Monday, September 27, 2004
A logger says he doesn't see larger trees than those around Upper Girard Lake.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Without fanfare, logging of about 60 acres of city-owned woods at Upper Girard Lake is about 25 percent complete.
H.D. & amp; Sons Logging and Timber of Mesopotamia in northern Trumbull County began cutting timber about three weeks ago off Niles-Vienna Road.
Paul Yoder, a logger and part-owner of the company with his father, Dan, and brother, Sam, said nearly 300,000 board feet of hardwood will be removed.
Yoder said oak is the primary variety being harvested, but others include maple, ash and cherry.
Some will be sold for veneer, while the majority will be used to make furniture and pallets. Once dragged out of the woods, the trees are trucked to a sawmill in Negley in Columbiana County, Yoder explained.
It was the idea of Councilman Joseph Lambert, D-at-large, to look into harvesting the trees after the city was placed in state-imposed fiscal emergency in August 2001.
Revenue from trees
The city has received $162,000 from H.D. & amp; Sons for the right to log the 60 acres. Trees in two smaller areas near Lower Girard Lake dam will also be cut down.
Yoder explained that although it takes a lot of money to operate a logging business, the rewards are not lucrative.
"You don't get rich. It's a living," he said.
Mayor James J. Melfi said he has received only a couple of complaints from those who don't want the trees harvested.
Yoder said some of the company equipment has been vandalized.
John Dinishak, an H.D. & amp; Sons employee and logger for 10 years, said the trees are of good quality.
Dinishak, of Windsor in Ashtabula County, said many of the trees are 4 feet to 51/2 feet in diameter.
"They don't get any bigger than that," Dinishak said, noting this area has some of the finest hardwoods he has seen.
Yoder said the logging operation will make its mark on the forest, but will be minimized when the ruts in the roads cut into the forest are backfilled and the area seeded.
Trees picked by forester
The only trees that are being harvested are those marked by Coldwell Timber Consulting LLC of Salineville.
Dave Coldwell, a registered forester, marked the trees that can be cut by spraying a blue slash on the trunks. He also marked the stump areas with blue dots to show that cutting the trees was permitted.
"They're doing a fantastic job," Coldwell said of H.D. & amp; Sons. "They're working hard to make a good name for themselves."
Coldwell explained that the trees must be removed or the woods will deteriorate; that is, the trees won't regenerate.
Many trees were left standing on what used to be farmland, Coldwell explained, so the seeds can fall to renew the forest and for wildlife habitat.
Even a stand of shag bark hickory was left in case there are Indiana brown bats, an endangered species. The bats favor living under the bark or in a hole in the hickories.
Hardwood region
This area is part of the Appalachian Hardwood Region that includes Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and parts of Maryland, New York and Kentucky.
A standing red oak is worth about $500, while a cherry tree is worth $930 as it stands, Coldwell said.
He pointed out that a third of the land in his area is wooded and landowners might consider harvesting because it generates revenue from a resource that can be renewed.
yovich@vindy.com