[Scott G]

March 4th…

[Scott G]

Kind of interesting how all of the near horses are greys. Makes me wonder if the boss teamster had a preference for that.

[Scott G]

That’s a helluva a load! Rolls of cable are some of the heaviest OTR loads there are.

[Scott G]

Mark, check ebay. I just picked up a very nice used draft halter/bridle for not much at all. There are numerous headstalls/complete bridles listed. BTW, someday I want to talk to you about possibly marketing your firewood arch out here. I was able to see Bradley Teeter’s in action last month and was very impressed. Seems as though everyone in my area that has drafts also has a Pioneer forecart. Your arch fits right into the multi-use/modular concept that the Pioneer forecart was designed for.

[Scott G]

Really like the Scandinavian forwarder….and the Ardennes/Brabant. That would be my ideal dream outfit.

[Scott G]

Very nice, George! You are definitely dialed in and operating at a high level my friend …

I like how you are bucking your firewood right off the scoot. One less time you have to handle the wood. Anytime you can accomplish that you are far ahead in the game. Making a go of it in logging, regardless if it is a draft animal or mechanical operation, is making every move efficient and count for something productive.

[Scott G]

Geoff,

Ditto for everything Phil mentioned. Depending on volume/area it may be worthwhile to get a mastication unit on site. The skidsteer units can be quite effective on smaller scale projects with small diameter brush & regen. Otherwise, a circular blade on an HD brush saw works great.

If you want to knock it back over time without herbicides, or a lot of grubbing, it can be done. If you cut this stuff during or immediately after bud break in the spring you can be fairly effective provided you follow up for a couple of years. The shrubs put the majority of their carbohydrate stores towards leaf production in the spring. If you knock that new growth back immediately before significant photosynthesis occurs, and carb storage has a chance to build back up, you will severely stress the plant. You’ll get another flush of buds/leaves after you cut them and could knock it back again if the initial cut is not too close to the ground to rock your brush saw If you follow up every spring for a couple of years you’ll put the hurt on them. If you just cut them once and don’t make it back, all you’ll be doing is rejuvenating the plant.

Just remember to leave some significant shrub patches for wildlife habitat…

[Scott G]

@highway 31472 wrote:

I was cleaning the paddock tonight and noticed a black puddle under the poop pile, it had froze because it was so cold out.

Ed, that black puddle could possibly be occult blood from a chronic gut bleed which can be the sign for several different possibilites. Get a stool sample and take it to your vet. If the black puddle is not very thick in consistency it could be urine, (azoturia) which could be a major issue as well. Given your description though its sounds like feces. Geat a fresh sample, if possible, of both “puddles” in separate clean non-contaminated, sealable containers and take them in.

-S

[Scott G]

@highway 31425 wrote:

Another quick video to prove that Jen and Scott did not ruin the go devil. 😎

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlskhVmydDk

Say what!? 🙂

[Scott G]

chrisf,
Did you add the d-ring on the tugs yourself?

[Scott G]

Steve, Boulami is spot on. The pictures are fuzzy, and so is my vison, but it appears as though the needles are long and in bundles (fascicles) of 5. If the cones are mature, they are much to small for eastern white pine. They may very well be first year conlets though and not second year mature cones. I’ll let Carl or one of the other foresters from the NE region give you the definitive as your region’s forests are very distant from mine, in many respects…

As long as it is cold and the wood is basically frozen you’re OK. As soon as it warms up a bit you will start to see some issues with blue stain. Most mills will dock you a degrade for it, other folks, like myself, embrace it as very aesthetically appealing for interior woodwork.

Increments of 2′ starting at 8′ is the norm and then expanding from there – 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 24. For each 8′ of length I normally allow for a 6″ overcut. This ensures that you don’t end up with lumber that is less than its nominal length. Mills will dock you back to the next shortest accepted length, not to mention if it is for your own needs there isn’t much use for a 7’6″ stud. Check with your local mill and ask what they are looking for as nominal bucked length and what their requirements for overcut are.

Finally, be careful when you work this tree up. Windthrow often stores a lot of energy and can release that energy when you least expect it as you are happily limbing & bucking along. Be especially careful of the rootwad/stump as you cut it from the stem. They will often flop back into the hole even after being lateral for a long time.

Leaving the tree as large diameter coarse woody debris in your forest is also a desirable option, especially if you don’t have much of that size of material on your forest floor. There will be significantly more life in that tree in a couple of years than there ever was when it was alive & standing.

[Scott G]

OK, after this response I’m done…

Using standard tools, cruise techniques, and silvicultural prescriptions are not exclusive of management for ecological integrity. Out here, especially with my government forestry job, 95% of what I do is manage & implement prescriptions for the absolute primary objective of maintaining and/or enhancing ecological function/integrity.

Something you folks from back east need to understand is that our scale of management is landscape scale; most often it includes entire watersheds. I directly manage, with a couple of other folks, well over 30,000 acres (~50 square miles). Our projects deal with areas where fire was the predominant factor in forest succession processes due to our semi-arid climate. Most of these areas have not burned since the mid-1800s when extensive grazing removed the fine fuels that initially carry fire – after that, aggressive fire suppression. Currently, with the amount of human development in our forests, suppression on a broad scale is the norm and likely will remain that way due to forest fragmentation involving multiple landowners. That said, the fuel load continues to build and the conflagrations become more severe burning much more intensely than the landscape ever evolved with. Soils are essentially destroyed in many circumstances, especially in the lower montane regions. The Hayman fire, the largest contiguous fire in Colorado recorded history at almost 140,000 acres, burned in just that fashion (it also destroyed my basecamp and approximately 42 mbf of log decks I had on a project that I was currently working). One of our preeminent forest ecologists in the area estimates that it will be 500-600 years before we have a naturally regenerated forest once again on that landscape.

So… when I say we need to reduce BA from 180 to 60-80 I am talking about entire projects, most often in ponderosa/Douglas-fir stands at lower elevations. This not only reduces fuel loading to a point that is consistent with our fuel modeling programs to ensure that the area can withstand fire, it also increases overall tree vigor across the project (again, I am strictly talking about western conifer forests not the eastern deciduous forests that most of you folks are in). These projects are not broad-brushed with only a prism in hand, they involve paint and/or “designation by prescription” when you have a contractor (logger) that you have worked with. We are constantly working towards establish/maintain a mosaic structure across the landscape. Uneven-age management where it historically occurred naturally (pondo, D-fir, spruce, fir), even-age in cover types such as lodgepole albeit through small irregular patchcuts and group selection, and enhancing aspen stands where we can. We, especially in pondo, will retain the mature/over-mature overstory at all costs, something that is directly opposite of what I observed the past two years I visited with you folks. Why? …ecological function. That dominant component is one that falls well short of where we want it. Those trees are extremely valuable for a myriad of ecological reasons, not just the mere fact that they are big. That said, we just got over a period of diameter cut limits which were instilled to appease politics as well as ecologists that were trying to turn our forests into something historically they were not. Thankfully, we have now come full circle and now manage for strata of all canopy layers.

The point of all of this is that even though we operate in “standard” forestry parameters, our objectives are far from standard. I would even say that to date, I have seen no other forest management regional standard in North America that comes close to the degree of emphasis of ecological integrity that we strive for. Indeed, that is the primary objective on every project within my realm.

So, with all that being said, please understand why I bristle at the notions that traditional cruise techniques/data are just a function of a production mindset. I use them on a regular basis, they are essential tools in my toolbox, but my eyes, experience, and intuition by far are the most valuable tools I possess. I am always the guy who when laying out a unit is primarily interested in the “look” with an emphasis on function and form. Case in point, a large stable snag is far more valuable to me then the green trees around it. The large wolfy nasty thing located on the edge will be left because of the valuable edge habitat it is located within and provides ideal roosting/nesting site for a variety of birds as well.

Geoff, the snag you mentioned; I assume you are referring to one that has been hit by bark beetles. If you are really worried about sanitation, remove it to avoid infestation of neighboring trees next season. If they already have emerged this past summer, leave it unless it is a hazard tree with a defined target. The next generation of insects that will colonize the tree are various species of woodborers. Unlike some woodborer species indigenous to other areas of North America, these pose no risk to healthy trees. That snag will have exponentially more life in it than any other tree in the stand. Woodpeckers, as you have observed, will love it. I swear I’m beginning to see increased obesity issues in our woodpecker populations as a direct result of the bark beetle epidemic…:rolleyes:

Do not girdle conifers, at least in our Rocky Mountain region, to create snags. Even with a double kerf, if there is a decent amount of sapwood, that tree can live for years. Also, with the winds we get, if your kerf depth is substantial at all in order to try and reduce the sapwood, the tree will more than likely snap off at the point of girdling. The best way to create a durable snag, and the most entertaining, is to build a large slash pile at the base of the tree and then torch it when you have adequate snow cover. Not only will it kill it – if the fire is hot enough – you’ll add significant durability to it as well. The reality is though, with the current forest health issues we are experiencing out here, we’ll have no shortage of snags.

The end…

[Scott G]

@Carl Russell 31152 wrote:

One important thing to remember is that “overstocked” is a purely human concept.Carl

Just another example of the marked differences in inter-regional forestry. Overstocked is definitely not just a human concept in the Rocky Mountains. In my region, it truly is a measure of a site’s carrying capacity. It should not be confused with terms of stand condition such as mature or exhibiting old-growth charecteristics. Some regional forest cover types, such as ponderosa pine, are well beyond the parameters of that type of forested ecosystem’s historic range of variabilty. Our forests were driven by fire whether that was a high frequency/low intensity fire regime with forest types such as ponderosa pine or a low frequency/high severity scenario that includes dominant landscape species such as lodgepole, spruce, & sub-alpine fir. There is also the messy middle which is a mixed-severity regime which created quite a mosaic across the landscape. So for us out west when it comes to management, it is all about appropriate density and species composition. Crop tree management, as you folks practice it, does not exist out here.

[Scott G]

Nice (plain speak) article that sums it all up, Ethan. Well done!

[Scott G]

Basal Area (BA) normally refers to stand density as measured as a cumulative of individuals in the stand, based on surface area at breast height. Diameter Breast Height (DBH) is the universal measurment used as a component of different measurements in a cruise, ie.e mean stand diameter, volume tables, percentage of POL vs sawtimber, etc.

In short, for cruise purposes, they are not the same.

[Author]

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