Logger bailed

[deadeye]

This is the time when I do some land management planning for the future.  New trail here, possible stand location there what to plant in plots etc.  We were going to have several areas logged this winter but the logger bailed.  Actually he said he's going out of business and selling all his equipment.  Bummer as we were looking forward to the forest improvement by logging.  Not all bad as last year he paid 1/3 of the estimated payments.  He still could sell the contract but it's doubtful as he paid more than you would have to pay today.   

[Rebel SS]

Hopefully someone decent will step in.

[deadeye]

Rebel SS,
That's the hardest part of the logging process.  I have been working with a forester and I repeatedly told him that it's more important to me to not have the place tore up and left a mess by a logger than make a few bucks.  For the money you get I would sooner let the trees get old a fall down than have the mess some loggers leave behind.  I'm not just talking slashing as that will rot in time but I have seen on a neighboring property what they can do to the landscape when heavy equipment plows through soft ground.  These are not small ruts but massive ruts 2-3 feet deep and 6-10 feet across.  Almost 20 years later you still can't walk or drive a wheeler across some of the areas. 

[Steve-o]

And any place loggers clear cut, the poplar trees grow up like weeds.

I've hunted state land all my life where logging occurs frequently.  Its happened more than once where our patch of woods - or the next patch over - was clear cut over the summer and we had to adjust.  After a couple of years the popple trees that grow up are impenetrable, which is good for the deer because they go in there to hide.  It takes decades before the popples thin out to the point where you can actually hunt the woods again.