Harvesting Trees
One of the first things we decided on when purchasing this home back in 2014, was that the large standing white pine that dominated the main part of the property surrounding the house and fields needed to be taken down. The trees themselves were planted in the mid to late 50s probably during the government incentive tree growth era when they paid farms and land owners to grow trees. These particular trees were planted in rows and to be honest too close together creating an unhealthy environment for the majority of the trees as they had to compete for space to grow. Now almost 70 years later, the trees are becoming diseased, bug infested and are starting to come down.
We found a local logging company who was recommended to us by our realtor and during the summer of 2014 the owner came to see us. At this meeting it was discussed how they would take the trees, what they would use from every tree, and a time frame they could do it in. First of all, finding a company that is reputable and insured is number one! You don't want to use some no name company who pays well but leaves your land looking like a meteor hit! Since our plans for this land is agriculture, we want it to have minimal damage and for them to use as much of the trees as possible. The company we used Linkletter & Sons out of Athens, ME sell the logs for board wood, the smaller wood for pulp, the branches for pellets and everything else including bark as biomass for heating/creating energy. So in fact, this company uses the whole tree! No waste, or as little waste as they can manage.
This was key for me as I did not want to see anything go to waste. The only issue with logging out is having to wait until harvest time which is usually midwinter after the ground has frozen over. This way there is minimal damage to the ground, the trees come out cleaner and so companies pay more for the logs as well as there are no leaves to contend with adding extra waste and debris to the logging sites. So we agree to the cutting and put on our patient panties to wait until February or March of 2015.
The following slide show is what the our land looked like a few days before the logging company came in to harvest the trees.
This was key for me as I did not want to see anything go to waste. The only issue with logging out is having to wait until harvest time which is usually midwinter after the ground has frozen over. This way there is minimal damage to the ground, the trees come out cleaner and so companies pay more for the logs as well as there are no leaves to contend with adding extra waste and debris to the logging sites. So we agree to the cutting and put on our patient panties to wait until February or March of 2015.
The following slide show is what the our land looked like a few days before the logging company came in to harvest the trees.
Once the company finally said the ground was frozen enough, they came with a contract, application for permit to log the trees for the state as well as uncle Sam's forms for taking their cut of our profit as taxes on income. Once all the paperwork was out of the way they could bring in the equipment and start harvesting!
So on February 27th they arrived with a bulldozer to start clearing a path into the back field. As we had a good 2 1/2 ft of snow on the ground, they had to make sure they could not only get around to cut the trees, but had a landing spot cleared for the logging trucks to come in and load up. It really wasn't until Monday, March 2nd that the main cutting began! And man when they started they went to town making the logging of our big 65 to 70 ft trees look like childs play! Within a few hours they had about 1/4 of the trees down and the pile of logs started growing!
Here is another slide show of what the land looked like following the first full day of cutting.
So on February 27th they arrived with a bulldozer to start clearing a path into the back field. As we had a good 2 1/2 ft of snow on the ground, they had to make sure they could not only get around to cut the trees, but had a landing spot cleared for the logging trucks to come in and load up. It really wasn't until Monday, March 2nd that the main cutting began! And man when they started they went to town making the logging of our big 65 to 70 ft trees look like childs play! Within a few hours they had about 1/4 of the trees down and the pile of logs started growing!
Here is another slide show of what the land looked like following the first full day of cutting.
It was really amazing to see how fast the logging company came in and did the work. In just a few days all the trees were down, the land was cleared and they started to work on chipping, sorting and grading the wood for shipping. Of course they too want to get the most bang for their buck, so really focus on grade of logs and which company they sell to. They finally pulled out with the last load of logs on March 10th just before the ground softened up too much with the warmer weather that moved in. Here are some random pictures of the final piles of logs, the chipper and trucks used for moving biomass, the logging trucks and finally the large saw used in cutting the logs to length for hauling. Now the fun part begins with cleaning up all the debris left over like branches and pine cones! I can see a few burn piles in our future for sure!
So what are we using all the cleared land for? Animal habitats, pasture, gardens, a green house and a new chicken coop and run just to start!