When a logging operation isn’t guided by a plan,\u00a0 or is not administered by a professional forester<\/a>, or conducted by an untrained or an undisciplined logger, things can go bad.<\/p>\n A well planned logging operation is done with specific trees marked to be removed, and skid trails and logging roads are planned accordingly to prevent damage to the better trees that are selected to be left in the stand. A skidder with a reckless driver roaming the woods removing trees indiscriminately is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n Damage to trees comes from poor or absent directional felling, which breaks limbs out of trees or skins up the stem. It also comes from skidders themselves or the logs drug behind them rubbing up against the tree, removing bark which\u00a0 increases the risk of disease and rot, but it also drastically devalues the bottom log of the tree. The bottom log (butt log) of the trees tents to be the most valuable log in the tree. The pictures included here were taken from a property while I was doing inventory for a forest management plan<\/a> recently. The damage recorded here of mainly white oaks has been done by some logging over the last few years.\u00a0 In one place, I noticed 15 or more white oak trees damaged more or less,\u00a0 within my field of view.\u00a0 This is unacceptable to me, and does not need to be acceptable to you.<\/p>\n So, besides poorer tree performance and increased risk of tree mortality, what does this cost the landowner?<\/strong><\/p>\n Lets take these white oak trees for example:<\/p>\n With current average market stumpage prices for white oak at:<\/p>\n $186 \/ thousand board feet for sawlogs<\/strong><\/p>\n $996 \/ thousand board feet for stave logs<\/strong><\/p>\n The damage from a bad logging operation can cost the landowner significantly.\u00a0 The value of the butt logs of quality white oak in the Ozarks could be devalued up to 80% in some cases.\u00a0 Don’t let this happen to you. Protect your resource now and into the future by giving us the opportunity to help you when you make that decision to harvest timber<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yes, logging creates disturbance, and in disturbance dependent forest systems, a certain amount, and the right kind of disturbance can be beneficial. I can discuss this in a later post. But, there is a big difference between disturbance and resource damage.\u00a0 Lets talk a little bit about what that is, what it looks like, and … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/scenicriversfarmforest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Logging-Damage-1024x791.png\")
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