A Damaging Tradition: Diameter-Limit Cutting
Diminishes a Woodlot
So the other day a mass mailing went out to landowners in Corinth, Vermont from a timber harvest/tree removal company in New Hampshire. The company was peddling their services, which include tree removal, land clearing, timber cruising, and timber harvesting.
I haven’t heard anything good or bad about this particular company, so I have no reason to doubt that they’re competent and professional tree removers, land clearers, and timber harvesters. The fact that they’re offering to both cruise and cut timber, though, does represent a conflict of interest and should be treated as suspect by any landowner looking to cut logs on their property.
Here’s their pitch, directly:
We do timber cruises. Timber cruises are FREE. They can be very beneficial to landowners because it will give you an idea of what type of forest you have, what can be done to improve your forest, and what type of FINANCIAL REWARDS could be made, both long term vs. short term. If more convenient for you, we can walk the property without you there and report back with our evaluation. Call for a free cruise.
While it would be cynical of me to suggest that such a solicitation is necessarily crooked, it is fair to point out that anyone taking them up on their offer stands a better than average chance of having their land high-graded. High grading is, of course, the practice of cutting the best trees and leaving the rest. It essentially cashes out the timber value of the land with little or no regard for the parcel’s future. In the case of most woodlots, the immediate reward a landowner receives from a high-grading pales in comparison to the future revenue he or she stands to loose. Once you destroy the future growing potential of a woodlot, it might take 50 years, if not longer, to get it pointed back in the right direction.
Now I’m keenly aware that such a long-term perspective, while undeniably true, is ideological in nature. The hard truth is that many landowners are forced to liquidate some of their timber assets to get by in this economy, even if it means forsaking future value, even if it means harvesting veneer maple today for half of what it was worth one year ago and a fraction of what it may be worth 5 years from now. We’re all struggling, and I can certainly see where the notion of a free cruise is more inviting than paying a forester to do the same job.
But even in these hard times, it is, in most cases, a good idea to hire an honest-to-god forester to oversee a timber sale. It’s not just a forester’s job to keep a logger honest; there’s also a financial component to their services that will maximize the revenue you receive from both your low and high grade wood. Perhaps the most important part of their service is the dialogue. If a landowner wants to cash out a certain percentage of timber-value from the land while also preserving what’s left for the long-haul, a forester will be able to make these difficult decisions with an eye on both objectives. It’s fair to wonder if someone who both cruises and cuts your property – without you there, no less – will be as judicious in their decision making.
Caveat emptor, friends. Nothing in life, including a timber cruise, is free.