optimising value of trees

[devon TWiG]

A local ( to me ) land owner with some woodland called upon my services to sort out some windblown/ hung up /broken off Douglas Fir approx 20-25 metres tall and 500mm dia , he has a few acres and now and then some blow down .... he asked me the best way to get revenue from said wood with minimal outlay , there is not enough quantity to sell as sawlogs (timber ) it seems prohibitively expensive to hire in a mobile sawmill and then he would need to market the timber , logs are one option but he has hardwood for himself elsewhere and does not want a log merchant on his land due to previous bad experience and the fact that the money he would receive is quite small ... after some thought I suggested that if he was happy to do the work then he could turn it in to kindling , this is something he could easily do himself especially on wet days , it needs no special ,costly kit , and would probably be quite easy to sell ( and store until it does ) and after looking at and measuring a typical tree in his wood it could yield quite a lot of money from each tree .... I know this seems quite simplistic , and is quite a lot of work , but he is retired yet very active and it would appear to be ideal for the situation and he thinks it is an ideal solution to his situation , just wondered what others may think , or have had experience of doing kindling this way ??

[se7enthdevil]

surely if he were to gather the bottom 3-4m of each butt and mill those before making kindling out of the rest he would have a better return.

 

yes it means getting a mill in but £400 for the day and a dozen butts or more to mill must make sense over turning the whole lot into firewood?

[devon TWiG]

He does not have a dozen butts , even then they would have to be moved to a flat area for milling , then stacked / stickered / dried and then marketed , also softwood sawn timber is not really worth a lot nowadays and I doubt he would cover the high costs of milling , also he might have a few down next time there is a storm .....

[Goaty]

Common thing of not enough compromises.

 

Skyline the butts out?