I am cutting trees at my dad's place. My dad hired a forester to mark cull trees. They discussed selling some of them, but nobody is interested since there is very little grade in the culls. I was down there when the guy came out to look the job over but wasn't there when he actually marked them. Some have a blue band all the way around and some have a blue band and an orange dot. My dad is on vacation and doesn't have the forester's number so I can't call him. Does anyone know what the significance is of the orange dot? This is the only pic I have with the dot. There are trees without decay that have the same markings. One was the crooked oak I cut yesterday.
Orange was used to signify veneer trees on my sale so Id wager a guess that the dot is to mark trees that are possibly worth something instead of nothing. Maybe the ones with the dot have a section that are still good in them....even with the rot? Papermill quality trees possibly? This is purely a wag however. clemsonfor may know something here
There was an opossum in the crack of the tree pictured. I doubt it's veneer, plus it's a tulip poplar.
Guess I Worded That Wrong. Sorry. I Meant They Possiubly Had Some Value....not Necessarily Veneer At All.
Gotcha The prospect of cutting tops vs trees for firewood was on and off all summer. The guy came out and marked some trees, thought their was some value and contacted some buyers. They weren't interested unless they could cut a bunch of tree dad didn't want to sell just yet. Then, after the guy finished marking, dad had a couple local guys come in to see if they were interested. Nope, they wanted some additional timber. So finally, two weeks ago, he decided I could cut the culls for firewood.
I'm watching because there are a bunch of trees marked at SisIL's place and I don't know what the markings mean. I'm hoping to learn something here, so I grabbed some popcorn while I wait.
My trees were marked with a band around them in blue, numbered in blue, and then blue dot and blue number on the stump. The stump marks are so you can tell if they cut anything they shouldn't have. Any veneer trees also had an orange band, and orange number different from the blue number it also had. Cull trees just had a blue dot. Nothing else. A diagonal mark under the band indicates what direction to fall the tree. Only a few had this mark and it was to keep the cutters from falling towards trees that were being kept. Sorry for the hijack op.
Paper company trees have a lower overall quality rating then firewood, at least here in Maine. They will take anything because it is chipped up and put into a digester, and thus they pay that way. Firewood actually has a $20 per cord pay increase because people only want certain diameters. They do not want a lot of small wood, nor wood that is too big, and of course only certain varieties. For instance Basswood. The paper company will take all you can cut, but no one wants that for firewood. The same applies for white birch and ash. Also firewood has to be clean...no mud...so that when it is cut into rounds their saws are not constantly dulled. Paper mills however could care less about the mud because the debarker takes the mud off along with the bark. But this is where I live; paper companies elsewhere might be more stringent. There is ONE parameter though that my local paper company does insist upon...size. They cannot process anything over 26 inches in diameter. Your local paper mill might have a similar rule (though it could be smaller) and thus the reason why the difference in markings. That is just a guess though. You would have to take a look at all the trees with a circle and dot and try to find out what they all have in common. It is hard to say, the forester kind of had a tough job because there was no one person they were working with. It might be you, the owners son cutting firewood, or it might be a local logging contractor. Without knowing who was going to be doing the job, and yet being responsible for a well managed thinning, they might have marked the dotted trees as a possible skid trail. Some foresters I work with mark major skid trails while others do not. It depends on their comfort level of who is doing the logging. Not knowing, the forester might have laid one out.
