I made the 8 plus hour drive to Mackenzie B.C. last Sunday. We drove past this beast as we entered Mackenzie. After we got to our hotel room I went for a walk and took some photos of it. It had two V12 Cummins engines for power. They were probably VT1710's. Its a big machine the rollers are 30 feet wide and 8 feet tall. They used it to crush the trees in what became Williston Lake the reservoir for a large electricity generating station.

 

That's pretty cool but I liked the Daisy Cutter for clearing the forest.

 

“They took all the trees, put ‘em in a tree museum…”

- Joni Mitchell

 

Well that's an equally impressive and tragic piece of engineering. Almost in the same category as the bomb video that followed. I wonder how many acres of old growth it wasted; the tough kind of wood that you can't get anymore. Just turned that now-unobtainium straight into mulch on the spot I presume.

I'm curious about the display. Who owns the machine? The land it sits on? The plaque? Who pays for the landscaping? I assume it sits right where it was when they were done using it, because it wasn't feasible to do anything else with it? If you're the lucky winner whose yard was arbitrarily made its forever home, what can you do? Climb on it? Use it as a storage shed? Sell parts off it? Charge admission to look at it? Are you responsible for abatement if it turns out the thing has been leaking oil for 30 years?

 

Crusher? Looks more like a Flattener! Down here in the Piney Woods and Swamps, we harvest them and grind all that's left over for biofuel. Where's the economic benefit of just flattening them and leaving them to rot? Odd...

 

Well that's an equally impressive and tragic piece of engineering. Almost in the same category as the bomb video that followed. I wonder how many acres of old growth it wasted; the tough kind of wood that you can't get anymore. Just turned that now-unobtainium straight into mulch on the spot I presume.

I'm curious about the display. Who owns the machine? The land it sits on? The plaque? Who pays for the landscaping? I assume it sits right where it was when they were done using it, because it wasn't feasible to do anything else with it? If you're the lucky winner whose yard was arbitrarily made its forever home, what can you do? Climb on it? Use it as a storage shed? Sell parts off it? Charge admission to look at it? Are you responsible for abatement if it turns out the thing has been leaking oil for 30 years?

IMO there's nothing tragic about it.The tress were going to die from one means or the other during the project construction. While I don't think they munched much old growth using that tiny tractor

there's still a huge number of old growth lands and trees up here. It's properly protected, that's why it's unobtainium now, not because it ceased to exist.
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/st...oregon-trail-forest-redwood-trees/3222911001/

https://www.google.com/maps/place/W...4431!4d-123.9704283!16zL20vMDZyOTI5?entry=ttu

 

I was told the wood never went to waste. It went to the pulp mills for pulp and hog fuel.

 

IMO there's nothing tragic about it.The tress were going to die from one means or the other during the project construction.

I was told the wood never went to waste. It went to the pulp mills for pulp and hog fuel.

My objection is less "save the trees" and more "don't waste that beautiful lumber." Knowing that it was fed to pigs rather than left to rot on the ground makes it barely better.

If you weren't aware, the lumber that almost all wooden things are made of today, is new growth; inferior lumber. The wood of things made prior to reforestation efforts was much more dimensionally stable, stronger, more pest and moisture resistant, better in every way. That's why older homes are stronger despite some of their designs being not built to the codes that we use today.

 

My objection is less "save the trees" and more "don't waste that beautiful lumber." Knowing that it was fed to pigs rather than left to rot on the ground makes it barely better.

If you weren't aware, the lumber that almost all wooden things are made of today, is new growth; inferior lumber. The wood of things made prior to reforestation efforts was much more dimensionally stable, stronger, more pest and moisture resistant, better in every way. That's why older homes are stronger despite some of their designs being not built to the codes that we use today.

Yes, I'm well aware of the timber issues. I like wood working.

https://www.up.com/customers/ind-prod/lumber/mills-guide/ore-mill/index.htm
The dimensional lumber we make here will last longer than the rest of a modern house.

 

View attachment 297468
Yes, I'm well aware of the timber issues. I like wood working.

https://www.up.com/customers/ind-prod/lumber/mills-guide/ore-mill/index.htm
The dimensional lumber we make here will last longer than the rest of a modern house.

When tropical storm Irene hit, it took down a huge oak in our yard, about 30” diameter. I had it quarter sawn up into about 1000 board feet of rough lumber in 9-10 ft lengths. Air dried it fir a couple of years, and it is by far the highest quality lumber I have ever used. Almost no warp or twist. Here is one project made from it:

 

fed to pigs

Fed to "hogs" usually means cut into chunks for further processing (grinding into chips) for biofuel (wood) or other uses. At least that is what the "Hogs" at our plant did and yes, we called them Hogs! On a side note, I just found out that after nearly 100 years of harvesting and processing old growth pine stumps into "Naval Stores" i.e. Pine Tars which were further refined into many various cuts of terpene resins and oils. The last plant built by Homer Yaryan and using the "Homer Yaryan Process" is being shut down forever. They had a big fire recently that destroyed the Terpene Resins processing area that produced gums that went into "Post It" notes and many 3Ms adhesives and other adhesives. So, instead of rebuilding, they are pulling the plug! When I started there, they had 1400 employees and a sister plant in Hattiesburg Mississippi. After I and many others did extensive automation to the operations and control systems (some were still pneumatic) the head count was down to 400 employees through attrition and early retirements and in my case and others, finally cuts and eventual sale of the plant and end of the international mother company Hercules Incorporated. Sad to see the plant finally go under...

 

The trees up there are pretty scrawny. Nothing like the old growth giants of the Pacific Northwest. I passed that monster on my way to a new mill about 30 years ago; I've heard that mill has already closed down due to lack of timber supply.