What to do with small stand of small alder?

[daywalker]

A friend of mine is clearing about 6.5 acres of almost all alder, averaging about 6" in diameter, with the biggest ones at about 10", too small to even think about saw logs. He says I can have all the wood, he will even fall and buck for me. This may be a dumb question, but what should I do with these logs? I was thinking load them in log form onto my 3 ton dumptruck I will be getting and sell them for loads of firewood, wondering if this stuff could be used as pulp wood or anything else? thanks for any input.

 

[OlympicYJ]

It could be sold for pulp, possibly, but being short sticks in a dump truck but not much diameter they may reject it. It could be sold for firewood okay but still on the small side. People may not want to deal with the small diameters. The bigger ten inch stuff should be able to be sold for firewood just fine though.

 

[northmanlogging]

Is there some reason other than a hatred for alders that yer friend is clearing it? Other wise I would try and convince him to hold off 5-7 years or so, by then the little ones should be big enough to send at least one log to the mill and the big ones maybe two.

The mills are paying pretty good for alder.

Otherwise logs 6" and better on the small end over 20' should go to the mill, the rest you can try to sell as firewood, but most folks that buy firewood around me want it split and delivered.

 

[slowp]

Remember, it will take a year to season for firewood.

Or you can haul a load to Seattle when they have a power outage. I was wishing I was closer--one of the few times wishing that! when they had the ice storm. According to the grim looking TV talking heads, all the firewood at the stores was sold out.

I've actually transplanted alder. I've also thinned some on my place. I've got more to do. I agree with northman.

 

[daywalker]

Agreed, wish it was a little more mature myself. He wants to clear the place for a homesite and probably won't even own it 5-7 years from now. 6" at the small end seems like an awful small saw log to me. Last summer at another buddy's property we cut and decked a load or too of alder where we tried to keep them at least 10", and I think the milll we were going to use said 8" was the smallest they'd take. Never got our loads in because I guess my friends self loader connection never came through, and the logs started to dry up, so we ended up buzzing them up for firewood.

 

[OlympicYJ]

Some mills will go smaller than six inches on the small group and. Sax in on a saw log quality demo at the Oregon logging conference. I wanna say 3 was the minimum.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[7oaks]

Green alder is some of the best smoking wood I've ever used.

 

[056kid]

Green alder is some of the best smoking wood I've ever used.

:msp_wub: mmmmmmmmmmm, salmon & steelhead. Sometimes I really miss the great PNW.

 

[northmanlogging]

We just got our alder smoked bacon and hams back from the butcher... it wont last long... sooo taaasteee

 

[agstr]

A cheeckako question for you pro loggers

The other day I was cutting some dead alder for my father-in-law, in preparation for grandchildren visits and walks in the woods. He has a lot of dead snags on the path..... I tried something to possibly avoid barbering an alder trunk.

On one I did a conventional face cut and then had the bright idea of sawing the back cut a couple of inches lower than the horizontal face, with the 'thought' of giving the hinge more strength and help avoid splitting the trunk. I read on some government safety site that doing so may increase kickback so I was ever so careful. The lowered back cut seemed to work; the tree wasn't a leaner, but had to fall in a direction it didn't want to go. The hinge looked a bit stringy but otherwise was proper as far as I know.

Any suggestions from experienced loggers to avoid splitting the tree when felling would be appreciated.

 

[H 2 H]

There is a logging company in Skagit County selling dump truck loads like the op is talking about (20' logs) for $375 a load there clearing land for houses development up by Rockport south side of the Skagit River

 

[daywalker]

There is a logging company in Skagit County selling dump truck loads like the op is talking about (20' logs) for $375 a load there clearing land for houses development up by Rockport south side of the Skagit River

This is what I meant. I see dump truck and self loader loads of green firewood logs for sale on craigslist priced anywhere from about $100-$150 a cord