Logging services

Logging is on our service list next to lot clearing and masticating. It is tree removal at the scale of a stand: the same crew and the same arborists, with the machines to move a lot of wood.

At a glance

• Felling, bucking, loading and hauling
• 2014 Bobcat T870 track loader with grapple
• Dump trucks for logs
• A certified arborist marks what is cut and what stays
• Slash chipped, masticated or hauled
• Free estimate after a walk of the land

When is a job logging and not tree removal?

When there are many trees and room to work. Taking one pine out of a backyard is tree removal: it comes down in pieces over a house. Thinning two acres of pines behind a cabin, or clearing a wooded building site, is logging. The trees can usually be felled whole, and the work is in moving the wood.

• Thinning a crowded stand so the remaining trees have water and space
• Removing dead and dying conifers after drought or bark beetles
• Clearing a wooded parcel for a house, a road or a utility line
• Opening a fuel break through timber
• Storm salvage where many trees are down

How does the work run?

The arborist walks the land with you first. The trees to cut are marked, and so are the ones to protect. A landing is chosen where logs can be stacked and trucks can reach.

The crew fells and limbs the trees, cuts them to length and moves them to the landing with the track loader. Logs go out by truck. What happens to the tops and branches is agreed in advance: chipped, masticated in place or hauled.

Why thin a stand of trees?

Too many trees on dry ground compete for the same water. Crowded, stressed conifers are the ones bark beetles take first, and a dense stand carries fire from crown to crown. Thinning leaves fewer, stronger trees with space between them.

The US Forest Service's 2023 Nevada Forest Health Highlights reported 15,470 acres statewide with insect and disease damage, and the fir engraver beetle accounted for 12,440 of them. See bark beetles in pines, fir engraver beetle and the guide to removing dead pines after bark beetles.

What happens to the wood?

That is settled in the estimate. Some owners want logs left in lengths for their own firewood. Some want everything gone. We also sell firewood and wood chips in winter, so ask the office how the wood from your job will be handled. The general picture is in what happens to the wood and chips after a tree job.

What rules apply to cutting many trees?

On private land in the valleys, ask your county what it requires before a large clearing, and check any HOA or subdivision rules. In the Lake Tahoe Basin, every live tree over 14 inches in diameter at breast height needs a permit from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency or, for defensible space, the local fire protection district, and a forester marks the trees. A dead tree that could fall on a house needs no permit. The agency decides, so start there before planning a harvest at the lake.