Why do loggers put logs in water

Xiaoqun Jaboev Pundit. Is Wood ruined if it gets wet? Bad things happen to wet wood , but they don't happen immediately, so you usually have time to dry out the wood before permanent damage occurs. Remember this at the outset: Wood can't dry out if it is covered by something wet or if water incursion is still occurring. Emilly Proy Teacher.

How long does it take for water damage to show on wood? Within 2 hours to 7 days — You will experience growth and spread of mold and mildew. The doors and windows may swell and warp; and metal may begin to rust and corrode.

If you have wood flooring, it may start to swell and wrap. At the same time, there is a possibility of serious biohazard contamination. Aibin Wernicke Supporter. Do logs sink? An object that is less dense than water can be held up by water, and so it floats.

An object that is more dense than water will sink. The logs that float are less dense than the logs that sink. The density is determined by the size and number of openings in the wood.

Bahija Heereman Supporter. Why do Loggers put logs in water? Erudina Akarregi Supporter. How much is red pine worth? Jemal Garcia Cuevas Beginner.

What is a sinker log? Katharine Gorbunov Beginner. What do they use swamp logs for? Swamp Cottonwood. Kbira Porosenkov Beginner. What is sinker cypress? Sinker Cypress contains an oil, cypressene, which preserves the heart wood in the water as organisms eat away at the bark.

When logs lay in muddy substrate for extended periods of time, the wood fiber absorbs the minerals and tannins found in the water and soil, which give the wood its unique hues of grey and olive green. If the logs were embedded in sandy soil, then the lumber may exhibit hues of red or deeper gold. If the logs are from old-growth trees, then the wood grain is extremely dense, which increases durability and works well for flooring, countertops, and siding. There are two types of underwater logs to harvest: the escaped logs from previous operations and the dead trees still rooted to the bottom.

Sinker logs are collected, whereas underwater trees still need to be cut down. Each scenario requires different harvest techniques and machinery. Sinker logs are commonly collected by small-time operations, involving a small group of people using machinery to collect one log at a time from a river or reservoir. Divers hook cables to a submerged log, which is brought to the surface with air floats or winches.

The logs are then stacked on a barge or towed ashore. A one-man operation in Maine pulls in an average of 15 logs over a hour day. Harvest yields vary depending on distance of travel, log abundance, and weather conditions. Larger companies use advanced machinery , which can cut submerged rooted trees. Some deepwater harvest machines are remotely operated and dive as deep as meters, putting workers at minimal risk of injury.

Under good conditions, a deepwater machine can cut one tree every three to five minutes. For shallow water operations, a harvester is operated from a barge, and, with the help of cameras, an automated dynamic positioning system, and wireless controls, the operator can control a telescoping boom arm to harvest underwater trees.

These trees are cut and moved by the arm to be stacked on or near the barge before being towed ashore. After the time and effort are put forth to extract the sinker logs, there are additional production costs before the wood is ready to sell. These include storage, mill, transport, and drying. Sinker logs can be sold directly to the consumer, or wholesale to commercial retail. Retail prices for the lumber vary widely depending on the quality grade of wood, wood cut, species used, and transport costs.

Many of the sinker logs sold in the U. A cypress puller who intends to sell the wood directly to retail consumers may sell it for an average of one to four dollars per board foot. Commercial retail prices range from two to five dollars per board foot. By the time high-quality sinker cypress wood reaches a California show room, it can range from eight to fourteen dollars per board foot.

Boards cut from recovered logs are touted as sustainable or environmentally friendly, largely because they are not harvested from terrestrial forests. This insinuates terrestrial forestry is unsustainable and pulling logs from aquatic systems is a notch up on the illusive sustainability scale. In reality, there are costs and benefits to each method of timber harvest. One method of harvesting sub-aquatic trees is to pull them up from lake or river bottoms, causing a disturbance of sediment that results in an increase of turbidity.

Turbidity is a measure of water clarity calculated by how well light scatters throughout a liquid. High sediment suspension in the water leads to an increase in total suspended solids. When turbidity is increased at an unnatural rate, this creates problems on multiple levels within an ecosystem—blocking light for photosynthetic organisms, smothering egg nests, and inhibiting hunting abilities of aquatic animals, to name a few. Highly specialized underwater harvester machinery reduces this impact by cutting the upright trees rather than pulling them up by their roots.

There is also the incentive to reduce turbidity so the underwater cameras are able to function for the operators.

Although the harvesters minimize turbidity impacts, there are other impacts to consider such as riparian effects from haul out sites and staging areas, as well as the consequences of removing structures in an aquatic ecosystem that have been in place for decades, sometimes centuries.

AtLast Dis-member-ed Posts: Gender:. Give all our secrets out? Just call me the midget doctor. Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life. Ezekiel I get the impression Im more of a rookie than I thought Sometimes bacteria in the wood while the tree is growing causes a weakness along a ring. Tension often refers to the outer portion near the bark of the tree that takes on tension stress when the tree grows. This puts the center of the tree in compression stress. The effect when sawing a log from the tree is to releive the stresses causing the boards or timbers to warp the outer portion getting shorter and the inner portion getting longer.

In addition, there is also "tension wood" which is a term to describe an abnormal wood characteristic in hardwoods that has gelatinous fibres that occur on the upper side of a leaning tree or limb. In softwoods, the abnormal wood on the underside of a leaning tree or limb is called "compression wood". These abnormal woods shrink more along the grain, thus causing headaches warp when the wood dries. Hoadley's book will help you to 'understand' it better than I can explain it.

There are also some excellant threads and posts on the Forestry Forum, that's here , on these subjects. Sometimes it's fun to use the search function and see if somebody has talked about stuff.

Thanks fellers Ive been in forestry for years IT IS!!! LOVE this stuff I second Hoadley's book, also get his wood identifcation book while your at it. Excellent references both. Support your local Volunteer Fire Dept. Pages: [ 1 ] Go Up. Share Topic. Similar Topics. Wanted - small diamater low grade walnut logs and pallet logs Powered by EzPortal.

SMF 2. The Forestry Forum is sponsored in part by:. Forestry Forum Sponsored by:. Logged Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.