Start cutting front or back of woods?

[jwilly]

We take the time to layout all the main skid trails from the landing to the back. I then go in and flag the secondary trails branching off the main so there are no sharp turns. When cutting starts we open up the main trail first leaving all the bump trees. The trees get partially limbed where they fall and then when they get to the trail we finishing limbing in the road. Once we get to the back we start working off the flagged secondary trails again doing most of the limbing in the road. If the hardwood have big tops we cut them part way through so they fold up. We bring everything down to about 4" if feasible, sometimes dropping the big forks next to the road and picking them up when we have an extra choker. All our tops are lopped to the ground where the lay or we will bring them to a low spot and lop them there.

Sort of like imagineero said. It makes folks wonder how we are doing it.

 

[bitzer]

Well I looked at the woods this morning. Its a soft maple swamp. Big timber. Tree spacing is 10- 20ft. Pretty even aged stand about 80 years old. Its going to be damn near a clear cut. There should be plenty of room and I may take the forester's advice on this one. Typically I just don't have the room to move around until I start cutting though.

 

[treeslayer2003]

we got lots of red maple. normally crooked but big in the swamps. can't give it away if they got plenty of wood.

 

[bitzer]

Treeslayer- I take whatever is reasonable out of big ugly tops. Sometimes its only a stick, sometimes none. Just kind of how it works out. If its big red oak a lot of it gets busted all to hell anyway on the way down. Big hard maple is a ***** to work in.

jwilly- You've got a hell of a system there. Seems like a lot of extra work, but it sounds like you guys know what you are doing.

So far I've gathered that tree length guys will start in the back and piece work guys in the front. Seems to make sense. When you buck in the woods you have to follow the trees. For me this opens up my skid trails. It would be tough and kind of pointless to plan a forwarder route I think. As I move through a woods a main trail or two will develop and get the most use. This way there are sections of woods that never see the skidder. If I put trails in that may change.

 

[treeslayer2003]

I been in some big poplar, i'll try to remember the cam so you can see what I mean about the tops. it is dam wet here, spring is gonna be super slow.

 

[bitzer]

I know what you mean about big tops. I usually pile em up when I am cutting like butts in a circle kind of thing. That way I can work around them. Up here number 1 soft maple gets as good as number 1 hard maple.

 

[treeslayer2003]

dam, you wanna come buy some? lol best I can get is pallet logs if they will even take um.

 

[slowp]

I've pondered a while trying to remember. Back in da logging school daze, they recommended working from the back of the unit (end of the road) forward. That way youse don't have slash and ruts and logger junk in the haul road. That's only when talking about landings and roads. That's all I could think of.

 

[mike385]

When I was in the business, it was myself a cable skidder and saws. On the rare occasions that I did have an operator, we would walk the property and see where we should start. Easier to work with the timber lay than against it. We had started in the middle of some tracts and at a far corner on others. If we could get to the far corner(s) then we figured the trip times would decrease as we moved toward the landing.

 

[slick700]

What do you guys do? Do you cut your way in or start in the back? This probably doesn't apply to steep ground, but I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts. I start in the front of a woods and work my way in. It opens it up for the skidder to get around and establish skid trails. My forester is dead set on having me cut my next job from the back to the front. The job is going to produce 10mbf per acre at 10 acres. Pretty high volume per acre for around here. He thinks the tops are going to give me trouble. I've never had a problem doing it my way before. He claims that 80% of loggers cut a woods from back to front. I just had to run it past you guys. I cut one job his way and it was a pain. Its a lot easier to drive over stumps than around standing trees.

i like to start in the front and cut a main road to the back if terrain allows, then when you are in the back you can finish your hitch on the way out if you are cutting by hand

 

[Gypo Logger]

In a hardwood bush I go for the jamiest tree, but in this bastard growth I cut my way in.