Technical Silviculturist Advisor to the Dominican Republic

Technical Silviculturist Advisor to the Dominican Republic

SALVAGEABLE VOLUME TIME FRAMES : This consultant had an opportunity to evaluate the hurricane-damaged timber for both P. caribaea and P. occidentalis.

Current Findings

All dead timber at the Novillero site is non-salvageable. Most of the storm-snapped trees that were standing, even with tight bark on them were not sound. The only trees that were being cut were those that had broken tops but still had partial live crowns. This was the same for the hardwoods as for the pine. The pine at this site is P. caribaea. This site is in a relatively humid area of the country with an average elevation of around 800 feet (site elevation range is between 600 and 1800 feet). When this project was started there were various predictions on how long this timber would last. In following the salvage operations over the last year this consultant would give the following guidelines for future salvage operations of P. caribaea :

Up to 5 Months : All damaged timber both down and standing can be salvaged for commercial use. There will be minimum insect damage and blue stain that would lower the quality to the point of making it non-commercial. The material is structurally sound. Around 4 months you will still have structurally sound material but the grading defects due to blue stain and insects will result in increased loss of the commercial value of the timber.

5 to 6 Months : The sawtimber material is still structurally sound although it will have more blue stain and insect damage than previously. Around 6 months some of the smaller pole and post material in contact with the ground will not be salvageable. Standing pole and post material is still salvageable. Toward the end of this time period the commercial value of the timber especially on the smaller diameter logs will end.

6 to 10 Months : Somewhere within this time period all the smaller pole and post material in contact with the ground will be non-commercial. It can be figured that by the 10th month all pole and post material whether standing dead or on the ground will become non-salvageable. Sawtimber will have more defects due to blue stain and insects but it will still be structurally sound. Unless there are larger diameter logs by the 7th month all commercial value can be considered lost.

10 to 12 Months : Sawlog material on the ground will become non-salvageable due to decay. Standing dead timber with tight bark as well as jackstraw trees will still be salvageable for structural material. There will be no commercial valuable logs left.

12 to 14 Months : All dead standing material of any quantity will be non-salvageable due to decay. The only material that will be salvageable is from those trees with broken tops that have partial live crowns.

This consultant visited a small commercial and cooperative mill in the Rio Yaque watershed. The operation was logging hurricane damage native pine (P. occidentalis). This pine is locally considered to be superior for building than P. caribaea due to the high resin content. This higher resin content makes the sawn wood less prone to rot and insect attack on structures. The logs in the mill at least made this consultant think that there may be some validity in the local preference for this wood. There were logs in the yard that were still sound, with minimum insect damage to them. These logs were salvaged from downed material. In addition, there was little to no blue stain evident on the sawn boards that were stacked to dry. If this were the general quality of the timber, this pine still had another 3 months or more of salvageable life left for commercial timber use. This would give a commercially salvageable life for P. occidentalis of over 21 months. The area where this was being salvaged is at an elevation of around 3,500 feet and is less humid and cooler than where the P. caribaea was being salvaged. The diameters of the dead material in the yard ranged from 16 to 20 inches at the small end.

Recommendations

Use the general guidelines developed for P. caribaea in developing future salvage plans. In addition, more work should be done on developing general time frames for the expected salvage life, both commercially and structurally, for P. occidentalis.

Structural Soundness of Wood : A review of some of the earlier built homes gave an opportunity to see how the lumber from the salvaged operation held up under local tropical conditions.

Current Expert Findings

This consultant visited various temporary homes constructed between February and March of 1999 by IDDI at Pantojas (just outside of Santo Domingo). These homes utilized the first wood that was salvaged from the project area.

This consultant looked for defects such as termite attacks, shrinkage and blue stain. It was found that there was no termite damage or other rot occurring. The wood had minimum blue stain and insect damage from being salvaged material. The boards were of good quality. Various sections of homes were measured for shrinkage. These measurements were taken at various compass aspects on the homes. Shrinkage ranged from a high of 13% to a low of 2.2%. The average shrinkage was around 3 to 4%. Most of the shrinkage occurred within the first 2 months of construction. This shrinkage is more than acceptable and seemed to be on the low side of what I expected. The houses were constructed in such a manner when the wood was green that there are now gaps between most of the outside boards. In talking with IDDI it was found that homes built later in the project life did not experience this shrinkage. That is due to the dead and down material having a chance to dry before it was cut into boards. Thus this salvage wood was acceptable in developing these temporary homes. If the homes were to be made more permanent at a latter date some type of caulking could be used to fill in the gaps caused by the shrinkage in the earlier built homes. The carpenter for IDDI was satisfied with the wood used in building these temporary shelter homes.

Expert Recommendations

Just be cognizant of the shrinkage factor during the first few months of using salvageable material in housing projects and take any appropriate design actions that may be warranted.

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