What to do with many large, low-value downed trees

[Gold Coast Shipping]

Hi - I'm not familiar with this side of the forum, so feel free to point me in the right direction if this would be better posted elsewhere.

We've got some land in the SE interior of BC (central Kootenays), and a recent freak windstorm blew down a large number of trees. It's mostly mature yellow pine, 24"-36" diameter, 60'-100' lengths. Relatively dense forest, so branches are all at the top for the most part. Many trees broke off mid-trunk, leaving 15'-30' stubs.

What can/should we do with the timber? There are probably 8-12 logging truck loads down, hard to say because these logs can be heavy with moisture.

Even with the recent upswing in lumber prices, it looks like selling to local mills will barely cover the cost of harvesting and hauling it.

Just fishing for ideas, and any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[motorhead99999]

In my area a lot of campgrounds buy only pine firewood. Might be a option but a lot of work

 

[northmanlogging]

Hi - I'm not familiar with this side of the forum, so feel free to point me in the right direction if this would be better posted elsewhere.

We've got some land in the SE interior of BC (central Kootenays), and a recent freak windstorm blew down a large number of trees. It's mostly mature yellow pine, 24"-36" diameter, 60'-100' lengths. Relatively dense forest, so branches are all at the top for the most part. Many trees broke off mid-trunk, leaving 15'-30' stubs.

What can/should we do with the timber? There are probably 8-12 logging truck loads down, hard to say because these logs can be heavy with moisture.

Even with the recent upswing in lumber prices, it looks like selling to local mills will barely cover the cost of harvesting and hauling it.

Just fishing for ideas, and any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

Call your mills, see what they are paying, and also check in to permit requirements, Canada has different laws then the US so?

If they are paying well enough to cover the truck and enough to rent an excavator, they you can likely pull it off yourself. Though you will need to limb and buck everything before the excavator gets there to stand a chance of making any money at all, or at the very least hire it done

a good saw hand could have it limbed and ready in a week, a good excavator jockey could have it cleaned up in 3 days max depending on terrain and distance to where a truck can get at em.

 

[Gold Coast Shipping]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen - Unfortunately, yellow pine is worth next to nothing here after it's been processed for firewood.

Basically it's the same story with selling to local mills for lumber: Both options are more or less "break even" scenarios, and I've got too many other things to do to spend my time on something that's not going to pay.

Any other ideas?

 

[catbuster]

Breaking even is better than losing money cleaning it up or having to move it after it’s starting to rot and you have to put a road in the blowdown patch. It’s definitely bigger than what most people want for pulpwood, and I have no idea what the market for pulp is where you live. That leaves you with pretty much two other options for a big bunch of wood... Logs or firewood.

I’d take what I could get if it breaks even or is marginally profitable and leave happy. Not everything will make a killing, and this sounds like one of those deals.

 

[woodfarmer]

Can you not have it milled on site?

 

[Gold Coast Shipping]

.... Not everything will make a killing, and this sounds like one of those deals.

You're totally right, of course. I'm just hoping someone here will have another idea that hasn't come up yet.

 

[Gold Coast Shipping]

Can you not have it milled on site?

Worth looking into, thanks.

 

[esean]

Do you really need to get the downed trees out of the way? I mean, will leaving them there cause any problems? It sounds like there's no economically viable way to utilize them, so as far as forest health is concerned, leaving that biomass in place may be the best option.

 

[madhatte]

Breaking even on a big hassle today rather than dealing with it later might be the better deal, especially with how quickly pine rots. Some good advice up there, best of luck to you.

 

[slowp]

Is Yellow Pine Ponderosa Pine?

What type of ground is it on? Slope, access to roads, distance to the mill, roadwork to be done etc? You really should get somebody knowledgeable out on the ground to take a look instead of asking on a forum. You'll also need to get that pine out before it blues. Get to work!

 

[anlrolfe]

There are people that will mill on sight and as payment leave you lumber.

 

[Gold Coast Shipping]

It's reasonable access, but mountainside (mostly dry, at least). Shouldn't need any real road building, but it will be pretty long skids to any landing. On the plus side, local mills are only about 1/2hr away. We've had people onsite to size it up, and that's where I'm getting my info from regarding the two "break even" options (local mills and firewood). Two years ago when we developed an easy-access part of the same land our best option was selling the logs to a pulp mill about 1.5hrs away - Lumber prices were much lower then. Again it was a break even scenario.

We're in a relatively low population area and I'm not confident about onsite milling options but it's something I'll certainly look into.

Thanks again folks - I'm still hoping for a magic bullet from someone!

 

[northmanlogging]

It's reasonable access, but mountainside (mostly dry, at least). Shouldn't need any real road building, but it will be pretty long skids to any landing. On the plus side, local mills are only about 1/2hr away. We've had people onsite to size it up, and that's where I'm getting my info from regarding the two "break even" options (local mills and firewood). Two years ago when we developed an easy-access part of the same land our best option was selling the logs to a pulp mill about 1.5hrs away - Lumber prices were much lower then. Again it was a break even scenario.

We're in a relatively low population area and I'm not confident about onsite milling options but it's something I'll certainly look into.

Thanks again folks - I'm still hoping for a magic bullet from someone!

I'm gonna go ahead and repeat myself, call the local mills, get a price from them per MBF (meter3 in kanuckistan) too many small time loggers, and even the big guys are either outright crooks, or lying to you cause they don't want the job.

Could be the timber isn't worth cutting.

could be its totally worth cutting and they are just hoping to keep all the profit.

You won't know until you get an actual price from the actual mills.

 

[slowp]

I'm gonna go ahead and repeat myself, call the local mills, get a price from them per MBF (meter3 in kanuckistan) too many small time loggers, and even the big guys are either outright crooks, or lying to you cause they don't want the job.

Could be the timber isn't worth cutting.

could be its totally worth cutting and they are just hoping to keep all the profit.

You won't know until you get an actual price from the actual mill

Yes. That's what you need to do. Maybe even consult a.........forester who specializes in such things. Does the Province have some kind of small landowner help?

Remember, pine will blue and don't know about there, but that affects value here, in a bad way.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Is Yellow Pine Ponderosa Pine?

What type of ground is it on? Slope, access to roads, distance to the mill, roadwork to be done etc? You really should get somebody knowledgeable out on the ground to take a look instead of asking on a forum. You'll also need to get that pine out before it blues. Get to work!

Very much.

Are there chipping operations in the area?

If it's not marketable lumber, it could be chipped for pulp or biofuel.

 

[Jloomis]

I would build my self a log cabin or two.

 

[cat10ken]

Connect with log home builders or timber framers to buy your logs.

 

[Jethro 2t sniffer]

A firewood party with all your saw friends.

Exercise.
Run some cool saws.
Gets cleaned up.
The wood is pocket money for more saws

Lol

 

[cookies]

sounds like a good excuse to buy/build your own mill then cut and sell the wood. down here pine is sold for top dollar tongue and groove for flooring