Part 1 - Where It Grows

by Bill Tindall

Introduction

I have participated in the hardwood lumber industry in Eastern Tennessee for many years, incuding, but not necessarily limited to, logging, part ownership of a saw mill, consulting for a mill, operating small kilns, wholesaling hardwood lumber, and even manning a fire tower—watching that it all didn't burn down. During the course of preparing this treatment, I have visited several mills, log yards, and lumber yards, and talked with the owners about their current operations. These photo essays will be drawn from this experience. Hardwood lumber production could be different elsewhere, and softwood lumber production certainly is, but I believe what I describe accurately reflects what goes on here in Eastern Tennessee and to a large extent is applicable in many other enterprises.

What I have seen is an industry in transition. Furniture factories, which were the main customers for hardwood lumber, have moved from close to our forests and sawmills to overseas. Small family owned mills which supplied these factories have been replaced by huge hardwood production facilities. Naturally the details of converting a forest to kiln dried lumber are changing, too.

Most of the hardwood lumber in the world is produced in the United States and most of this lumber is produced in the Appalachian Mountains because of their unique location. This range runs north/south in a temperate climate, and that orientation enables a wide variety of hardwood species to thrive in these mountains and valleys. During the last ice age the advancing ice drove northern species like maple and birch south. When the ice retreated, the plant species that required a cold climate likewise retreated up the slopes of the mountains while warmer loving species occupied the valleys. As a result, these mountains have an unusual diversity of trees—from balsam and mountain ash at the mountain tops to tulip poplar and walnut in the valleys. Every major commercial species of hardwood lumber grows in these mountains.

These mountains receive an abundance of rain and there is a long growing season—two months more than the northeastern United States. Trees growing in these ideal conditions grow straight and tall with few defects, and therefore yield high grade lumber. A tree which is struggling because it is too cold, too dry, or the soil is poor, is more prone to disease and its injuries don't heal quickly. It will yield low grade lumber. A good example of this can be found in the cherry in the southern Adirondacks in New York State. This cherry is stunted for the most part and knotty, while cherry 300 miles to the south in the Appalachian Mountains is the finest that can be found. High grade lumber is produced elsewhere in the U.S., but not in the abundance as here in the Appalachians.

To yield clear lumber, the young tree must compete with its neighbors to reach for the sky. Dominant trees shade their slower growing neighbors as well as their own lower branches and these die. In the warmer Appalachian climate dead branches rot quickly and fall off. Fairly rapid growth of the tree will heal over the branch scars before rot proceeds into the trunk. Once the branches have fallen off and the scars healed, the trunk continues to make the clear, knot-free lumber we desire. With adequate rain fall and rich soil these trunks will become tall and broad.

In succeeding sections I will describe all aspects of lumbering from the landowner wishing to sell his timber, to the logging, sawing, grading, drying, and marketing of the hardwood lumber product.

This is a fine Appalachian tulip poplar that would yield nearly 2000 board feet of high grade lumber.