Thread: how many timber supply avenues could there be?

iv been threw all this before. here is what i have come up with.

1. land developments (not interested to mutch trouble easyer to chip or burn)
2. private land owners needing to clear land for either housing lots or farms etc. you have to get to the owner before tehy chop the tree witch is hard unless u are a mind reader
3. power companies like energex or country energy needing to do new power lines(right of ways) you have to tender for the compleat clearing of teh line not just removing the logs. you could find out who got the contract but they wont tell u
4. arborists/tree services you will get teh same story for all of tehm. we tried that but teh sawmiller never came to get teh log and we had to go back 3 days latter and chip it anyway.
5. rta creating new roads or road maintance same problem with tenders. althow i just got a good bloke who is incharge of upgradign teh ipswitch motorway that said i can take the logs. you have to find the site boss not contact teh company
6. private forest owners sure if u wanna pay what they are asking for teh logs
7. the odd builder needing to clear for construction builders dont clear they get tree lopers
8. councils clearing for certain community projects same problem with tenders wait till u see teh bloke who runs the cipper for the council and talk to him. he gets paid whether u take it or not and he dosent have to do anyhting.
9. natural disasters ie. strong winds, storms, floods etc. this is the best way. and how i paid for my mill in 3 mounths of weekend work. if only we had more of them please no more rain

try your local green waste dump. ask treelopers where thy take there green waste. as most wont go to a registerd green waste dump.

cut trees from that vacant block where all the 4wd and motorbike junmies roar around and teh car theves leve the gutted cars.
keep you eyes and ears open when you see or hear a tree coming down stop and ask tehm if u can take the log.

put sighnes everyware that say "mill logs wanted contact Carl 0417982589"

thanks carl.
i might have one card up my sleeve, i did a re-roof on one of the guys here that is incharge of active tree services for my region. they have the contract for country energy. but i will be plastering signs on every sign post, power pole, everywhere.

We get alot of logs from tree loppers, you just have to know the blokes.
We also get alot of logs from a big paddock that is slowly being cleared, again a case of knowing the right bloke

Maybe this doesn't apply where you are, but in South Africa there's a national drive to clear 'invasive alien plants' and this includes a lot of tree species (lots of pine and eucalyptus among other things). A miller who has since left my area got most of his milling logs this way -- he was kept pretty busy -- and that's how I get most of mine though I'm pretty small scale. But then I sometimes offer to fell the trees myself, and I'm not sure whether you'd be prepared to do that.

Anyway, for what it's worth that's just another possibility -- land conservation/rehabilitation projects needing to clear exotics, though it would of course depend on whether the trees being cleared have any value to you.

Tim

1. land developments I have got heaps of logs from these guys - you need to prove to them you won't them around, I drop everything when they call and do whatever I have to to get there - was once left without my truck and hired a car to take me and chainsaw down to Marsden to get logs.
2. private land owners needing to clear land for either housing lots or farms etc. Again had logs from this source and some of my best cut jobs have been from cutting logs cleared for buildings.These guys will hire excavators
3. power companies like energex or country energy needing to do new power lines(right of ways) these have to be right place right time and lubricated with the odd coldie
4. arborists/tree services - gotta build a rapport with them
5. rta creating new roads or road maintance - gotta get in with the leading hand/site super - these guys use excavators, either theirs or hire fella's
6. private forest owners - yeah these guys all reckon their trees are worth a kings ransom
7. the odd builder needing to clear for construction - these guys will hire excavators
8. councils clearing for certain community projects - this will have to have local consultation and media coverage and use excavator hire.
9. natural disasters ie. strong winds, storms, floods etc. - a good place but you have to be helping people not ripping off their logs.... but again excavators used heaps.

Those of you who are watching closely will notice a bit of a pattern here... get in good with excavator boys, they invariably deal with the person who you need to talk to to get logs, lube the friendship up with beer, and also if you get logs from them telling you about it - PAY 'em!

If I wasn't building this house, with the 16 or 18 trucks I've had of free logs, I'd be able to start paying to secure a good source of logs and run the mill at home all week - maybe even employing 1 or 2 guys...

Stuck my head over the fence one day last week when i heard duelling chainsaws. BIG camphor being reduced to mulch. Asked for and received some big logs and a number of trunk sections. Garage smells lovely now and there arer no moths in site.

The other day I saw a large blue gum being cut down near the road, rang the contractor and spoke with the site boss, who said he had no probs with me taking the log. He checked with Main Roads (owners of said log), who said no. Reason being -other millers would complain they had not been given the chance to use the log. Whats the local tender process-there is none. Whats going to happen to the log-It'll stay where it is. What a waste. Roughly 2 cube of log at approx 50% recovery= 1 cube of sawn timber at approx $1200 just lying on the ground. There needs to be a better system of accessing a resource that is becoming more scarce, but how do you change it in a world where the above reason is seen as a legitimate concern. I too have had my share of logs through donations to the site crews social club.

Don't ask for permission, better to beg for forgiveness

Nah, seriously, that's just BS, try and turn it into a job for council, cut guide posts, footpath formwork, useable stuff for them from it??? or how about getting council to stockpile the darn things and periodically auction off the logs to those interested parties?? raises revenue for council, fair for all parties concerned and environmentally responsible???

It is unfortunate that he is but most of the time its due to an insurance minefield that you are trying towalk through. Heres two classics that have happened to me. In Baldivis a developer was clearing big jarrah for a new subdivision. He gave us a 3 day window to recover what we could. In three days we got out 65 tonne, about one twelth of what was there. The rest of it was going to cost him 295k to have chipped, he piled it, burnt it and copped a 50k fine from the EPA. Verdict, why doesnt the EPA place caviates on such clearances that sawlogs go to the right places, this is why. The second one was the new Bunbury to Perth highway where 1000 tonne of Tuart(hard to get hold of at the best of times) was put to tender. The winner said he no longer wanted it, the second the same and the third. So it too was piled and burnt. It was a game of catnmouse between 3 mills so that noone ended up with it. And yet all the large mills here in WA have to pay logging royalties for logs that come from state forests and yet an unwanted resource that could support sawmills and keep people employed gets burnt. Governments and forestry ministers have alot to answer for. I best shut up now but it really gets on my goat boys

That's just bloody typical hey Nifty?

The idea is buy a timbered property, log it properly & if all goes well the logs will more than pay for the block. There are some properties you cant afford not to buy if the timing is right.
regards inter

that would be nice inter if teh government hadnt put VOP's on all the private land.

Depending on different circumstances, there are ways to get around the different mapping of forestry on private land.

I'd love to be able to buy up a block, slowly clear and mill it, before a developer rapes it for houses. I know of 80 acres here in town which is destined to be stage 4 of a housing estate, so it's all getting pushed and chipped most likely. I'd love to 'save' a heap of it from becoming chip and slicing it into timber hmmm....

Well what I recon would be anyway is we all get together and find all these fatcat developement syndicates, grab by the throat and give them something called a CONSCIENCE. Starting with .gov.au