Timber Bulletin May/Jun - Minnesota Forest Industries

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The scragg.Aspen, should help to reduce therotation age of these species. Thiswould dramatically increase thevolume of sawbolts available tosawmills by minimizing the chronicrot problems that these speciesencounter as they age.In the meantime, however, CassForest Products continues to holdits own in a challenging market,through innovative programs toimprove employee safety,education and morale. Cass ForestProducts truly is an employeeownedcompany and the pride inownership is felt from the drop-offpoint of the delivery trucks, all theway through to the stacks offinished product awaiting pick up.(continued from page 16)than in previous years,” headded. Goetz also believes thatwhile it’s important to staycompetitive in today’s toughtimes, sawmills in the area alsohave to network. “We’retrying to be proactive and openup to our competitors to thedegree that we can,” says Goetz.Using mainly Norway,Jackpine and White Pine, CassForest Products wants to seemore stumpage being sold bythe counties, the Departmentof Natural Resources, andespecially the USFS. Bycreating more supply withmore sales, the stumpageprices would move closer tothe wood coming out ofCanada. Putting up moresales of Jackpine, as well asPete Rairdon in the kiln controlroom. Pete has more than 12years of service.18Timber Bulletin May/June 2003
Manual ApproachSuits Minnesota Logging Teamby Dave JohnsonIt’s 5 a.m., five below zero andpitch dark. Thirty-three-year-oldlogger Blake Meighen is headingout the door to begin his day.Ahead lies a two-hour drive beforehe meets up with his loggingpartner, 27-year-old Josh Wharton.Since he lives closer to this 20-acre job, Wharton will get therefirst and start the portablegenerator they use to warm up theTimberjack 240 cable skidder theywill be using this day.Meighen’s commute takes himalong the Rochester Minnesota“miracle mile” where his pickupblends in with the early commutertraffic. This is "Lake Woebegon"country and the road leading to thejob is cleaned up by the “Sons ofNorway Lodge.”Before their seven- to eight-hourday is done, the partners will felland skid, on average, more than6,000 board feet of logs. This is animportant number since the team ispaid by the thousand. Thecompany they work for, Root RiverHardwoods out of Preston, Minn.(profiled in the March, 2003 issue),cut this particular job 20 years ago.It was one of the first jobs done bythat company and was cut by oneof the mill’s owners, Jeff Wand.This is, by Meighen andWharton’s standards, a pretty easyjob since it is not too steep. Theytry to schedule these jobs for thewinter, since even with tire chains,it’s hard for the skidders to avoidsliding on frozen hillsides. Thetrees, which have been marked, area mixture of ash, oak, hard maple,basswood and box elder. Meighenestimates the job will take about aweek to finish.Root River runs six loggingcrews and the company’s foresterstry to mix in the good jobs with thenot-so-good and the longcommutes with the short ones so asto be fair to all the crews.Regardless of whether it’s a goodjob or a bad one, the rate perthousand is the same.Meighen and Wharton acceptthis and say it all averages out overtime. The stand is dense with small,pole-size young growth. Some ofthis growth is hard maple, but a lotof it is just junk. Some of the larger,marked trees are junk as well,mainly box elders.Luckily for the stand – and theloggers – Root River can utilize anylog of any species over 11 inches.There is no market for pulpwoodthis far south, so anything thatcan’t be sawn is not usable at all.This, of course, is the bigproblem for forest managers. Ifloggers only take high quality trees,leaving the lower quality to grow,timber stand improvement isimpossible. Many of the markedtrees are “wolf” trees, with largetops spreading over wide areas,thus shading out more valuabletrees, so cutting these trees willresult in stand improvement.The large tops are wasted,however. It is Root River policy tojust leave them where they fall. Theloggers buck random length logsoff the trunk and an occasionallarge stick out of the top. They tryto take the remainder down a bitbut, not much.They say that pulling large topsout of the woods would do damageto the stand, and that by leavingthem where they fell, shelters arecreated for wildlife and youngseedlings are also protected fromdeer damage during the time ittakes for them to rot down.Some landowners come in andblock up the tops for firewood but,because of the steep terrain, it’sdifficult to haul the wood out.Even though the partners arepaid by the thousand, regardless ofspecies, they are well aware of thevalue of the logs they areproducing. Their record dayconsisted of 38 black walnut trees,which produced a sale value of$38,000. Meighen says they usednarrow notches and thin hinges onthese trees because any stump pullor cutting of useful wood with a20Timber Bulletin May/June 2003
Page 1 and 2: THE VOICE OF THE TIMBER INDUSTRYTIM
Page 3 and 4: On April 25 the MinnesotaTimber Pro
Page 5 and 6: With her contacts at DOT andbackgro
Page 7 and 8: Lynsey Carlson of Duluth, Minn., sp
Page 9 and 10: Schedule of EventsFriday, August 19
Page 11: conveyors to vibrating conveyors,im
Page 15 and 16: to condemn saw manufacturerswho don
Page 17 and 18: 2003 Legislative SessionThe legisla
Page 19 and 20: Friends of the Forest History Cente
Page 21 and 22: LOGGERS OF THE PAST . . .Life in th
Page 23 and 24: 32 Timber Bulletin May/June 2003
Page 25: 1978 Drott 40, JD eng..............

Timber Bulletin May/Jun - Minnesota Forest Industries

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