Page 29 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 3 - Summer 2024

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Middle Georgia Timber’s Jason Simmons and Forest Consultant James Johnson verify an SPB outbreak in the Piedmont.
“We stay booked a year out,” Simmons said, “and I’ve had to say no to some folks.” Simmons has to take a host of fac- tors into consideration when he books his crews, with weather and terrain being two big ones. If wet conditions exist, heavy
equipment can cause site damage, such as rutting. That can severely limit logging in some areas.
“The Piedmont has a lot of red clay and slopes. Deer season is a factor. It’s all tied to what we can haul and sell to the mill. Sometimes landowners want to wait for a better price or they don’t want the mess for aesthetic reasons.” And don’t get him started on the ups and downs of keeping a logging business running in this day and age.
In the end, Simmons said, it’s “all up to the landowner,” and putting off thinning can be quite risky.
“If you see something, say something,” added Forestry Consultant James John- son. Johnson and Simmons have worked together throughout Hancock, Morgan, Putnam and surrounding counties, where SPB and other beetle experiences are nothing new. Their eyes never stop scanning treetops when cruising down a bumpy forest road, and a hatchet is always close by to pop off some bark and inspect the damage.
“By the time the bark slips,” Johnson said, “the mills don’t want it.”
And what’s a landowner to do with the mess left behind? Assuming a logging crew is available, 1) cut and remove infected
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