Sub-Section 125, Exploitation (Logging)
Internal Revenue Manual
Specialized Industry Guidelines - Timber
Sub-Section 125, Exploitation (Logging)
Last amended: 6-26-1978
Exploitation (Logging)
(1) The process of logging is sometimes known as timber harvesting or, historically, as lumbering. Logging is generally understood by those in forestry and the timber industries to include all the activities required to convert the timber to products that can be handled economically and the transportation of such products from the forest to the manufacturing plant or concentration yard.
(2) Before the logging operation can start, there must be a means of access to the logging area from the nearest public roads. This usually requires the building of truck roads of one sort or another. In mountainous or poorly drained areas, such roads are a major item of cost. In relatively flat country with good soil drainage, a flat, bulldozed trail may be sufficient. In southeastern states, there are large areas of intensively managed young forests which are criss-crossed by roads built by landowners to provide permanent access for logging as well as for all other forest management activities.
(3) Actual timber harvesting begins when the trees are felled by fallers using chain saws. The main stem (trunk or bole) of the trees are then trimmed (limbed) and bucked (cross cut) into log lengths, usually 16 to 48 feet. It is interesting to observe that in southeastern states the felling and bucking is performed by "flatheads," the terms "fallers" and "buckers" being almost unknown to the industry vernacular of that region. In stands of small timber, the felling may be done with heavy tractor mounted shears that sever the tree near the ground line.
(4) Logs are an extremely heavy and unwieldy commodity. For example, one log containing 150 board feet log scale will weigh about one ton. Many logs from western forests contain more than 500 bd. ft. The movement of logs from the stump to truck side is, therefore, a formidable materials handling problem. Such movement is called skidding and is ordinarily done by attaching a cable or chain to one end of the log and dragging it by means of a tractor or other power source to a yarding point (log landing) that is accessible to trucks. There are many kinds of machines and systems available for accomplishing the log skidding operation. The best system to use depends on such factors as topography, size of the timber, skidding distance, and many others.
(5) Ordinarily the logs are trucked directly to the log pond or log storage deck at the sawmill. Somewhere along the way, from the woods to the mill, the logs are scaled by a log scaler. The scaler, using a scale stick, measures the diameter (at small end of the log) and length of each log and records on a scale sheet the number of board feet shown on the scale stick for a log of that dimension. In some areas, notably the west coast, there are independent log scaling bureaus that provide a log scaling service at scaling stations set up at strategic points on certain highways. Perhaps a majority of sawmills employ their own log scalers who scale the logs as they are unloaded from trucks at the mill or a log concentration yard.
(6) At the saw mill or concentration yard the logs may be sorted by species and grade. The smaller and lower grade logs may be rejected for sawmill use and consigned to a pulp mill. The high grade logs may be sent to a veneer mill, and certain species may be sold for export. The others are sawed into lumber.