HCYI's Forestry Tour with W.M.Beaty & Associates

Hat Creek Youth Initiative's Student Blog: Cody McCann

My name is Cody McCann. I am 16 years old and will be a junior at Fall River High School. My interests involve football, hunting, fishing and target shooting. I applied for this job at CalTrout because I thought that it would be a good experience and it's better than mowing lawns all summer! On July 31, we went to a timber sale for a Forestry tour. 

Our tour guide was Sarah Oldson, a Staff forester from W.M. Beaty & Associates. She brought us to the timber sale, but before we got to see the action she took us to a road off of Highway 89 and showed us how to identify some of the trees in the area. Sarah also taught us how to take the height and diameter of a tree using a clinometer and tape measure (D-tape). When we went to the timber sale, which was located between Burney and McCloud off of Highway 89, we saw come cool machines that they use. Some of the machines were the loader, processor, skidder, the saw, transportation trucks and the Cat's, or in other words, Dosers. The saw was able to cut down a tree with a two foot diameter within less than two seconds! At the timer sale we interacted with Sarah, Tim Ferreira a Licensed Timber Operator with Timberland Logging, and Pete Johnson a Registered Professional Forester with W.M.Beaty & Associates. They were logging multiple types of trees, but they were mainly trying to get Cedar and Douglas-Fir because those are the trees that are worth the most money.

I thought that seeing the timber sale and some of the machinery was kind of cool. I learned that there is more to the timber sale than what I thought. I originally thought that they just picked an area and clear cut the whole thing, but they take species of animals, water, and historical sights into consideration. What surprised me most, though, was how fast it took the saw to cut down a bit, thick tree. I would like to thank Sarah, Tim, and Pete for taking their time and patience to show us the timber sale.

The forestry tour, overall, was a good experience for us to observe. I have had a good summer being able to work outside and interact with new people. I may use some of the skills I learn over the summer in the future and I might end up doing this job again next summer since I hear there will be more manual labor involved. 

Thanks,

Cody McCann