A24-Lancastsr Fanning, Saturday, July 1, 2000
Tour Of Weaber Mill Reveals
Of Timber To Pennsylvania
(Continued from P«B* *^l
receives, besides the larger,
wholesale orders.
“You don’t realize how much
computers are used,” said
Robie. “The tools foresters have
available are amazing. They can
find property lines or pull up a
map out on the site.” He also
pointed out the impact the wood
scanners have had on increasing
efficiency and thus competition
in the industry.
“We export about four per
cent of our total production,”
said Weaber. This is a drastic
change from the mid ’Bos, when
we exported about 50 percent of
our product. That was a con
scious effort, especially since
1991, when we began to sell the
value-added product for the ‘do
it-yourselfer’. There’s more
than enough market to take care
of our product,” said Weaber of
the home department outlet.
“Besides, America’s the number
one consumer of wood prod
ucts.”
The Forest
From 1870-1910, colonists
razed Pennsylvania’s forests;
prior to that the Native Ameri
cans had burned the forest. Con
sequently, today’s forests are
considered to be “even-aged,” as
they have all matured from the
turn of the century. The species
which make up Pennsylvania
forests today are not necessarily
the species which dotted the
Pennsylvania countryside before
the deforestation.
“The species we have now are
not just younger versions of the
forests cut down in 1800, which
included softwoods and hem
locks,” explained Robie. “When
the earlier forests were cut down
it created space for the shade
intolerant trees.
“If we let the forests go with
out any control we would see the
shade-tolerant trees grow and
take over the others. It’s dy
namic, it changes all the time.
Timber harvesting interrupts
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the process of succession. We
can control how a forest grows.”
Today’s market, said Robie, uti
lizes what is available, and the
shade-intolerant trees such as
poplar and ash thrive in the
cleared or thinned areas of
forest.
The Harvest
To illustrate timber harvest
ing from a small area, the group
headed to a six-acre site which
Weaber Inc. had harvested this
past spring.
“A landowner can make
money off a four or five-acre
tract,” said Pat Wood, who
joined the tour from William J.
Green & Associates. “People
don’t realize that.”
At the site Weaber’s chief for
ester Dennis Brehm described
the thinning process which takes
place several years before the
larger, more comprehensive har
vest. Trees which are of less
value, such as Maple, may be cut
to make room for the growth of
neighboring higher-value trees.
Trees that are left will have
more room to grow so they’ll
grow faster, Brehm said. Elimi
nating these trees also prevents
them from reseeding.
A few .years after thinning,
foresters will select the trees to
take for the harvest. Foresters
judge the size and quality of the
trees to determine the number of
board feet which the trees will
yield before giving the owner an
estimate. Weaber pays the
owner per tree before the crew
cuts the first tree. During the se
lection process, foresters deter
mine tree health by looking at
the bark and noting any swells
or peeling which may reveal a
rotten interior.
“You want to keep some of it
so when you want to cut again
they’ll have nice trees to sell,”
said Brehm of the selection and
harvesting process. “You want
to keep the same quality woods
or improve it.” Typically,
Weaber takes about 10 trees per
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The landowner’s goals help
the foresters determine how
many and which trees to cut.
“This owner’s objectives of har
vesting timber, aesthetics, and
wildlife are taken into consider
ation. If wildlife is important to
the owner, and a tree has holes
and doesn’t have much value for
our purposes, we’ll leave it
standing,” said Brehm.
The crooked or too-slender
tree-tops are chopped to get
wood close to the ground. This
method improves the aesthetics
of the site, provides wildlife hab
itat, speeds the decomposition
process, and protects saplings
from deer. Brehm described
stands of forests where clusters
of regeneration took place
around the protective tree-tops.
The stumps are taken to best
conserve the lumber available.
For instance six square board
feet (one board foot is one foot
square plus one inch thick) are
lost for every one inch left as a
stump. “The best lumber on any
tree is the first off the stump, so
you want your stump as close to
the ground as possible,” said
Brehm.
Poplar and oak trees take ap
proximately 60 years to reach
their final height of 70-80 feet,
with the heavier oaks weighing
in at almost two tons apiece.
They can, in fact, be harvested
in 15 years.
“The longer they stand out
there, the more goes wrong with
them,” Brehm said. “When they
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The group observed the regrowth of trees in the cleared
areas. Here Brehm points out the saplings which have
grown since the thinning phase that was completed three
years earlier.
get beyond their prime, they
peak out. Disease, insects, rot,
and defects decrease their value,
or a windstorm comes and blows
the trees over.”
Since the area’s trees will
grow in naturally, Weaber does
not have to place seedlings. “As
long as you want to keep the
same species, you don’t have to
replant. Nature can put things
in there better then we can
plant. If we’d put a seedling in
we’d have, to mulch and take
care of it, but not if they’re
reseeded naturally. As soon as
you cut and open up a clearing
for some sun, all the seeds that
have been sitting on the ground
just take off,” Brehm said.
Besides reseeding the grass,
Weaber employs other conserva
tion methods to slow water
runoff. “Water bats,” a mound
of earth placed across the timber
road, diverts water, and slows
runoff down the slope.
Briars quickly join the
reseeded grass in a cut area,
which helps to hold the soil in
place. The seeds, which have
been on the ground waiting, will
now receive sunlight, germinate,
take root, and eventually shade
out the briars.
Varying township regulations
on logging are one of the'chal
lenges which face the industry.
“The irony is that the townships
(Turn to Pago A 36)