Planking

March 23, 2016 6:55 AM

Start To Finish Logging, Biomass Removal, Logs to Lumber (MLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry (19 comments total)

Interesting and relaxing. For me. The trees? Maybe not so relaxing. So the old tie your enemy to the log is no longer a thing? At least I still have my wood chipper.
posted by Splunge at 7:19 AM on March 23, 2016

Now THAT'S what drones are made for. Marvellous footage!
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 7:36 AM on March 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Cool. But there seems to be a whole lot of "move from pile A to pile B" rinse/repeat action. (I get why, just seems very repetitive.. )
posted by k5.user at 7:45 AM on March 23, 2016

Oh, neat. We drove through Colville last summer.

Was kind of wondering what the whole process looked like. Thanks for this.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:25 AM on March 23, 2016

I'm a big believer that responsible logging is an essential part of sustainable forest management. I'm even naive enough to believe that most logging companies know that their long term survival is tied up in respecting the renewable resources that they relying on, and (with sufficient government oversight) run themselves accordingly.

But damn if seeing giant logging equipment doesn't give me shades of Ferngully every fracking* time.

*pun intended
posted by sparklemotion at 8:27 AM on March 23, 2016

Interesting videos.

Some things strike me:
o So. Few. People. It's like most of the operation is run by two-three guys and their equipment.
o I've (in Norway) never seen logging gear mounted on excavators before. Here the machinery usually looks like this and have cutting and delimbing capability built in.
o Man, you guys like to put flags everywhere. I only wondered about two seconds where the videos were from before I spotted the first flag.
posted by Harald74 at 8:55 AM on March 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

The whole operation is definitely more than 2-3 guys. It would likely be multiple feller-bunchers and multiple skidders plus the processor and loader. Sometimes really small operations will have more equipment than people, but generally efficient operation would involve more people (plus foresters, truckers, and all kinds of others).
posted by ssg at 9:12 AM on March 23, 2016

I've seen large logging and milling operations in northern Minnesota several times and it's always fascinated me, but I've never seen them like this. Nice post.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 9:31 AM on March 23, 2016

I've seen large logging and milling operations in northern Minnesota several times

You haven't done the gunflint until you have a near collision with one of those massive log trucks coming around the corner.
posted by Think_Long at 9:36 AM on March 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

You haven't done the gunflint until you have a near collision with one of those massive log trucks coming around the corner.

Or you wake up in your tent in a peaceful, secluded state park to the sound of very large chainsaws and trucks rolling past on the other side of the lake at 6AM.

It really is neat to see the stages from mature trees to cutting and back again in progress driving, hiking, and biking around the Great North Woods.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 9:44 AM on March 23, 2016

Harald74: Feller-delimbers ("harvesters") like you describe are also common in the US and Canada. One reason they might be using a feller-buncher is that it's easier to harvest biomass if you centralize your delimbing.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 10:01 AM on March 23, 2016

So wanted that to be Start to Finnish logging. Sigh.
posted by grimjeer at 10:02 AM on March 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

The whole operation is definitely more than 2-3 guys. It would likely be multiple feller-bunchers

So a whole bunch of fellers, then?
posted by Floydd at 10:46 AM on March 23, 2016 [5 favorites]

So a whole bunch of fellers, then?

You've now idea how much I was kicking myself when my brain came up with 'Get To The Choppa!' for a title about ten mins after I posted it.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:30 PM on March 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

So a whole bunch of fellers, then?

Nope, then you're hand logging. Whole different thing. A feller is a dude with a chainsaw, a feller-buncher is a big machine that cuts trees and bunches them.
posted by ssg at 2:33 PM on March 23, 2016

I liked the videos. Logging done well can be sustainable in the real meaning of the term, but of course it seldom is done well by those criteria.

o I've (in Norway) never seen logging gear mounted on excavators before. Here the machinery usually looks like this and have cutting and delimbing capability built in.

I don't have any direct experience with logging, but in this area almost all I see is excavator-mounted equipment, like what is shown in the video. Maybe it has to do with ground conditions or tree sizes? Additionally, with the excavator they might sometimes swap tools (such as putting on a masticator for thinning operations where the biomass is left on the forest floor). Tracked equipment also allows you to log in the winter on snow, which I see being done more lately to minimize forest floor impacts.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:32 PM on March 23, 2016

Amazing how few people are working to make so much.
posted by humanfont at 9:39 PM on March 23, 2016

But if all that biomass is removed, how is the terrain replenished of nutrients?
posted by elpapacito at 9:51 AM on March 24, 2016

But if all that biomass is removed, how is the terrain replenished of nutrients?


It isn't. Forests in North America tend to grow back slower and smaller after every cut.
posted by ssg at 5:28 PM on March 24, 2016