Why chip the whole tree?
Why chip the whole tree?
(OP)
For much of the past year, I've been living at my son's house in an older, quiet neighborhood in Eastern Pennsylvania. During that time, a small number of very large trees have been removed, some because they were just scary big, and one because it leaned over against my son's house during Hurricane Sandy.
These trees were all more than 50 feet tall, and one trunk was so thick that a chainsaw with a four foot bar could just barely reach its center. They were topped and delimbed, and all of that stuff went directly into a really big chipper. Lots of mulch and animal bedding, etc.
Then they used a crane to support the trunk at the top, and cut it into short pieces that were trucked away. That's the part that puzzles me.
Several big slices were taken from the base of the trunk, obviously destined to become tabletops, but most of the trunks were cut into short pieces, maybe four feet long at most. I.e., you might get a chainsaw sculpture out of each piece, but they weren't long enough to saw into structural timber or boat planking, and of the upper parts of the trunk, whatever would fit into the chipper, went into the chipper.
It just sees like a waste. Is mulch worth more than lumber? Or is timber harvested from residential areas just too diffuse a supply to bother transporting to a sawmill?
These trees were all more than 50 feet tall, and one trunk was so thick that a chainsaw with a four foot bar could just barely reach its center. They were topped and delimbed, and all of that stuff went directly into a really big chipper. Lots of mulch and animal bedding, etc.
Then they used a crane to support the trunk at the top, and cut it into short pieces that were trucked away. That's the part that puzzles me.
Several big slices were taken from the base of the trunk, obviously destined to become tabletops, but most of the trunks were cut into short pieces, maybe four feet long at most. I.e., you might get a chainsaw sculpture out of each piece, but they weren't long enough to saw into structural timber or boat planking, and of the upper parts of the trunk, whatever would fit into the chipper, went into the chipper.
It just sees like a waste. Is mulch worth more than lumber? Or is timber harvested from residential areas just too diffuse a supply to bother transporting to a sawmill?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA





RE: Why chip the whole tree?
RE: Why chip the whole tree?
RE: Why chip the whole tree?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Why chip the whole tree?
RE: Why chip the whole tree?
RE: Why chip the whole tree?
Still a shame.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Why chip the whole tree?
RE: Why chip the whole tree?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
RE: Why chip the whole tree?
Sometimes chips for paper are worth more than lumber. However paper people are very fussy about their chips and I wouldn't think that was the case here.
Tom
Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com
Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.