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Timber Harvest Begins

Copyright Michael Sewell

"The message of the Land Ethic is timeless. Now we have the opportunity to make some of the trees that Leopold planted timeless by incorporating them into a building where they will literally hold the roof over his message of the land ethic. It is a wonderful image."
--Steve Swenson, staff ecologist

The harvest of the Leopold pines is just one component of the Foundation's Land Ethic campaign. Harvesting these particular trees and using them in the Leopold Legacy Center, a place designed to bring people to the Land Ethic message, further strengthens the connection between the land, the message, Leopold himself, and our future. The Legacy Center buildings will also project the message of the Land Ethic through the innovative use of green technologies and design.

Wood from the pines that cannot be used in construction of the Legacy Center will be made into paper to print a very special edition of A Sand County Almanac.

Images from the cutting

After felling a pine, the timber processor can cut the tree into logs and sort the materials. Typically, the end of the tree taken from the stump, called the “butt log” will be cut into a 17-foot-long log; this log will be milled for structural materials. As the tree tapers toward the crown, any logs between 10 inches and 6 inches in diameter can be used for interior products like wall paneling. Any materials down to 3 inches in diameter can be used for paper production.

This is the business end of the timber processor. After the processor uses the large clamps to hold onto a tree, a chainsaw swings out from its housing at the bottom and cuts the tree at its base. The machine can then swivel with the tree in its grasp and drop the tree in any direction desired. After the pine is on the ground, the large rollers slide the tree along, and the chainsaw can cut logs to a desired length.

Here the timber processor is operating in Birch Row, near the Shack. In the foreground, logs have been piled for structural materials on the right and interior products on the left.

Len Fike, in the black baseball cap, talks with a camera crew documenting the harvest. Fike operates Fike Forest Products in New Lisbon and is contracted to conduct the pine harvest for the Aldo Leopold Foundation. A handful of ALF members were also on site to view the harvest.