Appendix C. Forest Products Journal Article

APPENDIX C

FOREST PRODUCTS JOURNAL ARTICLE

DOUGLAS-FIR REGION1: SMALL LOG HARVESTING2

The source has barely been tapped, and the potential is astounding, but problems needing attention include new logging methods for small logs, stand access, market analysis, and an understanding by forest owners of small-log potential.

W.A. Davies3 School of Forestry, Oregon State College

SMALL-LOG LOGGING in the Douglas-fir region of the Northwest is in a relatively new, experimental stage. Prejudices and traditions make progress in this field slow, but some loggers and wood processors are beginning to realize the possibilities of utilizing Douglas-fir logs under 16 inches in diameter.

SOURCES AND POTENTIAL

Small logs are becoming increasingly important as a source of raw material for the wood industries of the Douglas-fir region. At present the bulk of these logs comes from normal logging operations with some small trees in the stand and from premature clear-cutting in second-growth stands. Other sources include salvage, pre-logging, and thinning. Volume from salvage is decreasing, and the potential is not great due to increased utilization in the original logging. Pre- logging is becoming popular in old-growth stands with understories of small trees. Removing the small trees prior to clear-cutting serves two purposes: (1) there is less loss in breakage, and (2) the final logging, which is geared to handling large material, is more efficient when there are fewer small logs to handle. However, the extra volume derived from pre-logging is not great, because

Presented at Session VII, Logging, FPRS 13th National Meeting, June 30, 1959.

San Francisco, California.

Published in the April 1960 issue of the Forest Product Journal, pp.187-189.

The Author: William Davies holds B.S.F. and M.S.F. degree from the University

of Washington. Now Head of the Forest Engineering Dept., he has been affiliated

with Oregon State College since 1946.

most of this volume would be removed with the normal logging. Last, but by no means least, is the source of small logs from thinning young Douglas-fir stands. Here we have barely scratched the surface, and the potential is astounding.

The Douglas-fir region is in a revolutionary transition from wild forests to managed forests. As this change progresses, there will be more and more dependence on small logs, and many of them will come from thinnings. The present generation has grown up on large old- growth logs and finds it difficult to think in other terms. The change, however, is inevitable. Only the public agencies and a very few large companies hold old-growth reserves for more than a few years of cutting.

As timber lands are converted to second-growth, good management dictates that an increasing volume can be obtained by thinning the young stands. Douglas-fir is intolerant of shade and grows best in even-aged stands. Silviculturists agree that clear-cutting is the best harvesting practice, and that 80 to 100 years is a logical rotation age. During this rotation age, however, a large quantity of wood is lost, if not removed periodically. Nature is very wasteful and never in a hurry. A newly established stand may contain several thousand trees per acre. During its life, a stand will lose the majority of the original trees by competition, insects, disease, snow, and wind.

Man can salvage a large part of this loss by periodic thinnings, and the volumes obtainable are astounding. Thinning is an important and established part of timber harvesting in Europe. The Danes, who have been growing Douglas-fir for many years, have found that the volume from thinning is about equal to the volume at final harvest. They are doubling the yield from the land by harvesting the natural mortality. Silviculturists have stated that an average of 600 board feet per acre, per year could be thinned from Douglas-fir stands through a 100-year rotation. This volume multiplied by the 30 million acres of commercial forest land in the region is equal to 18 billion board feet, or one and one-half times the present total annual cut in the region. Of course this is a theoretical potential for some time in the distant future. At present, the approximately eight million acres of young stands of commercial thinning size in the region have a potential annual yield of over four billion board feet from thinmngs. Probably not more than 50 million board feet and certainly not more than 100 million board feet per year, are now being produced from thinnings.

Volume from thinnings is non-depletable. Properly done, thinning is a stand improvement measure. The final harvest volume will be at least as great as in an unthinned stand, and the quality and tree size will be greater. This is one instance where a timber owner can have his cake and eat it too. It would be good practice to thin even if no profit were made, if the stumpage value came out to zero. However, the stumpage value of thinnings can be high where the stand is accessible and near a market. Recently, a public agency put a salvage thinning up for bid and realized $28 per thousand board feet.

Many owners of young timber don't appreciate the possibilities in thinning and salvage. State and county extension foresters are doing a good job of educating the small owners, and as owners become aware of the values involved there should be a rapid increase in the volume of wood from this source.

LOGGING PROBLEMS

Logging small logs in the Douglas-fir region is in a groping, experimental stage, but things are moving fast. The methods used are essentially the same as those used in old-growth logging, but with smaller equipment. One company pioneered commercial thinning with horse logging, because it was thought that any other method would do considerable damage to the remaining stand. Later this company switched to small tractors and found that if loggers have the proper attitude, little damage is done. Recently, cable systems have been developed for thinning and salvage on the steeper areas. Many other types of equipment have been used to a limited extent in conjunction with horses and farm-type tractors, and have been satisfactory with careful loggers. Steel towers mounted on trucks have been used, including homemade donkeys mounted on trucks, rubber-tired tractors, and even farm tractors. However, the basic systems are the same as those used for many years in the normal clear-cut logging.

The variety of loading equipment used to load small logs is as great as the variety of yarding equipment. Most of the conventional systems, with smaller equipment, are employed. Some operators are loading one small log at a time with tongs or end hooks. Others are using grapples and fork lifts, and can load several logs at once.

The cost of logging on a board-foot, log-scale basis obviously is greater for small logs than for large logs. There is a mixture of sizes and the logging must be geared to handle large logs. If the costs are converted to a cubic-foot basis, the cost differential between large and small logs is not as great.

Here are some figures on small thinning operations in Douglas-fir in Willamette Valley of Oregon. The areas were similar in size (between 30 and 40 acres) and from 5,000 to 7,000 board feet per acre were removed from each. Following is a tabulation of the costs on these three areas plus the costs on an area that was clearcut after an earlier thinning some years before.

Area | Average Log | Cost per M bd. ft. Scribner Rule || No. 1 | 50 bd. ft. | $30.00 || No. 2 | 82 bd. ft. | $27.00 || No.3 | 100 bd. ft. | $23.00 || Clearcut | 345 bd. ft. | $18.00

The above costs include truck hauls of 12 to 15 miles. All areas were tractor logged, and no road development cost was involved.

it can be seen from these figures that log size affects the logging cost when the unit of measure is the board foot, Scribner rule. When the costs were converted to a cubic-foot basis, it was found that they were similar for each area. This shows that the logging costs per cubic foot of wood can be about the same for small logs as for larger logs, as long as the board foot Scribner Rule is the unit of measurement for logs, the small-log logger must handle more wood, and therefore more weight per board foot than the large-log logger. Perhaps the unit of measurement will be changed in the future. Cubic feet and weight have been used to some extent. One large company, which contracts much of its small-log logging, pays the logger on a weight basis. Each load is weighed and the contracts call for a price per ton.

Another obstacle to logging small logs, especially thinnings, is lack of access. Much of the young timber of thinning size is far from a road or on very steep ground. Timber owners are reluctant to incur large development costs that cannot be amortized by the first cut. Thinning on steep ground is very difficult with the present methods, and new ideas and new developments in equipment and methods are needed.

In fact, new developments are needed in all phases of small-log logging. As previously stated, small logs are handled primarily by the same methods as used for large logs. We loggers in the region have been slow to adopt new methods developed and proven in other regions and in other countries. Tradition ties us down. Certain things have become standard and it is difficult to think in any other terms. Perhaps someone with imagination and who knows nothing about logging or our traditions is best qualified to develop new ways of handling small logs.

One tradition is the use of a choker, a short cable attached to a log in the yarding process. Loggers claim that the cost of logging small logs is high because it costs as much to put a choker around a small log as around a large one. If this be true, perhaps chokers should not be used; some type of mechanical hand or grapple would be more efficient.

Many new ideas have been discussed. The most glamorous one is probably the use of helicopters. As yet this has not been proven practicable. Rubber-tired tractors will probably replace many of the crawler type. Skylines are used extensively in Europe to transport small logs, and more use will probably be made here of skylines and other cable systems. Certainly, many new ideas, some as yet unheard of, will be developed as the old-growth forests are replaced by thrifty young stands.

MARKET PROBLEMS

The availability of markets controls the production of small logs, and at present the outlets in the region are not adequate. Most of the small logs are sawn in mills designed for large logs. It is not efficient to put a 6-inch log on a large carriage and run it through a head rig designed for 60- inch logs. Some scrag mills and small gang mills are in operation, but most of them are units of larger mills. They are used to keep the small logs away from the main mill, and the owners are not anxious to purchase additional small logs.

The pulp market is not good at present. Prices paid for small logs are low due to the availability of other cheap wood such as chips. Pulp chips may be purchased at the saw mill for the equivalent of $15 per 1000 board feet. As long as this condition exists, the volume of small logs used for pulp will remain low.

The use of small logs for veneer is increasing. Some 4- and 8- foot lathes have been installed to peel the better logs. Usually only logs more than 14 inches in diameter are used, which leaves the smaller logs for other types of utilization.

Small logs may be used for poles, but this is not a large market. Only a few of the trees cut in a thinning operation are adequate for poles. Therefore it appears that the greatest potential use for logs from 6 to 15 inches in diameter is lumber, with the leftovers being used for pulp.

The value of small logs for lumber production is high if manufactured in an efficient plant. On a log-scale basis (Scribner Rule) the pond value may be higher for small logs than for large logs. This is due to a higher overrun from the small logs. A study made by the Forest Products Research Center in Corvallis, Oregon, shows that the overrun from logs six to 16 inches in diameter is about 50 percent. The overrun from larger logs cut in conventional saw mills is usually between 10 and 20 percent. Even with a slightly higher milling cost, the small logs may have a higher pond value on a log-scale basis.

In some cases, where efficient small mills are operating, this higher value has been reflected in the log price. One company in western Oregon, which operates a very efficient gang mill, paid $55 to $60 per 1000 board feet for small logs down to 6 inches in diameter during 1958. Lumber prices were not particularly good last year, but this company showed a profit. A neighboring, larger mill paid a slightly lower price for larger logs and showed a loss for the year.

Sawmills designed to cut large logs are no longer considered to be efficient unless integrated with other uses. The owner of a large sawmill must either give up the mill or expand to other uses to get greater value from the logs. This is not true of small mills designed to cut small logs. It appears that the operation of one of these small mills, with the leftovers being chipped for pulp, is about the only way to get into the lumber manufacturing business in a small way, at the present time. In the future there will probably be numerous efficient, small mills specifically designed to cut small logs only. They will be supplied by salvage to some extent, but chiefly by thinnings from small woodlots, from tree farms, and from the public forests.

SUMMARY

As stands in the Douglas-fir region are changed from wild forests to managed forests, small logs will become more important as raw material. Presently, small logs are coming from the normal logging operations, prematurely cut second-growth stands, salvage, pre-logging, and a limited amount of thinnings. The greatest potential source is from thinnings. Small-log logging is in a groping, experimental stage, and new ideas and developments are needed. An important obstacle to small log production is lack of markets. Lumber appears to be the most logical utilization, and mills particularly designed to cut small logs are needed.