[AT] Logging

[Grant Brians]

On 10/1/2017 10:09 PM, Mattias Kessén wrote:
> http://www.atl.nu/skog/fran-minibandare-till-kvistare-kapare/
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Mattias, I found it interesting to see the size of the logs being 
handled in the article you posted the reference to. When I see the logs 
harvested in California, except for those thinned logs harvested for 
posts (a very small percentage) the logs are much larger in diameter and 
length. We may have lots of dry areas and definitely we lost many 
millions of trees from the drought and climate change, but the typical 
trees harvested for lumber are feet in diameter not inches (or to be 
more metric - over 31cm to over a meter). When looking at the logging 
trucks plying the California and Oregon roads, their 30 ton load will 
usually have many fewer trees than those small carriers shown in the 
article.

      I am sure a big part of the difference must be the species of 
trees and the use they are put to. The White Pine, Douglas Fir, Coast 
Redwood and many other lumber trees grown here can reach heights of more 
than 100 feet before typical harvest is performed. The Coast Redwood 
trees that are old growth typically are over 200 feet in height and 
White Pines were too. I have seen Douglas Fir that exceed 150 feet in 
height.

      The variety of equipment shown in the article was interesting too, 
because there is such a range of ideas as to how to perform tasks and it 
appears that a range of mechanizations were tried, maybe more than here 
but I am not sure. Also, seeing little tractors converted for logging 
was interesting because the machine used here in the older times were 
mostly Caterpillar crawlers simply with a winch and a blade. This has a 
lot to do with the mountainous terrain here and the large size of most 
harvested trees.

      Something I found interesting in the Midwest was the growth of the 
straight Mid-western Black Walnut trees for lumber. This is so different 
from our use of the native "Northern California Black Walnut", which is 
not at all straight, is slow growing and is primarily used for grafting 
English Walnut cuttings for our Walnut production industry (the second 
largest by area after China and the largest by production amount by far 
in the world.

      Thank you for the interesting posting even if I have to guess at a 
few of the pieces of information in the article due to my very limited 
Swedish....

                Grant Brians - Hollister,California farmer of 
vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, nuts and fruit