I have been cutting around this Sugar Maple all summer and last week when the Mat Log Market opened back up after a year off, I decided it was time to put a little more daylight on the swamp. These are the biggest at 34 and 36 inches in diameter, but were clear for 30 feet up making for some nice logs. The Ash logs around them were just as nice, and about the only thing Maine has going for it right now is that the Emerald Ash Borer has not hit yet, so we are getting pretty high prices for Ash. Even then my foresters are all telling me...cut every ash tree you can. The Emerald Ash Borer is coming and already in New Hampshire. The scaler said these were the best maple logs he have seen in a long time. For whatever reason, as big as they are, they have very little heart so he did not have to cut back on the scale. they also did not have metal in them (spiles from sugaring). Some of the better logs netted me over $200 per log! In the end I got (2) loads of Ash, Maple and mat logs.
This area is being cleared from forest into field so I am not showing any injustice to any type of wood. If it is between the ribbons, it is coming down. Having married a lady from New Hampshire who mutters when she sees "fake syrup", it is against laws of humanity not to have real maple syrup and put it on everything possible, though we do not tap trees ourselves.
