Logging big bottomland hardwood timber South Louisiana

[kkottemann]

I just recently got a contract to fell big timber on this sale. It is a 400 acre tract, the loggers equiptment could not handle the big trees so I got hooked up with the job. I have 212 of these guys to take down. Last week I got 13 of them, then the rain put a stop to everything. I plan on getting many of these guys on camera because there is not too much of this sized stuff around any more.

 

[kkottemann]

a few more

 

[ericjeeper]

Not trying to start another stump war..

But man why leave it so high? Left a lot of good lumber to rot in the woods?

 

[Streyken]

Good job. Nice gig. Eric, here they cut flares, etc. off them before loading them on the trucks, loads nicer (more room) and the butt is often crap for milling.

<edit>I don't know how they grade there, but often they'll grade a stick based on the lowest common denominator. Therefore, sometimes you're better off going with a shorter piece of clear than keeping something that's going to down-grade the entire log, unless it's going to chip, but it doesn't look like it.</edit>

 

[clearance]

But man why leave it so high? Left a lot of good lumber to rot in the woods?

Not thing wrong with "so high" but how come no humboldt? No big deal either way, its fun to just fall isn't it. I like it, undercut, backcut, no messing about. Must be swampy there huh?

 

[chainsawjunky]

Those are some big ole boys. What kind of tree is that? Nice saw too. Evan

 

[kkottemann]

the reason for the high stump is the buttswell and flares in the tree. I am sure you get this in other parts of the country, but in this particular area it is 10fold. That tree is not so bad but most of them have flares which are pretty much unworkable. Amrerican elm is the worst. The mill has a special made piece of equipment called a butt reducer, but is only used on cypress. Oak, ash and elm is too hard to pass it through, plus the diameter of these trees would not fit through it anyway. So we leave it in the woods. I am going to try to use the humbolt when I go back, those flares are really bad and I did not like the way my cuts came out. That particular tree is a Cherrybark Oak (red oak family). It is the most valuable red oak around here. the saw is a 660 with a 36" bar. I am running .050 full skip.

 

[ropensaddle]

I am sorry but I have mixed feelings on cutting oaks out of
forest habitat. How many years is it going to go on they are about to
cut every good mast tree out of forests and then spray the remaining
survivors to kill them and plant pine witch has no wildlife value except
for fox squirrel. The problem is the guys must make a living but at what
cost to habitat air quality etc. Management seems the guilty party as
they have geared toward a totally pine forest. I feel the should leave
what oaks there is alone before they end up endangered or at least
leave fifty yard strips every hundred yards instead of turning it into
the great plains.

 

[Husky137]

I am sorry but I have mixed feelings on cutting oaks out of
forest habitat. How many years is it going to go on they are about to
cut every good mast tree out of forests and then spray the remaining
survivors to kill them and plant pine witch has no wildlife value except
for fox squirrel. The problem is the guys must make a living but at what
cost to habitat air quality etc. Management seems the guilty party as
they have geared toward a totally pine forest. I feel the should leave
what oaks there is alone before they end up endangered or at least
leave fifty yard strips every hundred yards instead of turning it into
the great plains.

Why stop at oaks?

 

[kkottemann]

This particular area is bottom land hardwood, the soil is a sharky clay and is extremely wet. A pine would have a hard time growing here. This is a management cut on a wildlife management area. Everything 18" and under is being left. This very sale was cut 35 years ago. You all might not believe me but 35 years ago these big trees were not large enough to cut. The site on here is prefect and produces optimal growing situations for redoak, gum, pecan, hickory and elm. I used to be the assistant district forester for the company I am currently cutting for. I did a project while I was there on diameter growth of the various species while I was there. Some of them are growing and inch a year with the average being 3/4 per year. I can assure you that no pine is going to replace these stands of hardwood, this is hardwood country... That is 87 years old, in 5 years you will be able to walk back through this stand and measure 20" oaks standing 79-90 feet in height. 10 miles away is a $300,000,000 dollar hardwood sawmill/OSB plant, with that investment if a pine does pop up it will surley be cut to make room for oak, ash or hickory...

 

[Ianab]

Thats a pretty impressive tree, even by NZ standards

An oak tree that size is cool no matter where you are.

As for do you cut them...?

Cutting them and planting pines is a crime, leaving them to rot is an even bigger crime. Hopefully they make a big enough return on the logging to be able to shut the land up for another 50-100 years, and then harvest it again.

There are few things that are a bigger rush than dropping trees that size, and the amount / quality of the wood you can saw from logs like that is amazing Problem is most commercial mills cant handle that size log.

Ian

 

[Ianab]

kk, you replied while I was typing, glad to hear it's part of a managed harvesting plan.

I'm thinking your climate is more like ours with those growth rates

Cheers

Ian

 

[kkottemann]

Yea man, by next summer with a year of sunlight on the ground there will be so many seedlings poping up you will not be able to walk through there. No need to plant, that tree has been dropping its seed for 80 years. I think we have somewhere between 250 and 275 growing days down here, and when it rains it floods so moisture is not an issue. It also gets hot as hell during the summer. Shoot, we have already been above 90 a few days.

 

[Peacock]

kk, you replied while I was typing, glad to hear it's part of a managed harvesting plan.

I'm thinking your climate is more like ours with those growth rates

Cheers

Ian

Louisiana has a lot of rain and sun. Pretty much everything grows fast there!

 

[sILlogger]

so i gotta know, is your company hiring???im a contract cutter. im looking for something during the winter, because around here it has been getting too wet to work steadily in the winter and considering going elsewhere for the winter months. 200 of them would almost make me drive down there. what sort of skidders u running?

 

[stihl 440]

skidders

so i gotta know, is your company hiring???im a contract cutter. im looking for something during the winter, because around here it has been getting too wet to work steadily in the winter and considering going elsewhere for the winter months. 200 of them would almost make me drive down there. what sort of skidders u running?

I don't know, I was going to ask the same thing. They must be running cat 545's, franklin Q90's, or those 6X6 monsters by tigercat! It will take one h:censored: of a skidder to pull them out of the woods!:chainsawguy: :biggrinbounce2: :rockn:

 

[joesawer]

At most mills a swell butt like that will lower the grade of a log like that.
A humbolt will get your face wood out of the stump instead of the log. It is also much easier to get the face cut out as gravity works for you instead of against you. Once you get used to using it it is much faster and easier on larger trees than a conventional.

 

[kkottemann]

SI, I will let you know. these opportunities do not happen often because this is special timber on very wet ground. mostly they use the bell harversters for the smaller stuff. I am not the logging contractor, I am simply a contracted faller for the really big trees. I personnally own a tree service, but used to be a forester for the timber company which bought the timber and they knew I could get them down and bucked up. The winter time is the worst time of the year down here. the ground stays wet and unworkable, but you never know. As a matter of fact they just abadoned the tract because . of rain last week, we will not be able to get back in there for 2-3 weeks. the most popular skidder in these woods is the deere 846G with dual 50" tires front and back. we also have huge pre-haulers that are accompanied by a tracked loader. One pre-hauler can bring 4 loads of logs from the woods to the loader set where it is then merchandised and loaded on to the proper truck. This is some serious power logging. In good weather they will move 50 loads a day of hardwood. This particular job has 5 bell harversters, 7 skidders, 4 loaders, 2 dozers, 1 road grader and 17 trucks. It is a family operation, the dad and his 2 sons. The company works as one but is actually 3 seperate operations. I have been working on my humbolt, but still need some practice to get the tree to do what I want it to when I do it. For the really big ones I use the conventional because I am confident in my ability to get her down with out mishap.

 

[sILlogger]

SI, I will let you know. these opportunities do not happen often because this is special timber on very wet ground. mostly they use the bell harversters for the smaller stuff. I am not the logging contractor, I am simply a contracted faller for the really big trees. I personnally own a tree service, but used to be a forester for the timber company which bought the timber and they knew I could get them down and bucked up. The winter time is the worst time of the year down here. the ground stays wet and unworkable, but you never know. As a matter of fact they just abadoned the tract because . of rain last week, we will not be able to get back in there for 2-3 weeks. the most popular skidder in these woods is the deere 846G with dual 50" tires front and back. we also have huge pre-haulers that are accompanied by a tracked loader. One pre-hauler can bring 4 loads of logs from the woods to the loader set where it is then merchandised and loaded on to the proper truck. This is some serious power logging. In good weather they will move 50 loads a day of hardwood. This particular job has 5 bell harversters, 7 skidders, 4 loaders, 2 dozers, 1 road grader and 17 trucks. It is a family operation, the dad and his 2 sons. The company works as one but is actually 3 seperate operations. I have been working on my humbolt, but still need some practice to get the tree to do what I want it to when I do it. For the really big ones I use the conventional because I am confident in my ability to get her down with out mishap.

i assume u mean 848G, ive never even seen one in person, no need for anything bigger than a 648 around here. how in the heck do they get an 848 around in the woods??? i was just on a job were the guy had a 525 CAT with 30.5s and it was like a bull in a china shop. i amagine that place looks like an airplane crashed with them bell saws running around. that is a heck of a family logging operation. i don't use a humbolt cut either but i usually cut everything about ankle high. worked on a job today and the guy was running a 440D, steep azz hills-ready for bed. what sort of footage u moving a day?

 

[kkottemann]

correct, 848G a minor typo..I am not really sure about the footage per day on the job, however I did scale my logs 2 days in a row and it came to 14MBF and 16MBF back to back. What I can say is the mill they are hauling to cuts 1 million feet a week and this crew is one of 9 contractors under contract to cut on timetimber and company land. They bring in about 40% of the volume needed the other 60% comes from local vendors and woodyards as gatewood. Check out www.martco.com

that is the lumber company this sale is going to as well as my former employer.