Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Forestry/Archive 2

Variable-radius sampling
There is currently no article for variable-radius sampling; the topic is covered minimally in the Relascope article. Meanwhile, the Angle gauge and especially Wedge prism articles are unclear, mainly (imho) because the concept of variable radius sampling is not explained anywhere. I actually noticed all of this after checking on the Quadratic mean diameter page. I could create a page but since I just got an account and started editing I thought I would see if anyone else agreed that this should be done before jumping in. Honestly, I think both angle gauge and wedge prism could easily be fully described in a section on a new variable-radius sampling page - that's all they're ever used for. Thoughts?Poshrainbib (talk) 19:28, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

List of countries by forest area
Hello, I've made some updates to the above-referenced list, attempting to disaggregate countries from other units, in separate sub-lists. This may or may not be the best way to do it. But I find the alternative & former form, lumping everything together unsatisfactory. Comments and suggestions on that article's talk page regarding the best way to approach it would be most welcome. Thanks, DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 00:54, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

FAO article
I've just noticed that the article on the FAO has virtually nothing on that organization's important work in forestry. This would be a great collaborative editing project for this WikiProject... Thanks,DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 10:01, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

New forestry navigation box
Hello all, FYI, there's a new forestry navigation box: Template:Forestry. It's been massively and rapidly added to many forestry-related articles in the English language Wikipedia... Regards, DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 08:44, 31 October 2012 (UTC)


 * As a related note, when tagging articles of interest to this WikiProject, it is now necessary to use the fullTemplate:WikiProject Forestry; the redirect from Template:Forestry has been removed for use by the new navigation box.DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 09:34, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

Category:Forestry agencies
I've completed an update and reorganization of the above-referenced forestry-related category. Several new subcategories have been added to distinguish different levels and types of forestry agencies. Included are 'Category:Forestry agencies (defunct)', for historical forestry agencies; and 'Category:Forestry agencies (disambiguation pages'. In the course of doing this, I also created a new forestry template, Template:Forestry-agency-stub, for tagging stub articles about forestry agencies; this automatically populates articles into the 'Category:Forestry agencies (stubs)'. It turns out that many articles about forestry agencies are stubs; further contributions welcome! A related article for future development is a List of forestry agencies, which might be created in table form, modeled after the List of agriculture ministries (some of which are responsible for forestry, as well). DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 11:28, 4 November 2012 (UTC)


 * The names of several of these new subcategories have been changed. They now include: Category:Defunct forestry agencies,Category:Forestry agencies of country subdivisions, Category:Forestry agency disambiguation pages, andCategory:Forestry agency stubs. DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 16:46, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

General observations and commentary from someone who actually worked a few seasons in the woods...
I hope someone will include more than 'skid row' as terms that have made their way out from the woods and into our vernacular. Widow maker (a partially fallen tree or large branch/limb caught overhead just waiting to drop on your head) & windfall (a tree downed by the wind that a falling crew came across during the course of doing their assigned task) come to mind, though if I were to think about it for awhile, I'm sure more would come to mind.

I wore 'cork' boots and never heard anyone refer to them as 'caulks'. I got mine from Bailey's in Willits and chose the longest spikes (or pins) available - 5/8" (Buffalo brand boots. I believe they were American made)- for gripping the thick, loose Redwood bark.

A 'steam donkey' would better describe what powered the old style, high-lead logging of days gone by logging what we now refer to as 'Old Growth'. To them, they were just trees. When you talked to an old-timer, they would tell you time and time again how dangerous the 'haul-back' line was when working anywhere around a steam donkey. When not in use the haul-back line would go slack and typically scraped the bround bear where it would relax down the grade, resting on stumps and trunks and hidden in the brush and 'slash' and when put in use, it would quickly snap taught. If you were to get caught between the haul-back line and any fixed position resilient obstacle, you would be maimed or killed. No one I talked to ever refered to a steam donkey as a yarder. Maybe that was coloqueal. I worked under a 'yarder' for Schuster's Logging based in Willits. I rode to the job site in a 'crummy', a van or 6-passenger truck or SUV style vehicle that, though only a few years old, they quickly got beat-up, thus the name. The crummy rides could be any where from 1 to 3 hours each way. We worked 10 hr. days Mon. thru Fri. and a half day on most Saturdays.

We used 1/2" and 5/8" wire rope 'chokers' that could form a noose when you engaged the 'nubbin' in the 'bell'. The other end was the 'eye' and was slipped over the hook at the end of the 'drop-line. And there were different ways you learned to set a choker; sometimes to roll a log around an obstacle, or maybe spin it on an axis and/or cart-wheel a log up a particularly obstructed section of 'skid trail'. You could use multiple chokers (we would set a 'Swede') to reach around a particularly large or heavy log. I was both a choker setter and a whistle punk (crew leader that would use a radio that would activate a very loud horn mounted on the yarder tower) and everyone had to understand the morse-code-like signals of short and long bursts from the horn.

If remember correctly 1-long meant STOP; 2-shorts followed quickly by 2-shorts was just LOWER THE DROP LINE; 3 shorts/3-shorts was RAISE THE DROP LINE or just ALL CLEAR-GO; 2-shorts and a long was CARRIAGE UP SKY LINE and a long and then 2-shorts was CARRIAGE DOWN SKY-LINE. [NOTE- I MAY BE TOTALLY WRONG AS FAR AS THE CODE OF SIGNALS. IT'S BEEN 30+ YEARS]. You ran either a fixed or a moving skyline. A fixed sky line also used a haul-back to move the carriage up and down the line. A fixed sky-line could carry considerably more weight than a moving sky-line. You could communicate directly with the yarder operator via a microphone/ speaker mtd. inside the lower end of the whistle, but this was only used for discussions or complicated communications as it did not communicate with the crews on the landing or in the hole. You were either 'in the bite' or 'outside the bite'. In the bite was where, if anything went wrong, danger could potentially be coming your way.

I also worked a season and a half as a choker setter behind a Cat Skidder. Caterpillar D-7 or D-8's were the weapons of choice in 1982/83. If a faller wasn't sure how a buck might turn out- maybe you lose the butt log down into a blue-line (protected creek or any type watershed) or he might trap his bar on his chain saw from adverse pressures as the tree became a top and a log, he would only cut part of the way thru a log from 2 directions. This was called a 'russian' (rushin'- get it?).

To get the tree to fall where you intended, you would employ an under-cut and a back-cut. Western fallers cut at an up-angle to create the wedge so the butt of the first log is relatively perpendicular to the log itself. The under-cut did most of the guiding so you needed to aim your cut carefully. The backcut was the final cut and left you the option of using plastic wedges, or on very large trees, you could cut-in one or more hydraulic tree jacks- operated only slightly remotly- to help you get the tree falling as you intended. A little wind or a slight lean or belly to a tree would generally dictate where the tree was going to fall. You left a 'hinge' between the under and back-cuts so the tree didn't jump off the stump during it's descent.

email is-   My name is Jeff Hirtle and my current street address is-   428 Donaldson Ave.; Pacifica, CA 94044    Phone- (831) 706-0205