Equipment Used In Tree Harvesting.

[Gunfighter]

Sorry for my bad spelling but Poplar/Popple would be correct. but the wood
on these trees is actually white.. These are all going to the paper mill.
I understand the mills pay more for logs because they can control the
quality. With the chippers the mills get bark, dead wood, an few stags
of a variety unknown.

You are right about it's value as a building material, there is non.

 

[rlk]

Gunfighter, you are right about the loggers leaving a mess behind. I had about 5 acres clear cut last year so I could build a pond. The amount of tree tops and limbs left behind for me to deal with was staggering.

The contractor who dug the pond also dug all the stumps, then piled the tree tops and limbs and stumps and burned them. It took a good 6 weeks to burn everything that was left in the area of the pond.

My logs were skidded to the back side of the property. The limbs cut off and tops removed. There is still a pile of debris there that is about 15 feet high and 50 feet long. I have tried to give it away for firewood, and tried to find someone to chip it. No one wants it.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have gone the way you did and had a logger who chipped up everything, thereby leaving no mess behind.

 

[DocHeb]

Can you imagine how the early pioneers did all the land clearing to farm?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

If you don't mind me asking, what are the quotes you got for chipped wood compared to logs. I have the same type of trees here that are around 30-40" diameter that I am going to have to cut to prevent falling onto our fences.

 

[Gunfighter]

The chipper pay the land owner 1/3 of the price the mills paid them.
Last week that was about $21 dollars a ton. As for what the loggers
paid, I don't know as we never got past them leaving the tree tops...

My neighbor who had his place logged says the loggers pay whole
lot better price then chippers, but I'm not sure. This is the way I see it,
loggers pay more but leave 1/3 of the tree, the chippers pay
lass but take the whole tree. I'm wondering if that would not come
out to nearly the same....

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Thanks

 

[grainger12002]

hey Gunfighter:what part of the country are you in. I am in new england and would like to talk with a chipper to see whats available. I had some logging done 10 yrs or so ago and I was left with a real mess(mostly tops as mentioned)do you have a ph number or contact person? Thanks Lloyd

 

[beenthere]

IF there was money to be made in tops, the tops wouldn't be laying there on the ground. Something (or someone) has to pay to get the tops out of the woods so they can be processed, either into chips or firewood.
The large, log sections of trees pulled out for gunfighter along with the tops will apparently sweeten the chips enough to pay for pulling them out. I doubt the chipper operator would have touched the job if he didn't get the whole tree.
If a log buyer bids a job, and all the tops must be removed, he has to offer less to the owner than if he leaves the tops in the woods. It is the sellers choice. The seller can't have it both ways - and if the log buyer (or chipper) can't make money, he will not bid on the job.

My wonderment with the pics that gunfighter showed us was why the operator would go to all the work of pulling the tree-length logs out of the woods, and not at that time remove the good size logs shown and sell the logs for sawing into lumber. Lumber from logs (by volume) compared to the chips from the same logs is much more valuable, and would return much more money to the chipper operator. To put those logs into the chipper machine at that point was just ignoring a lot of profit from the operation. I didn't mean to imply that gunfighter was making the wrong decision, as he actually was happy with getting his woods cleaned up. He didn't need to worry about how much money the chipper operator was making. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[woodmills1]

from what i have been able to figure, the market for popple logs is not real strong. popple is a catch all phrase for any of the softer white decidious trees. here in NH the tree we call poplar(popple) is really quaking aspen, and it is not even listed as a log species on market reports. I have cut some on my woodmizer but not much call from my customers. I have sold some for trim work as it doesn't have the knots like white pine does. It does go for chips though. in the central eastern area there is a tree called the tulip poplar that grows quite large and straight. though it is a softer hardwood species it makes nice lumber. that is what you will find in say a home depot. when I lived in W Va we cut the poplar to sell to locals who made mining wedges, 12" wedges to block up timbers in the mines.

 

[markie61]

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

in W Va we cut the poplar to sell to locals who made mining wedges, 12" wedges to block up timbers in the mines

<hr></blockquote>



YIKES! I use tulip poplar for some furniture making. It is clear and tight grained - uninteresting figure with a greenish hue - paints well. But I think it is BRITTLE! I don't know if I would like 1000's of feet of rock above my head held up by tulip poplar. I don't think I would use it for anything structural.

Some Jackson guitars in the 80's and 90's used poplar for their bodies, but the necks were mostly rock maple. Tonally, it was tight, but I don't think it had the tone of koa, maple or mahogany. My favorite guitar wood - swamp ash. Ah, I digress again.....

Mark