OWC 2022 Annual Meeting

About 30 members gathered on June 18 at Little Beaver Creek Tree Farm near Forest Grove, hosted by Richard & Anne Hanschu. It was the first in-person meeting for two years due to the pandemic. After a brief business meeting, there were several forestry demonstrations on site.

See photos from the event on OWC's Flickr photostream.
 
Mobile Sawmill Demonstration
Dallas Boge brought his new mobile mill, a Woodland Mills HM130 Max. He showed the process of milling lumber from an old cedar pole. His model of Woodland mill can produce dimensional lumber from logs up to 30” diameter. Although it’s made in Canada, there is a local warehouse in Portland so there are no long-distance freight charges. Fiona also took a turn running it.
 
“Clearwood Patch”
Richard Hanschu described the management of their “clearwood patch.” He and Anne planted the stand of Doug fir in 1988 at an initial tight spacing  of 480 tpa. He started pruning the trees in ’97, using the NZ ladder system to remove branches up to 22 ft. They established a 10th acre sample plot to measure growth. The objective, he explained is to grow tight-grain trees with more rings per inch (e.g. 11-12). Roy Anderson is working on thinning the stand to 290 tpa. “Will a mill pay extra for clear, tight-grain logs?,” Richard asked. “It will be up to our grandkids to harvest the stand at the best price,” he said.
 
Thinning and Log Skidding Demonstration
Roy Anderson discussed his work thinning stands at the Hanschu’s tree farm. In addition to his day job as a consulting forester, Roy has been producing and selling firewood through OWC for 11 years (dba Rip City Firewood). It’s a family affair, he explained, involving his wife Jenny and their four kids to help bundle. He sources wood from co-op members, and the family produces 1500-2000 bundles per year, averaging 40-50 per week. He demonstrated skidding a log with his ATV and a plastic skidding cone. The skidding cone helps keep logs from hitting obstacles or collecting brush will being dragged behind the ATV. It’s more maneuverable than an arch, Roy said, and can pull several small logs at a time.
 
SuperSplit Demonstration
Neil Schroeder, Chuck Price and the Hanschus demonstrated the operation of the SuperSplit log splitter which the Co-op sells to members at a discount. They discussed safety and shared tips on how to maintain it for better performance, e.g. lubrication.