# Identifying Logging Marks?



## headshkr (Jul 24, 2006)

We just came back from another trip to the deer woods in southern Roscommon county. It looks like Jennifer Granholm's attempt to increase the logging in Michigan is working. The woods were painted a variety of colors and shapes again. Traditionally this means (from past experience) the marked areas will be harvested again in late winter or early spring. The area we hunt in seems to be very popular among the logging community. We found some area's that were select cut in the past 5 years to be marked with Red, Yellow, orange and a new color "Blue" markings along with a lot of survey stakes and tape. The property is state land along the muskegon river by the old canoe camps. Does anyone have a good information on what the different colors (shapes) represent???????


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## 2ESRGR8 (Dec 16, 2004)

Blue means leave this tree and Red means stop here, its the boundary of the designated cut area.
I don't know about orange or yellow.
Did you notice what types of trees had what colors? Blue is usually found on hard mast crop trees that provide food sources for wildlife and are typically slow growers so they leave those. 
I wonder if orange or yellow designates a type of harvest such as chipping or sawlogs, etc..
Did they skid the road in yet or brushhog all the edges so they can get equipment in? That is usually a good sign that things will be happening soon.

And FWIW, I think it was Engler's administration that passed the logging quotas that you are seeing now. Regardless, I am very happy whenever they cut tree, I just wish the Feds could get passed all of these ridiculous lawsuits that tie them up in court and get some cutting done in our National Forests before all the timber is of no value.


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## GVDocHoliday (Sep 5, 2003)

2ESRGR8 said:


> And FWIW, I think it was Engler's administration that passed the logging quotas that you are seeing now. Regardless, I am very happy whenever they cut tree, I just wish the Feds could get passed all of these ridiculous lawsuits that tie them up in court and get some cutting done in our National Forests before all the timber is of no value.


Good luck with that...too many tree huggers on the east and west coasts who will never set foot in this state feel that old growth forests are the way to go. Man I hate old growth...cut the trees already for crying out loud, diversify the age structure and provide habitat for the only animals we really care about...grouse, woodcock, whitetail deer, turkeys, and rabbits. Old growth forests are ugly as sin anyways.


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## headshkr (Jul 24, 2006)

They seem to be very successful with the logging in this area. Every year they take around 300 - 400 acres. What really doesn't make sense is that they are starting to log areas that were select cut just a couple of years ago. The only thing left standing is a small amount of red pine. There isn't any regrowth in this section. This section has also been surveyed and divided up into what looks like small tracts. The select cut area's they do not replant. The clear cut areas are replanted with a variety of pine, primarily jack pine. There are a variety of different markings like red "v", three red dots, orange slashes along with some numbers painted on tree's. This is very different than in the past. It almost looks like they are doing a study or possibly going to sell it. In this area they dont brush hog or put in roads in advance. They show up, skid in a main road off the county road and have at it.


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## dbowhntr (Sep 20, 2004)

GVDocHoliday said:


> Good luck with that...too many tree huggers on the east and west coasts who will never set foot in this state feel that old growth forests are the way to go. Man I hate old growth...cut the trees already for crying out loud, diversify the age structure and provide habitat for the only animals we really care about...grouse, woodcock, whitetail deer, turkeys, and rabbits. Old growth forests are ugly as sin anyways.


So what about us squirrel hunters. The listed species may be what YOU care about, but some of use also like other species. Soon there will be no where to hunt my squirrel dog if they keep taking all the oaks.


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## GVDocHoliday (Sep 5, 2003)

dbowhntr said:


> So what about us squirrel hunters. The listed species may be what YOU care about, but some of use also like other species. Soon there will be no where to hunt my squirrel dog if they keep taking all the oaks.


Whoops...squirels go in there as well. I should have just said all game species. I really can't think of a single game species that benefits from old growth over a stand that has been select cut with several developmental and age stages in the stand. This includes leaving the big burley oaks to act as seed trees and provide lots of browse for whitetails and other critters.


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## MuskyDan (Dec 27, 2001)

when I lived in Alaske there was a fight between the "tree huggers" and the "loggers" it was quite a battle and most of it was over the habitat of the spotted owl. Anyway, I got a kick out of a bumper sticker I saw up there one time. It read, "Save a tree, wipe your ass with a spotted owl!" Just thought I would share!!!


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## Nick Adams (Mar 10, 2005)

headshkr said:


> The woods were painted a variety of colors and shapes again. ... We found some area's that were select cut in the past 5 years to be marked with Red, Yellow, orange and a new color "Blue" markings along with a lot of survey stakes and tape. The property is state land along the muskegon river by the old canoe camps. Does anyone have a good information on what the different colors (shapes) represent???????


 It can vary by managing organization, (i.e. Champion International used to reverse the role of Blue and Orange described below), but in general...

Blue: usually used for property lines. Occassionally some organizations will use it to mark GLO section lines even though those are not property lines. These marks will usually be a vertical slash or two dots and run in a straight line through the woods, usually in a cardinal direction. In a couple of cases I have seen it used to mark individual trees for harvesting (diagonal slash along with a spot of paint at ground level)

Red: May be used for marking individual trees for harvest (diagonal slash and stump mark) but it is much more common to use it to mark out the boundaries of the area to be harvested (vertical lines and/or two vertical dots and/or three parallel slashes). Some organizations also use it to mark out exclusion areas; areas within the larger sale area that a logging operator must stay out of (swales, riparian areas, etc).

Yellow/Orange/Purple/Light Green: most commonly used to mark individual trees for harvest in a select cut (diagonal slash and stump mark). May be used to mark unit boundaries in some cases (vertical lines and/or two vertical dots and/or three parallel slashes)

Horizontal bands (various colors) are usually designating trees which must not be cut (area is marked to leave, cut everything else)



headshkr said:


> There are a variety of different markings like red "v", three red dots, orange slashes along with some numbers painted on tree's.


 Many of the state sales are marked by contractors to state specs, rather than by state employees, nowadays. Some of these marks are placed on the tree to allow the state to audit the volumes the contractors tallied while marking. i.e. dots above a diagonal slash may indicated number of sawlogs tallied in that tree. "V" may indicate Veneer product tallied in that tree. "W" usually indicates Wildlife tree that may not be cut.

I'm sure if you contacted the local state forester he'd be happy to give you the paint color/mark protocol used in his forest management unit. 

At the link below they describe what they are planning to do in your area and why at some length http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-30301_30505_31025-66209--,00.html

-na


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## ArrowFlinger (Sep 18, 2000)

GVDocHoliday said:


> Good luck with that...too many tree huggers on the east and west coasts who will never set foot in this state feel that old growth forests are the way to go. Man I hate old growth...cut the trees already for crying out loud, diversify the age structure and provide habitat for the only animals we really care about...grouse, woodcock, whitetail deer, turkeys, and rabbits. Old growth forests are ugly as sin anyways.



They did quite a bit of logging in the Ottawa Nat. forest about 5 years ago. We some them doing some cutting in Oct. and when we went back in Nov. the bulldozer was parked right on top of one of our ground blinds


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