The Haul
August 22, 2016 3:04 pm Leave your thoughts
As some may know, DMI harvests aspen for wood chips to make kraft pulp. This process in the summer starts the operations around July 15th with feller bunches cutting the cutblocks, skidders moving the trees and debris accordingly. In the summer however we have what we call “In-block chippers”, these chippers are contract hired to chip onsite and have chip trucks loaded from there. Shortening the handling system of the fiber.
So many incredibly small details go into the long term and short term planning of a haul. The two planners have designed their long term plan to lower economic and ecological impacts for the harvests of the next winter, next summer and many years ahead. The operations supervisors however have to take these plans and make their own short term plans considering road quality, fiber quality, quantity of fiber, weather, access to equipment, and so much more.
I got to experience this past week a ride along with an Ops supervisor while checking the blocks being cut and chipped. It was a great experience listening to the discussions with the contractors about the how the operations were currently going, and discussing what the next week’s plans would be. Operations in one area was more favourable than the other because the trees currently been felled had more volume (we got out and measured the felled logs of each) and the good weather meant we could use the road that doesn’t handle the rain very well. Meaning, save the rainier weather for the better road. With how rainy the summer has been, with it stopping or slowing operations in other areas, it’s good to consider.
I normally only ever experienced the haul through processing chip tickets for accounts payable, meeting/radio talk with the chip trucks on the haul roads, or driving by the chipper sites off to do other jobs I have previously talked about. It was great to watch cutblock be done, experiencing the middle piece of the puzzle since I had done layout for one of the roads we used and have done the tree plant checks in nearby blocks. To first hand measure the trees, and understand how the smaller trees slow the operations down and how the chippers speeds being too high shaves off too much white wood but too slow leaves too much bark. I find these moments very important for a student to experience because working with our contractors and planning is a huge part of forestry, and learning this all hands on furthers ones understanding than just being told or reading procedures.
I would also like to say a thank you to our Woodlands team for the wonderful student appreciation barbeque, and the DMI lunch bags and water bottles our supervisor bought for us. I proudly sport my DMI logo all year round since I was young with my parents working there, but it has been even better as employee to be carrying it around the province.