Ancient Logging *Lots of pics*

[Scott Banbury]

Sunday, we finally had the opportunity to go get the rest of the ancient logs that the Corps of Engineers "set aside" for us.

I was also corrected on the probable age of the alluvial deposit the logs came from. It's not 10,000 years but more like 12,000-15,000 years 8)

Here's the pics and story. The pics are on my server so's I could make 'em a little bigger


My good friend, Larry, is the county's lead on the project. He has the keys ;D

Larry has spent 15 years getting this project to happen. Its purpose is to stop headcutting in the creek below the project which has moved 10 miles upstream from where it started over those 15 years. By stopping the headcutting where it's at, Larry will have in effect preserved several 1000 acres of bottomland that would otherwise have been drained by the headcut.



The project


The Corp's idea of "setting aside" the logs


Holy smokes, that's a big Racer on that thar log


Chris Owen here is my fearless new recruit. He and my cousin, Austin, are putting together their own treecare company, largely cause they're sick of working for the poor wages that I offer 'em (cold beer) and hearing me refer 4 digit tree jobs to other fellas. Chris has been climbing for another arborist for 3 years now while puttin' himself thru art school and he's a great addition to the crew!

[Scott Banbury]

Here's the whole Midtown Logging crew. That's me on the left, Austin in the middle and Chris on the right. I think these fellas like working with me just so they can go to bars and tell the missies that "Midtown Loggers do it with big hardwood"


That's my buddy, Larry on the left. He's what I call a "true" environmentalist. He hunts, fishes and used to trap even. Put himself thru law school drivin' a truck and skinnin' road kill on the side. He's since used his legal savvy to stop all sorts of badly designed water projects and probably saved tens of thousands of acres of bottomland from being lost. He's my hero and prime mentor.

Austin is "supervising" in the last picture while he sucks on a bottle of gatorade since he was out drinkin' tequila 'til just an hour or two before we loaded of the trucks


Here the fellas are analysing what it is that makes the LogRite cant hook so fine


We snatched the logs out of the pile using the winch on the front of my 'Yota and then rolled 'em right up some 12', 6"x6" oak ramps on to the back of Austin's F-600.

[Scott Banbury]

Larry did a fine job holding that log all by himself while me and my cuz clowned for the camera ;D

here's some of the haul . . .


This one still kinda smelled like sarsparilla


A Gum or Poplar maybe


Walnut with root flare attached

[Scott Banbury]

Maybe Oak


Cypress, we think. Sorry for the pic being out of focus. It was either getting too dark for my f1.7 lens or I'd had too much of the stuff in the brown bottle



Only bad part of the day . . .


We bent the tip on our LogRite cant hook but Austin says it actually works even better now
Stay tuned for pics of the the sawin' . . .

[Bob Smalser]

Tough work.....I know.


Tell Austin I enjoyed his visit to my operation.

[Scott Banbury]

Thanks for the sympathy, Bob

Austin really enjoyed meeting you too--talks all the time about what a cool blend of vocation/avocation you've got going on

[Harry Thornton]

Scott-you are saying that these logs were buried in mud some 12-15K years ago? Wow, seems like more loggers would be out there trying to get those logs. Can't wait to see the lumber. What does that type of lumber sell for...take the walnut for instance? Heck, if 200 year old chestnut is valuable, 12K year old stuff must be incredibally expensive!

[Chris Padilla]

Scott, keep these coming but you could just put them all in one thread so they are easy to navigate through. Just keep updating the thread.

I can't wait to see you slice up the logs!

[Ken Salisbury]

I merged all 4 threads on the subject into one for continuity.

[Joe Meazle]

Way cool, congrats, I hope to take a gander at that stuff next time I make it to M town. I think it is time for those MLLC t-shirts so Austin doesnt have to go barechested.

Joe

[Karl Laustrup]

Really want to see the logs sawn into boards. Just can't even imagine what they will look like. Keep the pics coming.

P.S. Thanks Ken for merging them all together.

Karl

[Scott Banbury]

Scott-you are saying that these logs were buried in mud some 12-15K years ago? Wow, seems like more loggers would be out there trying to get those logs. Can't wait to see the lumber. What does that type of lumber sell for...take the walnut for instance? Heck, if 200 year old chestnut is valuable, 12K year old stuff must be incredibally expensive!

Harry,

It isn't like deadheading logs on the bottom of the river as many states will permit you to do. These logs were actually 8-10' below the bed of the river and even the Corps of Engineers had to complete a Federal Environmental Impact Statement to do this job. If us environmentalists were not in favor of the project we could have stopped it easily. Several hundred endangered mussels were hand relocated by volunteers prior to the digging.

The only other places these logs might show up would be really deep digs, like borrow pits but even they aren't supposed to go that deep due to threats to our aquifer. Access to the resource is thus very limited and wouldn't be feasible as a regular venture.

Since noone else is marketing this type of lumber specifically, it's hard to put a dollar figure on it. Deadheaded lumber is high depending on species and I have seen that New Zealander's have been digging up and sawing very old Kauri logs from peat bogs.

While I usually love to sell some of my lumber to fellow woodworkers, I'm probably going to be pretty stingy with this stuff and keep most of it for my own studio work and maybe a few commissions.

The first few pieces I make from it will be gifts to a few of my river conservation heroes.

[Scott Banbury]

I merged all 4 threads on the subject into one for continuity.

Thanks for hooking that up, Ken. The Sawmill server wasn't letting me put more than 5 pics in each post.

[Scott Banbury]

Way cool, congrats, I hope to take a gander at that stuff next time I make it to M town. I think it is time for those MLLC t-shirts so Austin doesnt have to go barechested.
Joe

Look forward to seeing you too, Joe. Maybe we'll have a shirt ready for you when you come

[Chris Padilla]

Thanks for hooking that up, Ken. The Sawmill server wasn't letting me put more than 5 pics in each post.

Scott, you just need to post successvie posts in a single thread and you can get all the pics in you want but you are right, only 5 pics per post.