Tour In Columbia County

As landowners we have a stake in the outcomes of our efforts. In this area of the Pacific Northwest there is a constant battle to whack back vegetation to control the plots we tend in order to keep them from returning to the wild. It is just not invasives that we have to deal with but the soil here is very fertile, attractive to a large diversity and chock full of nutrients that simply beg flora to proliferate. While growing timber is a slow process taking 80 (the average age it takes an average Douglas fir to barely get to the harvestable log size) to 500 years (the common lifespan but can go over 1000 years in favorable conditions and left alone to grow without close competition).

That adds up to a lot of decades to manage a forest property, a nearly unfathomable feat if those who are tending the woods skip out on the management part of the equations.

I really enjoy going on woodland tours because of the diverse plans of action, those successful and those that didn’t go as planned and seeing those plans put into action.

The CCSWA (Columbia County Small Woodlands Association) tour brought us into the bigger timber forests of the area where some of the 80 to 90 year old trees need to be thinned out of a stand with many the same age. In order for these trees to continue their growth, the thinning is designed to open up the canopy so the trees that are left can stretch into the sunlight space that streams through the opening.

We had the opportunity of seeing a piece of equipment that makes our DANG machine look like a toy. The saw blade imbedded inside the red painted head is longer than I am tall. We got to see first hand how a simple miscalculation from the operator can bend the expensive saw blade into an S shape mangle. Keeping the machine in tip top form begins with extensive maintenance and continues with vigilant, timely repairs.

The processor is able to grasp tall timber in its jaws, cut it off at the base and gently set the tree to rest safely on the forest floor. The sound of the falling tree is muted from the easy, controlled drop and the trees (both the one that is being cut and the tall trees around the falling tree) are more likely to be saved from the damage hand falling can cause. Before the jaws are removed from holding the base end of the tree, it feeds the tree through the jaws to de-limb and measure before cutting into logs ready to be decked up for a log truck to haul off.

From sheer size, the machine can fall trees that were in the past too big for most equipment. Rather than an experienced timber faller working to cut and fell large trees one at a time with hand-held power saws, axes and wedges, this machine can take much of the danger and out the workplace forest. When asked the weight of this machine, the crew was only able to make estimates because many of the bigger, heavier components were assembled on this forest property and the behemoth is too big to take anywhere including roadway scales. For that sake alone this equipment is slated to spend its days on the Vannatta property.