Standing timber in Traverse City Michigan is among the most beautiful in the world. Hard--or sugar--maple trees are fairly abundant in the area and are prized among many people for many reasons.
One reason this tree is so valued is because of the lumber and veneer value. Hard maple wood products produce the cleanest look with little defects and character. Much of the lumber and veneer that is harvested from the Grand Traverse area is distributed world wide. You cannot find Sugar maple trees in the eastern part of the world so China and Japan buy as much as they can get their hands on.
Another reason people love sugar maple would be of the obvious; maple syrup. It is the only western tree that produces a material that is safely ingested for nutrition as a sweetener over those rich buttery pancakes that everyone loves. if you have never tried maple syrup, then I highly suggest that you do. For those of you that have, you know exactly what I am talking about.
There is a conflict between valued maple wood and valued maple syrup. To get maple syrup, one has to "tap" the tree. Tapping a hard maple tree is a process in which one bores a half inch or so hole in a tree and taps an aluminum straw pipe into it so that the syrup can slowly drain out during the spring. The only time you can successfully tap a sugar maple tree is in the spring time during the winter thaw. The dormant tree comes to life this time of year as the roots try to draw the frozen moisture back down the trunk of the tree. Tapping the tree catches some of this tree sap as it draws down the tree.
The problem however, is that this is--in a sense--wounding the tree. Tapping a tree even one time, will completely eliminate any potential high grade veneer. Rotary Veneer sheets are usually sheared off the log like a roll of toilet paper unrolls with a blade against the entire side of the log. As you can imagine, the log must be flawless in order to produce a high quality sheet of veneer wood that will eventually be used for door or wall paneling for example.
Tapping trees for maple syrup for several seasons will also rot the inside of the tree as it is the life blood of the tree. Donating blood is one thing, but draining trees dry will have lasting effects. So even the lumber of tapped trees can produce low quality lumber that will create many blemishes in the normally clean looking product.
For years land owners have bumped heads with loggers about this. The landowner may have tapped the trees years ago and not touched them for the last 20 years, and the tap holes would be mostly healed over. Then the logger or timber buyer/forester--if experienced enough--can easily see the recognizable blemish in the tree while it is standing and offer a lower price to the land owner for the lower quality timber. In experienced timber purchasers are sometimes stuck with low quality timber that was purchased in full standing and later discovers to be tapped after cutting them down. This can be very costly to the company as they usually pay a very premium price for premium timber.
Before tapping into a maple tree, the landowner must ask themselves if they want the money from the syrup or the timber. You usually cannot get both unless one lies and has an inexperienced purchaser. If the landowner does decide to sell the timber, it is always best to be upfront with the purchaser because lying will certainly cause problems later on down the road. you could even be sued for knowingly selling defected products for a price relevant to flawless material.
it is also important to know that many company's will still purchase tapped maple trees depending on the extent of the flaws. However, tapped trees are usually purchased under a seperate contract sometimes referred to a "grade and scale" contract. this means that you get paid for the exact quality as it is cut and inspected. Whereas, usually you would get paid in full for it standing.
If you are looking for a timber buyer in the Traverse City Michigan area, the choose a location below;
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