"Larry Harrell" wrote in message
om...
mhagen wrote in message
...

Where was this? The amount of slash left behind when logging west coast
old growth forest is truly staggering, for many reasons. Waste is
reduced to such low levels in younger stands that it's debatable that
enough remains to replenish the duff.

Factors such as rising or falling stumpage, long distances to pulp
markets, high stand defect and even company/union policy all influence
the amount of slash left. At times I've even seen good timber long
butted because loggers were betting on a lucrative salvage deal
afterwards. An extreme case, but it happens.

One of my beefs with the current style of "mechanical thinning" with
feller bunchers and skidders is that landing sizes are rather big. To
accomodate the literal mountain of slash from whole-tree yarding and
the multiple machines on the landing, you end up with a landing nearly
as big as a helicopter landing. Combine that with the almost
inevitable scorching of adjacent trees when that mountain of slash is
burned. Maybe the USFS has to make the "purchaser" remove the slash,
hoping co-gen electric plants would buy the cheap fuel for at least
the transportation costs. It sure beats polluting our air and letting
that energy go out into space.

Why not use forwarders and leave all that junk in the woods?




Working for the last few months here in South Carolina, I've seen why
the pulp market is so low. Trees grow so dang fast down here. I've
seen a 21 year old tree that is 62 feet tall! The fall colors here are
quite nice and work couldn't be more idyllic except for the fact that
I'm sharing the woods with deer hunters. I'm wearing bright colors and
have my FS radio turned up real loud.


Have you ever watched Deliverance? G


Larry