Geoff Kegerreis wrote:
Not sure what you mean, what constitutes submerchantable? Around here, 8"
diameter
trees are being cut into 2 x 4's and 4 x 4's, and the guys know it. Of course,
logging contracting firms,
like any businesses, must make a profit. I always hear concerns about "we can't
sell the small stuff",
etc... Has anyone around there tried to sell a sale that has unit 1: primarily
small poles. unit 2. Primarily
huge sawlog trees. Specs: clean up the woods; unit 1 must be cut before unit
2.??? You can get any
work done you want to get done if there is enough gravy attached to it. Common
practice here regarding
the low dollar wood.

Later,
Geoff

L Templin wrote:


The exception Geoff is that the commercial loggers aren't going to haul up
the slope if they even cut the sub merchantable timber. I can see where a
poorly written or administered contract can actually increase the fuel
loading in the shorterm.
Customary practice in SW Oregon 20 years ago wasn't to burn in the
"commercial thinnings".

"Geoff Kegerreis" wrote in message
. ..

Now this is a pretty ignorant statement. It's about the equivalent of

saying:

"Driving automobiles does little to get people more quickly to their

destination

than walking."

Duh... Decrease fuel load, decrease wildfire risk. It's pretty much a
no-brainer.
There are obviously too many people with more money than brains that

continue

to fund this sorry psuedo-science.
snippage

Submerch wood is everything that ought to be removed in one of these
sales. Much of it doesn't register on the cruise. It includes the
suppressed whips, the culls, broken tops and bits, all off species, etc.
It might also include anything that might be merch at the landing but
is too far down the hill to yard at cost. Thus, jackpots are born.
(Thats a firefighter's term of endearment.)

In the past in the PNW, this often ran to hundreds of tons per acre.

If one is reduced to persuading the logger to yard the useless junk up
the hill you've lost the fight. It had better make economic sense
initially. Here as anywhere else, successful loggers run an appraisal
before bidding. If the plus and minus of a sale leave an adequate
profit, you'll get bids. For both sellers and buyers, leave too much on
the table and you will be talked about in every bar that night.

It used to be common practice to mix sale types to keep bids from being
astronomical. The option to include some large timber no longer exists
in a lot of districts - the big stuff is either gone or protected.

If the utilization of small wood rather than slashing it is the goal
- as I'd suppose it would be with a fire prevention sale - unrealistic
low bids should never be accepted in a down pulp or chip&saw market. You
want 4 inch tops to be merch even at a distance from the landing. Maybe
even 2 inch tops if a processor is used. It's the TSO's job to enforce
the contract provisions and he'll have a much easier time of it if they
make sense. Or else you'll get mass defaults such as happened in the
early '90s.