Logger walked off the job yesterday.

[Coyote machine]

Seems he bit off more than he and his whipped equipment could chew. You jackstrawed your trees, and now he can't deal?!
Seems to me he couldn't deal to begin with, and your money trees are his only interest.

FWIW, my experience has been to hire someone with experience; (skip the forester, he is not helping you either). Find someone with a stellar reputation, do a week by week, pay as the work is COMPLETED agreement, and supervise it on a daily basis. Final payment when job, including cleanup and equipment removed for your property has been accomplished. No tickey, no shirty.

 

[Egon]

Posts 9 & 10 give some good advice.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Seems he bit off more than he and his whipped equipment could chew. You jackstrawed your trees, and now he can't deal?!
Seems to me he couldn't deal to begin with, and your money trees are his only interest.

FWIW, my experience has been to hire someone with experience; (skip the forester, he is not helping you either). Find someone with a stellar reputation, do a week by week, pay as the work is COMPLETED agreement, and supervise it on a daily basis. Final payment when job, including cleanup and equipment removed for your property has been accomplished. No tickey, no shirty.

Second the comment on hiring an experienced logger. I logged 20 acres 3 years ago. I asked around and found a logger that had been in business for 20 years with an excellent reputation. I was 100% satisfied with his work, and he made a lot of money for me. I pocketed $50,000 off of the 20 acres, and the only slash that was left was small stuff that I could replant around with no problem. He left one more satisfied customer in his wake, just like he had been doing for the previous 20 years.

 

[4570Man]

Has he paid you yet?

 

[dadster4]

I know that in East Tennessee the foresters are spread pretty thin and stay busy...could be the same in VA. I wouldn't rely on him to handle the situation. Call the logger directly and ask him what his intentions are...finishing the job, or giving up. Is there a written contract? Timeframe for completion? Some idiots idea (his, not yours) of "need 5 acres right away" might mean sometime this year to him. If he says he can't get there on the next nice day, tell him to come get his equipment. Did he remove the money trees from your property? If so, hold his equipment until you get your fair share.

 

[Snowback]

There are some really bad, smaller, "fly by night" logging crews who give the whole industry a bad name. We are still working after 6 months to clean up the aftermath/utter destruction left by a crew who was supposed to selectively log off some of the pines for the prior owner of our tract so he could make a little money before selling. They went ballistic and tore many good trees up while leaving the biggest mess one could imagine. To make it easier for them to get around they just piled the tops and limbs with 50% or more dirt in the piles so one could neither burn nor mulch. Had to tear everything apart and restack after shaking out dirt in order to combo mulch and burn. And to top it all off, they encroached past the white sprayed trees and took some of the neighboring power company's big pines from their plantation. DOH! The Forester of that tract helped me with a Timber exemption and pointed that out to me as we walked around. I'm glad he was an understanding guy, and I suppose he would have only had recourse with the prior owner - I hope. I'll be making darn sure to get many good references when it comes time to harvest trees again in the future.

Good luck Maybe just throw a big lock and chain on the gate and claim the equipment until the contract is honored, or you have satisfaction.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

he has paid each week. First two weeks were pretty decent because he jumped into the big oaks and poplars that were in the first 5 acre piece. But after that it wasn't too great, mostly because he has not been coming to work, and also because he picked up a little for pay job clearing a lot (Facebook stalked him for that tidbit). I didn't say anything...just wanted him to do what I needed done. The issue is simple. He has not done what he promised to do....and I am at the point where I will probably lose my investment in trees because I can't get them planted. Also, I don't trust him any more. Any time I turn my back he is cherry picking my hardwoods and bypassing anything that isn't better saw timber.
He came back today and drove out to where I was working...I was adjusting the chain tension on a saw at the time. He had not yet talked to the forester since his conversation early yesterday. So i told him he was thru. Said when he walked off the job yesterday that was the end of it. He had excuses.....Said he couldn't afford to just concentrate on the pine which to me indicates that they would be left when he finished picking the hardwoods. I was a little surprised when he said "so this is on me?". And i said " Yes, this is absolutely your fault. You did not do what you said you were going to do. You have to be a man of your word and you weren't. When can you have your gear off my land?" He said Wednesday it will be gone. I'm hoping so. Also hoping nothing on my place gets mysteriously damaged.

I started hauling the downed spruce pines off the 3 acre parcel. Have my son in law working for me in the tractor and I was in the excavator....just stacking them in a couple spots to rot and wait to be burned, and dropping some of them off the side of the hill to make a natural fence to deter dear till I get the whole cut area fenced in.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

In total he has probably only cut 6-7 acres. The first 5, then 4 fingers that were going after lines of hardwood. The bad part is that this makes the whole job far less desirable for anyone else to come in and do.

 

[David P]

One can only hope that he learns from his mistakes here. If you don't mind me asking, what did your forester charge you? I've been looking into having some of our timber cut and have a forester who lives right here in town. He wants to write up a plan (it's been a while but as I recall the cost was around $1000, give or take) and then a percentage of the timber sale.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

The initial timber cruz (him walking thru the give a written estimate) was 450. Then when I hired him to it is 10% of whatever I get. If I don't sell the timber, he gets a guaranteed 3 grand. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't. I expected him to have someone in there cutting soon after I closed on the property in august last year. Live and Learn.