I was in Alabama this past week for a great reunion of brothers and sisters in Christ. During this trip I got into an interesting conversation about a new method of obtaining old growth lumber without chopping down the old growth that is still living.
You see, back in the 1800’s they would cut down trees, cut off the branches and then drag them, or rail them to the nearest river. Then these logs would float their way to larger mills down river in the bigger cities. The logs had markings on them of the companies that did the cutting so that compensation could be made to the correct company. As the logs floated, some got water logged and sank to the bottom. Theres no telling how many logs are still deep under the currents of many of our large, and mid sized rivers. These logs are amazingly preserved.
Another kind of old growth timbering is that of harvesting forests that were flooded by dams. There are many forests that have been under water for 50-100 years due to the construction of dams across North America. There are special saws that are lowered into the water and clamp onto these forgotten trees and cut them cleanly. So far it seems to be a win-win situation environmentally. Here is a link of interest for this type of timbering. And another with photos.
Businesses have grown from this sort of specialty of diving for old growth. The lumber and end products from these logs are quite expensive. The advantage is that alot of thse logs are so large that you can mill very wide planks from them. This is advantageous to many woodworking projects. It certainly has caused me to raise an eyebrow in interest.
Daily Hike 