2021 Logging - Part 2

An update on the logging operation that was commenced on our forest to thin most (but not all) of the conifers so as to provide the more valuable hardwoods (namely oaks) an opportunity to put on additional girth and height having been rid of the pines that were competing with them for precious resources like water and sunlight.  Hardly random - the trees had previously been marked for removal.  In technical forestry terms this pre-commercial thinning is called a 'release'.       

This machine is called a 'harvester'.  It is operated by one individual.

The machine grabs a tree, saws-it-off at the base, flips it 90 degrees, and zips it into three bolts while removing the bark and limbs. Left on the forest floor is slash.      

Luke - the guy operating the harvester - can process two trees a minute. Which makes you pause and ponder the relative merits of felling trees with a chainsaw. One at a time. On your own.            

To the casual observer this may look a fright. My neighbor (and fellow tree aficionado) remarked the other day that opening the canopy is going to provide the hardwoods with an opportunity to really put on some height and girth all the while allowing spruce, tamarack, pine and cedar the opportunity to naturally regenerate in what had previously been a darkened understory.              

This is making my week. Exciting stuff.....