need some feedback

[townlineterry]

Recently got a website up for my business. Looking for some feedback on it. What is good what's bad, how can it be improved.
check it out, let me know what you guys think. If nothing else has some good photos

www.townlinepa.com

Terry

[Tractor 850]

Terry,

I like it!
It is well laid out, good description of what you offer & how you accomplish the end results.

The only improvement would be if you could move about 300 miles east so I could watch you work.
I could learn a lot to manage my wood lot.

Love the photos!

[townlineterry]

Thanks Dave. Plan to add more indepth info when I get the time, but wanted to get something out there for this season.

If you are interested in sustainable forest management, three books I would recommend; Positive Impact Forestry, by Thom McEvoy, its my bible. Full Vigor Forestry by Jim Birkmeier, can only get it from his website, which has a lot in info by itself www.timbergreenforestry.com ,and the USDA book on crop tree management, your extension agent should have that.

Terry

[Steven Walters]

Terry, Website looks good. Not sure what you do with ur wood waste from your mill, or the tree tops when you log. But i have a good used wood grinder for sale,you can turn your wood waste into a saleable product. My cell is 609-209-2609 Steven

[KenP]

deleted

[townlineterry]

Ken, your points are well taken, info that should definitley be added.

The slabs from the mill we sell for firewood. The logging tops get left in the woods. Some may think that is wasteful but there are reaasons. Most of the minerals and nutrients are in the tops so leaving them to rot down is a way of recyleing them back into the soil. Also the tops make it harder for deer to browse on the regenertation, gives it a head start.

Terry

[Eric.MacLeod]

nice job terry! around here when they say selective cut it means, take all the good wood and run over or scar up any junk that was left standing, after a skidder has left your property it is a total mess with wheel ruts so deep,every tree backed into, and roads plowed with loading pads so a trailer truck can get to the piles. most people are sad after they see what there lot looks like that they wish it was never cut. most people never get what they were promised for money, sometimes half of what they are told. your site shows that the property ower will be proud to have someone see his well kept land, and not be the talk of the town about the eyesore that it might be if a big company were to do the job. i cleared my land for my boy to have a place to play out back, i couldve had a company come in and strip and pay me for the wood but the mess wouldve been more than i wanted to deal with. so i cut it my self even though i didnt want to, i dont have much time for that stuff. now the boy can ride his four wheeler,play with the swingset, golf, or anything else he wants to do without breaking his neck in skidder ruts. so yes i would have hired you guys to do this for me based on your website,it shows that your not big bussiness and that you probley will do the job the way you say it will be done...

[Lavoy]

A friend of mine had a bunch of selective cutting done. He is in SE Iowa. In his area, you hire an "agent" (not sure what he was really called) that handles the whole thing. He marks every single tree that is cut. He holds a bond on the logger or logging company, and the money for the wood is paid directly to him. If the logger cuts a tree they were not supposed to, they are docked. If they do not clean up ALL of their mess, they are not paid. Anything they do that is not within the contract, they are docked for. The agent takes 10% I believe off the top, but he maintains total control of the situation, and the job is done to spec, or the logger never gets paid until it is.
Lavoy

[oldtanker]

The site looks good overall. The others have mentioned changes that sound like good ideas. Another source for taking care of the woods is the US Forestery Service. I had em out to look at my 80 acres of woods a couple of years ago. When they were done the came back out. Sat down and explained what we needed to do to make improve woods health. They also have prepared a plan and set it up in a large 3 ring binder. The cost was a 30 dollar donation (they ask for one but didn't demand it).

Rick

[Willyr]

Browsing through your photos I see alot of pictures of you dozer in action. What I dont see are pictures of manicured groves. You tout a wondeful management, yet I dont see any pictures of the sites that you are working. No explanation on your page of what you mentioned here about the tree tops (I may have missed it, sorry if I did).

If I was in your area I would expect to see what you did for your practice #. Here in Maine your assigned a # as a forrester for the plan submitted. Some of these guys do nothing more than a shoddy piece of plywood withthe numbers spray painted on. MMMmm nothing says intelligent like spray paint.

What about stumpage? What guarantee would I the customer have that you will pay for stumpage?

[townlineterry]

Willyr, you make good point about lack of logging photos. The good logging photos all seem to have former employees in them and I don't want to put photos of people on the site without permission. this winter we are logging some of our own property so we can remedy that..

Couple guys from Maine have mentioned licenses, it Pa it is not required, so essentialy any dipstick with a chainsaw can call themselves a logger. While I am not a fan of goverment regs there are times it is called for. I would like to see some kind a licenseing, it would help get rid of some of the hoopie loggers.

Another point, is how do you know you will get paid? I will add that to the site, I pay, in full, in advance. Any land owner that doesn't demand that is a fool looking to get hosed.

By the way that is not a employee driving the forklift it's the wife. Kind of an interesting machine it is a 1959 Lull 7B. It is a Oliver 770 tractor set up in reverse with another frame built around it to carry the hydraulics and the mast.

Thanks for the input

Terry

[Tigerhaze]

Hi Terry-

I own timbered tracts with valuable hardwoods (walnut, white oak), and the biggest concern with the loggers around here is the lack of restoration after logging. These guys will promise to pile tops and remove ruts but seldom do it. I think it is good you emphasized that on your site since that is what distinguishes the good loggers from the rest for the average landowner. However I didn't see photos to document how the finished logged area looks like after restoration.

I also know here in MO that loggers can meet certain standards to be recognized/accredited by our State's conservation department- I don't know if Maine has somthing similar but seems like that would be a good distniguishing factor as well.

Finally I think it is good (if you can) to either post positive testimonials from landowners you have worked for or provide references upon request. Most of the fly-by-night loggers would usually not be willing to do so.

[digitup2]

In Ontario you need to be a bush lot management specialist to sign off in a log extracting area .I have a friend that is licensed specialist and he takes logs out of one quarter of the bush lot at a time over four years and an other quarter in the next four years also so many of every species need to be left .I found It interesting that they will leave the tops in our area leave only 3inch and smaller .I have an old Timber Jack 450 in my toys I Did also have an old 440 B Deere but I sold it off I have two brothers that like to take the Timber Jack and a saw to the bush ,The big thing here is not to drag the tops across live standing bark .When we start dragging the tops out we trim the small branches off and drag out the rest carefully!!I have taken the old 40C out and went through places the T Jack won't go dragging logs and tops out My neighbors bush has places that are so wet they cant go near it with anything but my old 40C so I have dragged several maple logs out that have spalted over three years these are worth big bucks We have a fine furniture specialist just down the road that gave me three thousand for both logs He also bought my old saw mill and I have recently purchased a used Wood Miser #30 I think? and a used edger from the local dealer.Some day this winter I will set them up My old band saw did a nice job but the price was right so I said go for it .You are right about pay up front my neighbor down the road got taken badly.When he wouldn't listen to others he never saw the cutter after and when I mentioned what board footage was on those truck loads on average over five loads he was told about half the board footage was taken Now he comes up and borrows one of my Doyle sticks [We do Doyle hard wood and O. S. W. M. for soft woods up here ]before any thing leaves he measures the hell out of it!!.It can be a very big rip off to some woodlot owners if you get the wrong contractor then others in this area are bush butchers and that can cost even more dollars.If you do honest board foot work and aren't a bush butcher that would be my biggest concerns .Digitup.

[oldtanker]

Same problem here in west Mn. Those guys can really trash a place. Mn did crack down on the pulp woods guys so now they are in the Turtle Mt area of ND ripping the hell out of the woods there (daughters father in law drove me around to see what they are doing). They just did 160 acres last year by the dump we haul our trash to (8 miles and far cheaper than paying someone). The owner had to have a dozer in afterward to level it and pile the tops.

The US Forestry Service did have a thing a few years ago where they would send someone out to look over your woods and tell you what was needed to keep it healthy. We had em out. They guy walked all 80 acres of it, then prepared a detailed plan and presented it to my wife and I. A rather large 3 ring binder was required to keep it all together and he sat with us and went through it page by page. Cost....a 60 buck donation (could have been less, our choice) to the Forestry Service.

On another note my wife is in school taking sustainable farming. One of the things covered was using wood chips as fertilizer. Seeing as we are still thinning our woods and the brush in it we are buying a Cat 1 3 point mounted wood chipper (Woods has one that my 8N Ford will work great on)with a directional spout in the spring. We can blow the chipped wood right into the manure spreader (JD 33) and then put it on the 60 tillable acres that was abused for years.

Rick

[Lavoy]

I think there is a catch to the wood chips for fertilizer idea. I believe that unless composted or mulched for a time period, they have no real value as fertilizer. Also, it is too many years ago to remember for sure, but in soils class we talked about some trees and or shrubs that have something in them that essentially kills all other differing types of vegetation. I believe they were called allelopathic.
I don't think they are in this class, but the best example I could think of is pine trees. Notice how nothing grows under a pin tree for the most part.
Like I said, this is 25 years ago or so, but I actually do remember some of my classes.
Lavoy