Case No. 1
Harvesting Technology and Science
Deciding What Trees to Cut
Harvesting Technology and Science
Since 1900, the methods how trees are cut and how foresters and other natural resource professionals apply science to manage the forest have changed a great deal. Adapting to new technology, in this case with the newest Caterpillar tractor, sometimes seems humorous today (Forest Service 1939):
In 1920, Homestake Mining purchased a Caterpillar tractor, “30”, its first piece of motorized logging equipment. The lumberjack selected to operate the tractor was given instructions. The entire logging camp turned out to cheer and jeer at this strange machine. The lumberjack said that his horse skidding team could drag the darned thing all over camp backward and he further said the tractor was nothing but a plaything and would never be of any use for logging. (Source 110b)
Tractors began to see use in the 1920s to skid (move) logs to landings.
(National Museum of Forest Service History)
Using a log scale stick to estimate the board foot volume.
(Black Hills National Forest)
Deciding What Trees to Cut
Foresters, with assistance from wildlife biologists and other natural resource professionals, evaluate the current conditions of a forest area and prepare a “silvicultural prescription”. This prescription describes what trees need to be removed and also addresses the needs of wildlife and other natural resources in the area. For example, will the trees be thinned and will there be a controlled burn? Does the forest need to be treated to control insects and diseases? See a current silvicultural prescription (Source 110c).
Using the prescription, Forest Service employees mark or designate trees to be harvested in the area. Foresters cruise the trees by measuring the tree diameter at chest height (4 ½ feet above ground) to determine the board foot volume of the tree.
Using a log scale stick to estimate the board foot volume.
(Black Hills National Forest)
Forestry Tools
Marking Ax
Used by the Forest Service to mark trees for cutting. The axe was used to blaze (remove) two small pieces of tree bark, at about 4.5 feet high and near the ground. The axe was then used to stamp “US” on the two areas without bark. Marking axe use was discontinued in the 1940s or 1950s. Marking paint is still used today to designate which trees to cut or to leave.
Staff Compass and Chain
Used to survey property lines. The Staff Compass was mounted on a “Jake Staff” (a short pole about 4 feet long). A Gunter’s Chain is 66-foot in length and is divided into 100 links. There are 80 chains in a mile (5,280 feet).
Diameter Tape
A measuring tape used to estimate the diameter of a tree. The diameter is read directly from the tape. The tree is measured at 4.5 feet above ground, on the high ground side of the tree.
Abney Level
An instrument used to measure the height of a tree and consists of a fixed sighting tube, a movable level that is connected to a pointing arm, and a protractor scale. An internal mirror allows the user to see the bubble in the level while sighting a distant target. Tree height and diameter are used to determine the board-foot volume of a tee.
Spiegel Relaskop
For measurement of tree heights and factors that indicate the density of trees on the land. The device was designed in 1960 ca. by Dr. Walter Bitterlich, a world-renowned forest scientist from Austria.
Log Scale Stick
This is used to estimate the board foot volume of a log. The small end diameter of the log combined with its length gives the board foot volume of the log. Different log rules were developed in different areas of the United States because of different tree sizes and form. Several log rule names are Scribner, International, Doyle.
A Contract, sold following a written or oral bidding process, authorizes the harvesting of trees. The contract contains the prices paid for the trees, how the tree volume was determined, and conditions to protect the environment. See a 1907 Forest Service contract from Montana.
Logging companies hauled lumberjacks to the woods in buses. The men called them “Crummies.”
Stewardship contracting is a new tool that permits combining diverse projects like tree harvesting, trail construction and stream improvement into one contract. For example, the value of trees harvested can pay for the trail construction. These projects shift the focus of management towards a desired future resource condition.
Logging companies hauled lumberjacks to the woods in buses. The men called them “Crummies.” (Deadwood History, Inc., Homestake Mining Company Collection)
Tools Used to Cut Trees
Two-Man Crosscut Saw
Used for falling. Saws were about 6 feet in length. An axe was used to make an undercut which caused the tree to fall in the desired direction. Crosscut saws became obsolete after 1950 when lighter weight chainsaws became available.
Two-Man Chainsaw
These were made in the 1930s and were extremely heavy.
Chainsaw
Lightweight gasoline powered machine used to fall and buck (cut tree into log lengths).
Feller Buncher
A type of harvester used in logging. It is a motorized vehicle, often track mounted, with an attachment that can rapidly grab and cut a tree with a chain-saw, circular saw or a shear. The machine then places the cut tree on a stack where other machines can do further processing such as delimbing, bucking, loading, or chipping.
Moving Trees to Landing
Horses
Horses were used in the earliest times to move harvested trees to a landing (place were logs are gathered prior to hauling to a sawmill). Occasionally horses are still used today in sensitive areas (near homes, streams, etc.). Chutes and flumes were also used to move logs in the early days of timber harvesting.
Tractors
(aka bulldozers) were used in the 1920s to skid (move) logs to landings. Initially the tractors were small and low powered. Dragging logs along a path (skid trail) disturbed the soil.
Rubber-Tired Skidders
An alternative to bulldozers beginning in the 1960s.
Forwarders
These machines collect cut trees and haul the logs to the landing.
Helicopters
Occasionally used to move trees on steep hillsides to landings. The costs are much higher with this method.
Delimbers
Designed to remove limbs from the cut trees at landings.
Transportation to Mills
Railroads
Constructed by lumber companies to haul logs to sawmills. Use of railroads declined with better highways and improved trucks starting around 1920.
Trucks
Beginning in the 1920s, trucks were the primary method of hauling logs to sawmills. Log trucks have increased in size and power.
Log Loaders
Either a separate machine or part of a self-loading logging truck, it is used at the landing to stack logs onto the truck trailer.
Sawmills
Pulpwood
Pulp logs, generally smaller than sawtimber logs, are processed into wood pulp and used to make paper
Warren Lamb Mill
Log are moved by the Jack Ladder from the mill pond into the Warren Lamb Sawmill, 1937
Sawmills
Sawing a ponderosa pine log at Devils Tower Forest Products in Hulett, WY, 2018 (Photo credit Julia Petersen)
Cutting Boards
Green Chain allows for grading and sorting of the sawn boards.
Best Management Forestry Practices
Since 1990, South Dakota and other states have adopted best management practices (BMPs) to minimize environmental impacts during and after timber harvest. BMP’s are practices that limit soil disturbance and help prevent pollution of surface and ground water resources (Source 111)
Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)
The SFI is a national program designed to encourage landowners, loggers, foresters, and forest products companies to promote and support sustainable, environmentally sound forestry practices. The SFI includes a comprehensive set of principles, objectives and performance measures that address the environmental, social, and economic aspects of forest management activities. This approach requires long-term commitments to forest management to ensure productive, healthy forests for future generations. Neiman Enterprises has been a SFI Participant since 2010. As part of their commitment to healthy forests, Neiman Enterprises is audited by an independent third-party every 3 years to ensure compliance with SFI program standards.
Forest Service research publication.
Science
The research and development arm of the Forest Service works to develop science-based information that is used by employees and the public to improve the health and uses of all our Nation’s forests and grasslands. This information is available in over 50,000 publications authored by Forest Service scientists and cooperators in the online database Treesearch. For example, Forest Service research has helped natural resource professionals better understand the risks that western forests face from bark beetles and wildfires when they reach a certain age, tree density and diameter.
The earliest study of insects killing trees in the Black Hills was conducted in 1901, at Gifford Pinchot’s request, by Andrew Hopkins, a largely self-educated scientist who was then the state entomologist for West Virginia. On a four day trip though the Black Hills in early September Hopkins observed many thousands of dead or dying ponderosa pines. He also observed a “swarm of them” (pine beetles) attack a grove of trees around the house where he was staying. Hopkins gave the insect the Latin or scientific name Dendroctonus ponderosae. Known today by the popular name “mountain pine beetle”, this native insect continues to kill ponderosa pine trees throughout the Black Hills and in many other regions of North America. However, we know from Forest Service research studies that thinning ponderosa pine forests will often reduce the risk of attack by the mountain pine beetle. This is because less-dense stands of tree are generally more vigorous and can produce higher amounts of pitch or resin. A healthy, vigorous tree is often able to “pitch out” the beetle before it is able to bore in under the bark, lay its eggs and reproduce, which also kills the tree. Read an example of a modern science-based Forest Service publication about this topic: Bark Beetles They’re Back!! Are Your Trees at Risk?
The early roots of Forest Service research can be traced to 1898 when Gifford Pinchot, then Chief of the Division of Forestry, established a Special Investigations Section (Research). In 1902 Raphael Zon became the leader of this research group with 55 employees. Zon established in 1908 the first Experiment Station and Forest in Arizona.
Forest Service research publication.
Chapters in this Exhibit
Introduction
Case No. 1 was the name given to an 1899 timber sale on U.S. Government land in the Black Hills Forest Reserve in South Dakota.
Forest Reserves
In 1891, the U.S. Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act, which allowed the President to set aside parts of government lands across the western United States as Forest Reserves.
Homestake Mining Company
In 1897, Gifford Pinchot, the Chief of the Division of Forestry under the Department of Agriculture, convinced Homestake to apply to the Secretary of the Interior to purchase timber from the United States.
US Forest Service & Forest Products Industry
The Department of the Interior was responsible for management of the Forest Reserves until 1905 when Congress, supported by President Theodore Roosevelt, transferred the Forest Reserves to the Department of Agriculture’s new U.S. Forest Service.
Harvesting Technology & Science
Since 1900, the methods how trees are cut and the how foresters and other natural resource professionals apply science to manage the forest have changed drastically.
Summary
The total forested area of the US has been relatively stable since 1910, although the human population has more than tripled since then.
Funding for this exhibit is made possible by
The NMFSH Newsletter
Subscribe today for updates on our Visitor's Center and other stories of forest history and conservation.
Our online newsletter saves trees, but we're still responsible. We'll never spam you.
