"Gavin" wrote in message ...
Hi

I'm a British guy, living in Finland. Been working in forestry and wood
processing in Russia, Scandinavia, South America and Canada. (not much
forest for me to play with back home ;-)

I noticed a comment about waste in cutting. I can only comment that on the
Canadian clearfell sites I visited, the amount of waste was stunning. It
seemed to be common to just blindly cut 16 foot and 8 foot poles, regardless
to market. The Foresters even admitted that they cut even when there was no
market, and there were huge piles of rotting product left on site. I find
this absolutely incredible.

There is a gradual move to CTL harvesting (mainly for environmental reasons)
there, and I understand that it is not as 'productive' as cut and skid in
terms of sheer volume. I do believe however that when implemented correctly,
it can significantly increase the best utilization of product.

I guess that most people are realising that North America and Russia do not
hold 'endless' swathes of productive forest, so it should be high time that
everyone takes a long hard look at the effectiveness of utilisation of
product.

I am not saying that the Scandinavian system is perfect, or that it suits
every operation, but I must say that I think the ethos of the system
(maximising yield) should be something professionals in North America (and
of course elsewhere) should seriously consider.

Another thing to consider with any thinning or falling operation is
what to _do_ with the waste. At least some large-diameter (over 4"
diameter) woody debris is important for animal life and forest
regeneration. But there is no reason why quantities of smaller
diameter wood (2-12" diameter) cannot be removed nearly every year
from forest land...and converted into mushroom food.

I'm rather surprised that Finland doesn't grow more shiitake, oyster,
and garden giant mushrooms from their slash. OTOH, Americans are
likewise clueless.

Daniel B. Wheeler
www.oregonwhitetruffles.com