yep
That is too small.
In conifers, often there is no need to have a wide "open face" notch to get accuracy. They commit to the fall really well. When this big they go over with real power and obstacles generally move out of their way. When dropping something this big and valuable if there isn't a good bed available it is not a bad idea to hit a 40 inch'er about 40 feet away dead on to slow it down, (as it comes out by the roots), and save lumber all the way up. Provided that second tree was marked also, of course.
(In the old West Side days, they used to drop big big cedar cross ways first, just to make a soft bed, then put the big big fir across the cedar. Those cedar got re-logged for shake bolts decades later.)
Even though I'm not a logger, I'm still gonna stick both boots in my mouth and say the face should have been about twice as high. There is space on the butt swell to go for more of an opening and still save butt log timber.
{Remember, one strength of the Humboldt face is that the cutter goes as low as he can avoiding butt swell, and then the bottom of the face comes out of the butt swell area. From the standpoint of the butt log, this cutter isn't wasting a single board foot.}
Of greater concern is the shape of the face. If one side closes before the other in a really short face like this one it can serve as a Dutch step or angled Dutch face, if you will. Note how the cuts don't come across clean. This can rock the tree early in the fall and if the cutter hits stumps and breaks stems in big money sticks like this one too often. He'd better be the owner otherwise he'll be looking for work elsewhere.
However, it does look like the face is evenly short on both sides and with obviously no high point in the center, he was probably OK.
