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Bugs, Fire, Old Age is why we need to Log Yellowstone burned in 1989, we learned why Proper Forest Management now includes a “let it burn policy” if you don't log the excess, bugs infested the forests, you must remove the forest fuels, litter, brush, dead trees, by logging, thinning, pruning, or controlled burning or it ends up like Yellowstone in 1989.
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Lodge Pole Pine and Doug Fir, we use Dead standing, after they mature the beetles weaken their resilience and they self thin. The dead timber seen on the forest floor is now called Biomass.
Logging ... Is a common sense approach, we use a dead standing, renewable, regrowable and resource. We save energy manufacturing WHY SO EFFICIENT ? We mill a round log ...Round! And we save wildlife habitat, living trees and land from forest fire and the costs to taxpayers.
Timber thrives with the sun, soil, certain temperature conditions and water. Growing wonderful living things world wide every minute of every day, unwatched trees, timber, will grow constantly. When then die of old age, fire or disease, they go unused, they rot, catch fire, burn, breed bugs then it starts all over again. We intervene, seek the dead or dying trees for our source of logs. Pine Bark Beetle girdle the tree eating the last years fresh growth ring. Then hatch, fly away, we harvest them and mill that damage away.
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Jack Pine-Lodgepole grow so thick sunlight cant get to the forest floor. Land burnt in the great fire of 1910. This is re growth is from that fire.
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Bark Beetle Killed Timber, Lodge pole is peculiar, its life blood (sap) flow, is on the outside ring. Other trees its in the center (heartwood). Bark Beetle eat the fresh, new ring of tender wood just under the paper thin Lodge pole's bark. That girdles the flow and kills the tree. See below the Girdling under the bark? The pine fights back by plugging the holes with pitch. |
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Soon the tallest timber will hog the sunlight, moisture & nutrients from the weaker lodgepole. They self prune, self thin to allow the healthiest to thrive. The big thick bark Firs, Larches Ponderosa Pine can endure ground fires and bark beetles. But wind, other bugs, hottest of fires and drought take them for the next 300 plus years. Then it starts again. Below Lodge Pole Pine or Jack Pine, see the colors and thin bark and I’m trying to show bug damage on the surface only of the wood |
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This land we purposely disturbed the ground, it allows the seeds to take hold on the rich glacial silt soil (ph 6.65 ) With out this process the seeds lay inches above the soil on the duff and never take root. In several years from now the trees will be thick as dog hair. You’ll see the boyzs in them below. Below 1995, the boyzs (Zack and Zane) in 7 year old lodge pole after a fire the seeds fall into the ash. Lodge Pole or Jack Pine is one of the only sun tolerant trees that love the ph in the ash. Cones need near 300 degree heat to pop open so the seeds can land in the fresh ash. Soon growing a thick forest canopy. Shade from the Jack Pine allows new species like Firs, Spruces, Alpines to they take root, there superior competitors, they will take over. Jack Pine cant compete for the limited sunlight, Lodgepole cant survive without lots of sun so it dies, standing, drying waiting to burn or fall some distant day. Bark Beetles, wind or a light ground fire can easily devastate the thin bark Jack Pine forests but not the other species. |
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Logging & Timber |
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Logging in Whitefish, Montana |
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Lodge Pole –Doug Fir |
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Home of bone dry lodgepole pine house logs, we mill at 1/3 the moisture of finished Kiln Dried Lumber |
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We start with the fresh best Timber. No punky wood allowed |
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Right is lodgepole Pine tree dying from Bark Beetles see the tree trying to fight the holes into the trunk base by plugging the bug holes with a self defense tactic called pitch, sap. This 60 year old tree has lived because it gets more sunlight... dad says “ more sun, more pitch, trees out in the open they can survive.” The Bark Beetle does not hurt the wood, just the outer ring, we mill off the outer rings to make a round true strait house log...at this point it is bone dry, all the twisting, warping, shrinking drying has naturally taken place...free of charge! |
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We thin out the dead as it is happening |
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Lighting Fire |
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google201a25be003d59d9.html |
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Lodgepole Pine and Doug Fir Timber |
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Same land 2011 after the beetles |
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What old timber does |
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What managed and logged forests look like first year |
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What logging looks like a few years latter, new trees starting |
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Fall Colors in the Flathead oct. 12-15 ish |
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Axmen |
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Environmentally Friendly Utilization of Fire and Beetle killed Forest Woody Biomass |