2008 Annual Report for FNC07-651
Improving Forests through Better Logging: Why Rob the Bank You Own?
Summary
WORK ACTIVITIES
Grant funds were expended to hire the Project Coordinator and loggers as independent contractors. Additional funds will be expended soon to pay contractors for hauling small wood for weighing and sale.
Two of the three timber harvests will occur sooner than expected, creating a cash-flow problem. Actual and committed expenditures in the next month will slightly exceed the advance payment, leaving no spare funds for anticipated field days.
The harvest on the Coordinator’s tree farm is about one-third completed, with data collected on machine times, harvest volumes, and revenues for operations to date. The loggers have been very cooperative and committed to the collection of quality data.
A meeting with the logger and landowner for the next operation is scheduled for 5 September to discuss contract and data collection, with harvest to begin in mid-September. A meeting with the third logger and forester is scheduled for early October, with harvest expected to begin before the end of the year.
The Coordinator has discussed with the three foresters the development of protocols for pre-harvest inventories (two of three completed), postharvest assessment of residual stand damage, and aerial measurement of erodible skid trails. All foresters will attend a mutual training session on the Coordinator’s property after harvest is completed there in several weeks.
RESULTS
The results so far are qualitative, not quantitative. The Coordinator is very excited and pleased by the harvest on his tree farm, and EOFC (Eastern Ozark Forestry Council) members shared this excitement on hearing a preliminary report at their meeting on 29 August. For the first time, landowners and loggers will know what is the cost and profitability of quality harvest operations.
From the operation on the Coordinator’s tree farm, it is clear that a selective improvement harvest can be performed with acceptable levels of damage to the crop trees left behind. Forest structure is being improved by the harvest, mainly by opening the forest canopy to allow direct sunlight to penetrate to ground level. This, combined with mechanical disturbance exposing mineral soil, will encourage oak regeneration to compensate for the excessive presence of shade tolerant maple. Crop trees left after harvest will grow better and be more resistant to insect attack, thanks to the additional water and nutrients made available by removal of competitors.
Preliminary results indicate that at least 10t/ac of small wood may be readily co-harvested with saw timber by conventional equipment (chainsaw and skidder). This small wood is potential feedstock for biofuel production, and indications are that this may be harvested with economic profit to the logger and landowner. The quantitative results of this part of the study will be especially relevant and timely, given that the Missouri Department of Agriculture has commissioned a feasibility study for production of cellulosic ethanol from woody biomass.
As this is being typed, heavy rains are testing the installed water bars and dispersed tree tops intended to minimize soil erosion on skid trails. It is too early to say what will be the economic cost of these Best Management Practices, but their implementation is too important to environmental protection to forego, regardless of price. This will be a point of emphasis at field days.
The results of this project are currently being used to guide the design and development of a parallel project at a fourth harvest site that will target loggers rather than tree farmers.
WORK PLAN FOR 2009
All of the harvest operations and data collection, including post-harvest assessment should be completed in the first two months of 2009. Quantitative data analysis will be completed in the first half of the year, with most time being devoted to machine cost estimates.
OUTREACH
A field day for the first harvest site is scheduled for 25 October, 2008. Field days for the second and third harvest sites will likely be scheduled during the first half of 2009.
The Coordinator will make a presentation on the project at the Farmers Forum at the National Small Farm Trade Show & Conference in Columbia, MO on 8 November, 2008. Reports targeting tree farmers and loggers will be prepared for online publication, and a report for forest managers, jointly authored with the project foresters, will be submitted for publication by the Missouri Department of Conservation by the end of 2009. These will be followed by completion of all reports to NCR-SARE.