Forestry - Managing the family property

I hope they all have solid hearts. Some of the trees I have will for sure have center rot, in the oaks at least. They need to go but now is not the time.

How is the sale taylored? You doing sealed bids?

 

Those big trees were all solid. Some of the shingle oaks have quite a bit of rot in the butt log.

The forester will take all the measurements from all the trees we marked then figure up a number. That number will be the minimum bid accepted. He'll then advertise the timber to places he's worked with before and had good results...and take sealed bids from them.

 

Marked a bunch more timber this morning. I thought we would finish today but decided to mark another area we hadn't originally planned on.

I think we are going to end up with 12 veneer grade walnuts, about 6-7 saw grade walnuts, and then everything else (sycamore, tulip poplar, cherry, and shingle/red oak, in order of volume). I won't have the totals until next week, the forester and I are guessing we are over 100K bdft.

 

I had Earl mark one particular valley heavy to bring up total bdft in order to make the sale more appealing. As luck would have it, when the 42" gas pipe came through they went right through where it had been hit hard. American Electric Power owns a ton of land in my County. I butt up against them on several lines. They logged shortly after me and brought out not quite 3 million feet. They had logged way more acres (~130 I think) and most of it had not been touched for 40 years or more. It's still nice woodlands even after that purge. I have tried unsucessfully to purchase a 40 acre tract of it that I butt on two sides, that is landlocked. I dunno if I could afford it anymore but will try again in the future.

 

I got in the woods at first light and did some spraying this morning. It was slow progress...not sure if that was because of me or the spicebush jungle I was working it...but it definitely felt like more work today.

The forester made his last visit this morning and we marked another 30ish trees. We are scheduled to talk on Wednesday on numbers, terms of sale, etc.

 

Best of luck

 

Total is 314 trees and and 112 MBFT. That's only about 7 trees/acre and about 360 BDFT/tree. Minimum bid is about what I expected so we are going to proceed with the sale.

 

What's the general state of industry around you? Been 'quiet' here...not seen many logs being hauled.

 

We had a lull about a year ago but seems pretty active now.

 

Should only get busier since the mills will be looking to fill up their yards before winter. We had a wet early summer and I don't know if that affected things or not.

 

I'd be interested to hear what you get per bf for the walnut, if you don't mind. I had some loggers come out recently to look at some walnut trees, and their prices were all over the place (2.20 - 2.80). I'm going to work with a consulting forester on the timber sale, and he told me both prices were low. He said I should have sold a year or so ago as walnut was close $4 per bf. That's just how my luck is.....

 

Timber sale closes tomorrow.

 

Things turned out pretty good on the timber sale, well over the minimum, with a buyer I know and has a good reputation.

 

Fantastic news!!

 

It's nice to see a good bid come in. Fairly large distance between 1st & 2nd highest for my last harvest. In the neighborhood of 18%. Did your forester put a 'performance bond' in the contract?

 

I recently signed a contract with a consulting forester to have some timber cut. We won't be doing it until fall of 2026 or winter of 26/27. Can you explain what a "performance bond" is?

 

Outfit contracted to do the cutting (or their employer) will put up a sum held by Forester. Needs to be enough to matter to them. Bond is released back once job is completed *to spec (determined by forester as third party following contract obligations). It's an incentive to make sure that the work is done in a timely manner and cleaned up/reclaimed afterwards. IIRC the bond on my harvest was around 10% of the sale price (not yuge dollar amounts, but substantial)

A scenario might be that they paid, completed harvest in prescribed time frame, did the reclaiming but there is skidding damage to significant residual trees (specifically mentioned in contract) from operations. Bond could be used to settle discrepancy.

 

RCBS thanks for the information. I thought I saw something in the contract I signed about a bond, but I'm not finding it. I do see a clause about insurance in bold, so maybe that's similar. In the Timber contract that OSU publishes, I do a section (section L) about a performance bond. I'll have to double check with my forester about that.

Timber Sale Contracts | Ohioline

 

It's kindof like insurance I guess. My forester was ON it I have to say. That's how I learned, from him. He was a privateer who had been doing it for more than 25 years at the time and had a bunch of good relationships (both sides) because of his work. He was also active in my local forestry community, attending meetings and seminars (good way to meet clients, eh?). I was referenced him by someone at the County soil & water office that I trusted. We had chats about various foresters in our area at times. He knew them all and knew which were in it for what motivations. Wish he were still around so I could ask who to go to since Earl retired. Earl sold his consulting businesss to a Married Couple who are both certified. I have not yet met them but will contact them when the time comes. I had asked him about them and he told me they are good Folk.

 

Insurance is to pay for accidents; surety bond is a performance bond. Like when you buy home inspector comes in and a b c are not quite right; xx held in escrow to make it right.
Here put the brush in piles, damaged trees along trails, back drag to smooth the paths and clear the landing