2 – one for each side of the rig) from the start to the end of the skid. So for a given skid, who compacted more of the soil – the discrete hoof prints or the continuous skidder tire trails? Also, hoof prints are like discrete puddles when it rains – the tire tracks can easily become the new route for runoff leading to erosion …..

My biggest beef w/ the “horse logging nay sayer” was why does he have an issue with a system that will never threaten big commercial loggers. Unless it’s the underlying feeling that what they’re doing can’t last so lash out at someone.

BTW – I notice that there was a guy looking for someone to log his place in MI – fired the last guys for being too destructive to his woodlot. If you’re in that neck of the woods, you might check out this job.

There are two ways.

1) Click the quote button at the bottom right of the post. That will provide a quote like the one above.

2) Highlight the text in the post, copy, then click on the insert quote box at the top right center of the dialogue box (the icon that looks like a cartoon comment bubble) then insert the copied text between the

s, which will make the style as below.

(How do you guys do the “quote from other posts” thing??)

You can scroll down below the dialogue box to see all previous posts in the thread.

Carl

Hey Geoff what were you posting under over on the arborist site. If you only joined in Jan then I thot you made a damn good job of your post. . It does seem that the machine boys are a bit more agressive with their opinions than the horse loggers… but I suppose we who work horses need to be a bit more laid back generaly:cool:…
John