Throughout a large portion of Ohio’s Utica and Marcellus shale, an incredible energy boom is taking place.
The impressive volume of oil and natural gas coming out of these new wells is quickly transforming America into the number one global energy producer, ahead of even Saudi Arabia.
The Fracking Boom
Advances in drilling technology coupled with increases in the price of other fossil fuel sources has made once unobtainable gas economically extracted. As a result, investment dollars, major energy companies and countless contractors have flooded into the area to prepare the infrastructure necessary to accommodate the region’s rich gas deposits.
Many landowners assume the timber is worthless or only valuable as firewood, but the truth is much of the trees being cleared by these pipeline crews is actually commercially valuable hardwood! Timber Works specializes in purchasing timber that has been left behind by these pipeline crews.
Selling Cleared Timber
The land clearing process utilized by these crews is fairly straightforward. First, large cutting equipment known as feller-bunchers, are used to indiscriminately cut trees up to a certain width along the energy company’s easement. There are often trees that are too large to be brought down with the feller buncher. The largest trees in the forest are either hand cut with chainsaws, or pushed over with large bull dozers or track hoes.![log pile from pipeline clearing](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/log-pile.jpg)
We encourage landowners to demand that their timber is either handcut or cut with a feller buncher. When timber is pushed over by heavy equipment, it often splits and splinters. What’s worse, is that timber tends to break towards the base of the tree, often damaging the most valuable portion of the entire tree stem.
If you have a pile of logs left on your property by a land clearing contractor, give Timber Works a call for a free, no hassle assessment of their value today!