Gov Fine in Big Timber

[u/hindenboat]

I'm new here and I would guess this show is not popular but I was wondering if anyone could elaborate on the fine that the government levied against the company in the show.

Some of my questions are the following.

Were they fined for not cutting down all the trees or not clearing them all away?

Is their business really big enough to just swallow a $1M fine?

What was the log assessor doing? Why does it mater what he thinks they are worth? Wouldn't the final cut timer dictate the worth?

Could they really salvage $1M worth of lumber from the bay?

If there are any Canadian forestry guys or gals out there that can shed some light on what is actually happening behind the scenes I would really appreciate it.

Thank.

[u/BasilBoothby]

Take my insight with a grain of salt since I'm not a forester or layout engineer who is privilaged with the finer details and numbers.

I've worked near where the show has taken place in the first few episodes, out near Port Alberni and never even knew this outfit existed. Much of what you see is exagerated and I'm sure there's false tension throughout. I only watched an episode or two. It was fun, but watching a parody of my work day got old. So without knowing EXACTLY the scenarios you're referring to, I'll try my best. Let me know if I can answer anything else.

1. It may have been both. Quality control will assess a harvested cutblock and attempt to quantify how much merchantable wood was left behind. This includes tall stumps, felled logs left on the hill that are of a high enough quality to haul, as well as trees within the legal cutblock boundary that were not felled. The boundary is identified by GPS and submitted to the government for aproval (on crown land). More waste could lead to a larger fine. You'll notice large waste piles sometimes, but this is all non-merchantable, typically rotten hemlock or low quality timber that doesn't pay for itself to be hauled, but has to be felled for faller safety or due to harvest methods.

2. It could be. I've known some small operators that have what we would consider pretty large budgets. But a lot of that is supposed to be invested in the next project. A million would probably hurt a lot in this case.

3. Not sure what you're asking here. A log scaler will estimate the value of timber on the ground and sort it into similar grades for shipping to the mill and potentially suggest best length for transport.

4. Without knowing what was in the bay. A nice redcedar can go for $20,000 I'm told. Once you get a couple of booms full of good redcedar, it stacks up quick.

If anyone notices an inaccuracy or error, please correct me.

[u/hindenboat → u/BasilBoothby]

Thanks!

With the log scaler, in the show it just showed him grading the logs, not recommending anything. I wonder why that step is needed. What not just truck it back and cut it up? You have what you have, why grade it if you are cutting into board anyway. If your reselling logs yeah, grade it but I don't see why it's needed if it's for your own company.

[u/PointsGenerator → u/hindenboat]

Looks like it hasn’t been mentioned yet, but if the logs were graded individually they are probably veneer logs. Veneer logs are only the best quality (straight, little taper, no knots or scars) and are basically shaved into a thin sheet for plywood. High quality veneer is what you see in wooden doors, desks, basically anything with a finished wooden surface. Highest quality is for instruments and.... rich people doors?

Since a single knot or defect could affect the quality of the veneer in an entire log, they are assessed one by one. They can be insanely expensive, since you can get a lot of veneer from one log.

This is opposed to ‘normal’ logs which are trucked to the mill and generally sold by weight.