Tree removal

Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
Post Reply
User avatar
balzaccom
Topix Addict
Posts: 2952
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2008 9:22 pm
Experience: N/A

Tree removal

Post by balzaccom »

Paull Bunyan is alive and well--at least that's what it looks like up in the Sierra. You're read about the massive tree damage in the Sierra, a combination of many years of drought weakening the trees, and then a major infestation of Pine Bark beetles, that's left something over 100 million trees dead. You can see this at just about any point that offers an overlook of a forest: huge swaths of brown trees among the living green ones.

It's a very sad sight.

Image


Well, it's apparently time to do something about that; at least where people live and use electricity. In our little community above Sonora, we counted at least six different tree companies at work, some of them from as far away as Alabama and Florida. And they were taking down every dead tree that might threaten a power line in any way. We were happy to see this work get done.

It's quite impressive to see these guys work, sometimes more than 100 feet off the ground, and dropping limbs, trunks, and whole trees down in your neighborhood. Yeah, there were flagmen and road closures, but all in a good cause.

And on just about every street we saw huge piles of logs stacked up. Sadly most of this is pine, not really great firewood, and not great lumber either. So much of it may not get used for anything important. Some of our neighbors were cutting and splitting it, figuring that free firewood is free firewood. Another friend is planning to make a rustic fence out of some of the logs.

Image

We were lucky this year, in that we didn't lose any trees. We had three taken down last year. Two got chopped up for firewood. One is now playing a featured role as the side barriers for our informal bocce ball court.
Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-R ... 0984884963
User avatar
hikerduane
Founding Member
Posts: 1268
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:58 am
Experience: Level 4 Explorer
Location: Meadow Valley, CA

Re: Tree removal

Post by hikerduane »

For us living in the mountains, pine is fine. May not be the first choice for fuel wood, but produces heat which many of us use for our heat source in woodstoves. For lumber, has a high value, but not if it has started to rot or has been dead too long. Surprisingly, it's value goes down when it turns blue, which looks pretty nice.
Duane
Piece of cake.
User avatar
zacjust32
Topix Regular
Posts: 362
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2015 12:50 pm
Experience: Level 3 Backpacker
Location: Fresno, Ca
Contact:

Re: Tree removal

Post by zacjust32 »

Me and a friend found someone on Craigslist who had the same problem. He gave us 2 trees 30" in diameter and 10' long. We took them to the sawmill to get cut into slabs and we now sell the slabs and make furniture out of them.
WW-SlabTable1.jpg
WW-SlabTable.jpg
Wahtoke Woodwork's Instagram

Sorry for the commercial, I'm a poor college kid who needs the extra buck :)
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 40 guests