Twenty years ago, the general practice in Southern Pine silviculture involved clear-cut, mechanical site prep, burn (usually), plant, thin at 12-13 (maybe), clear-cut at 17-20, repeat. This practice was adopted in order to maximize pulpwood production per acre to meet demand from the major integrated forest products companies.
Since the production focus was on pulpwood, this silvicultural practice resulted in smaller trees coming out of the forest for lumber production.
Many sawmills in operation at that time had been set up for large logs, so this change forced them either to adapt to the increasing number of small logs or go out of business. The first technology that saw rapid adoption in the South was chip-n-saw equipment. In the 1980s and 1990s, southern sawmills fully embraced chip-n-saw technology for their primary breakdown lines. The technology had existed since its creation in Washington state in the late 60s, but as the technology developed and evolved to handle smaller logs, the number of installations in the South increased at a rapid pace.
More recently, sawmills in the South have embraced log scanning and optimization equipment. This technology uses laser measuring to create a three-dimensional model of the log and automatically sets up the primary breakdown machine to get the most volume/value out of the log. In the last few years of the 20st century and the first decade of this century, southern mills adopted this technology to help them maximize revenues and production from the logs coming out of the forest.
While neither of these technologies were developed, refined, or adopted solely because of the smaller trees coming off of industrial forests in the South, the smaller trees had mill owners looking for ways to get the most out of the trees. That pressure from mill operators accelerated the development and adoption of these technologies. Today, as we see the first signs that log prices are starting to favor chip-n-saw size logs, the mills that have made the conversion will be prepared if landowners adjust silvicultural practices to capitalize on higher chip-n-saw prices.
Forest2Market: July 14, 2023
