The Back Landing

Looking at the hillside from the top of the hill makes the area look tame. The loggers had to be careful when falling to avoid hitting the younger trees that are growing on the far side and those below the falling area.

They have been bringing the trees out of the woods tree length so they can process them into logs out in the open of the landing where the ground is relatively flat.

The logs are dropped at the landing according to what mill the processed log most likely will be able to go to. The feller/buncher (the orange machine in the middle) will be able to de-limb, measure, cut and stack the sticks into the proper piles

The finished logs may go to one of five mills depending on girth, length, straightness, amount of knots (limbs) per quadrant, and defects.

One of the logs did show evidence of root rot. The purple-ish hue on the butt end of the log confirmed why this tree was not growing well.

If the patch of trees were to have remained standing, this rot could travel from root system to root system through the trees that were already stressed from sun damage and loss of moisture with the last few years after the nearby clearcut. The logger was able to cut of 7 to 8 feet off this log to eliminate the rot so the rest of the log is good to ship to market.

As quickly as a truck load of logs are decked for a single mill, the self-loading log truck is brought in and loaded to clear the area for the next load of timber to be processed.

Another week of work and this small logging job should be complete.