Tree Harvesting 2018

[Music] [Applause] [Music] in 1971 this property located in Daigle maine was purchased by the current owners at the time it was an abandoned farmland that had been used to raise potatoes as well as to provide pasture for cattle and sheep that was not a single tree on this entire property by 1980 the fields had started to grow in raspberries red Osier dogwood and Aspen rather than having the property grow up in these non valuable trees the owner contacted the Fort Kent Oyler conservation office and under a cost sharing program head in 1982 the entire property planted in red pine for the next five years the seedlings established a good root system and then started to grow each year the trees grew between 12 and 18 inches in height by 2014 the trees were 40 feet tall and averaged 15 inches in diameter however in 2014 the property owners noticed that the new growth on the trees were drying up in addition the bottom limbs were also drying up each year the trees were slowly and slowly dying by 2017 several of the trees had been completely dried up that year the state of Maine tree pathologists came to the property and confirmed that the trees had two diseases Sarah Kaka's shoot light and Deponia tip light both diseases would kill all the trees in a few years through the Department of Conservation office and a local Forester a forest management plan was prepared for the property one of the alternatives was to harvest all the trees and replant the property in July 2018 a market for red pine opened at a mill on the Quebec border the property owners contacted Fish River logging company about harvesting the trees in addition the company was to prepare the property for replanting in 2019 on September 4th Fish River logging brought in the first piece of equipment called a feller buncher the machine does exactly what its name describes that is it cuts down the trees and piles them in bunches upon arrival the feller buncher started to cut the trees immediately one by one the trees were cut down and lay down in bunches the feller buncher head has a set of folding arms and a cutting blade at the bottom the machine moves up to a tree wraps its arms around the tree to hold it standing and then a spinning blade cuts the tree close to the ground it takes less than one second to cut a tree the inch-thick blade is spinning at more than 6000 revolutions per minute depending on the diameter of the tree the folding arms will hold more than one tree at a time with these red pine three trees were cut and held before being piled on the ground the operator carefully lays the trees in piles the piles of wood are carefully planned later these trees will be dragged using a grapple skidder to another part of the property where the limbs will remove one by one the trees a cut and pile here you have a better view of the full the arms that grab the tree just before cutting here in slow motion you see the one-inch thick blade cut through the trees in less than one second as the tree harvester cuts forward it leaves behind a line of bunches of trees this is a view from inside the cab of the feller buncher this is what the operator sees [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the Huayra state is now close to the owner's house the operator takes special care not to drop limbs or trees onto the house has been 2 days since the harvester started to cut the trees as you can see all the trees have been harvested and all are piled in small bunches at the start of the third day of harvesting all that is left is a small section in one corner of the property you will note that the trees are all piled in small bunches red pine are very heavy trees and a grapple skidder can only drag a certain amount of weight these are the last trees to be cut in two and a half days the 13 acres of red pine have been harvested and what is left are piles of trees on the ground with the last tree being harvested the area is not ready for the next phase of the harvesting process that is removing the limbs on all the cut trees two weeks later two additional pieces of equipment arrived the first is the which will drag the trees from a specific location to where a looming machine will remove the branches [Music] here we see the grapple skidder the bunches of countries to the living machine you'll never the harvester operator and me then bunches to make it easier for the skidder operator [Music] heavy steel chains on the Skinner tires this is not only to provide extra traction to the skidder but also to protect the tires as they go over and stumps inches of trees near the limbing machine this makes it easier rather than more operators to grab the trees and remove the branches the skitter continues to bring bunches fiddle Nimr until all the trees have been limbed this is the lemming machine it has a long arm that grabs the trees and then steel plates in the boom slide back and forth breaking off all the branches from inside the cab of the Limor this is what the operator sees Limor elevator suits all the wind trees species this will make it easier for the next piece of equipment that is the crane loader to load all the trees of one species onto one truck also test the top of the tree before the harvesting process starts overall when three tennis that the in the case of these red pine trees any length not accept anything less than four inches in diameter if you look you and tops are placed in a pile once all the logs have been hauled away that chipper will be brought in to chip all of these who is into biomass fuel to be used to produce a krisily [Music] once all the trees have been limbed and sorted the next part of the harvesting process that is the loading of the trucks will begin here we see the piles of logs and piles of branches after the Limor has left on the right and the piles of logs waiting to be loaded onto trucks and on the left other tops and branches waiting to be chip the next part of the harvesting process is below the trees on two trucks the crane takes the limb trees from the pile and loads it onto a trailer here we see the empty truck approaching the crane because these are long logs the crane will load the front of the trailer first each log is carefully placed in the trailer to assure that the load will remain secure during the ride to the mill once the front of the trailer is loaded the crane moves to the rear of the trailer and fills the back from inside the cab of the loader this is what the crane operator sees [Music] [Music] [Music] once the trailer is full I've placed over the load to secure the logs on the trailer from the air you can see the truck loading process first the front of the trailer is loaded then the crane is then stationed at the rear of the trailer and the back is loaded finally the track is full and the safety chains are tied the truck then leaves the property and heads to the mill in ten miles [Music] two weeks later harvesting began the chipper and the escalator loader arrived and immediately began to chip the scrap wood the treetops and the branches the chipper makes small shavings of wood that are loaded into a trailer and then home to an electricity producing plant there the chips are burned and used to produce steam to power the city production the chipper is fed by an excavator of branches and feeds it into the chipper a series of rotating steel teeth chips the materials into small shavings the chips are then going into a tractor trailer box from the air you can see the chipping process starting with the excavator loading the branches into the chipper and then the chipper loading the chips into the tractors trailer a big thank you goes out to fishermen logging and their equipment operators for not only doing a professional job and harvesting the trees but also showing us how tree harvesting is a series of steps first the trees are cut then the branches are removed then the logs are hauled away and finally the remaining scraps tops and branches are stripped and all the way tree harvesting is really a recycling process that is the mature trees are removed to allow for the next generation

Channel: WFKT TV 4

Views: 65,142

Rating: 4.6268659 out of 5

Keywords: wfktv4, channel 4, fort kent, St. John Valley

Id: 6nLOPa6p4QI

Length: 45min 14sec (2714 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 19 2018