stacks of fully grown pine trees - help!

After the bushfire here in South Australia, I am now the dubiously proud owner of large stacks of whole pinus radiata trees, which I had to get cut down for safety reasons. Does anybody know how i can reduce this to a more soil friendly form? There are over a hundred whole trees in stacks of about 20. I have no tractor or large machinery and would see burning it as a wasteful last resort, but now looking ever more necessary. To me, the scale of the whole thing is mind boggling! Can anybody suggest something which won't cost the earth or send me to an early grave? Getting them cut down in the first place has proven to be horrifically expensive... Nobody will buy them, even though the timber is of good quality. It's just the way things are here now. If they can somehow be returned to the soil in a more useful form that would be fantastic.

Do you live out of town a ways? are there building code rules? If not you could try building a building out of the logs (like Paul's berm shed).

Or if you can do hugulkulture but that would require some way to dump dirt over the piles of logs.

Are the piles of logs a fire hazard in them selves? do they really have to be removed or can you just let them decompose over time?

Thanks Bernard.The first two suggestions can't be used, as I lack time and machinery for such tasks. These trees are really huge. I would love to make them decompose and would like some easy ways of speeding up the process as much as is earthly (or divinely) possible.

Cheers

Go into mushroom cultivation?
Not a joke, a possible Avenue to hasten decomposition and get a yield from your problem. Also probably reduce their flammability, although I cannot document that thought.

What sort of useful fungus grows on those trees?

Thanks Peter,

A good thought. I will need to do some research to find out if it's possible for me and won't take too much of my time. I have a million things to do for my bushfire recovery just to get back to the stage I was at a year ago. The scale of the damage is intimidating to say the least! How good it would be if some nice fungus could break down these monstrous pinus radiata trees and return them to the topsoil in a better form.

Have you searched any of the industry sites like this one? Your trees are a species that are used in commercial plantations. http://timbernsw.com.au/our-industry/

Others are able to sell this wood. Look for a small logging company that has a self loading truck with a grappling crane. Let them figure out extraction and marketing, weather they become saw logs or are sent to Japan as pulp.

This site contains email addresses and phone numbers which may be useful.

http://www.forestrycorporation.com.au/business/sales-and-supply

Thanks Dale.

Unfortunately those links seem to be in NSW, which is too far away for them to be interested in my trees. I'm here in SA (South Australia) so I would need some more local contacts. I will look, but if anyone can help it will be greatly appreciated. I have hundreds of pines cut down already, but there are thousands of dead pine trees still standing. I cut down the ones near fences and domestic areas for safety reasons and to enable the rebuilding of sheds.

Bernard Welm wrote:Are the piles of logs a fire hazard in them selves?

Any large pile of organic matter is a fire hazard, though as long as none of the piles are near infrastructure it shouldn't be a huge problem.

Peter Ellis wrote:Go into mushroom cultivation?
Not a joke, a possible Avenue to hasten decomposition and get a yield from your problem. Also probably reduce their flammability, although I cannot document that thought.

Keeping the logs extremely damp is a requirement for successful mushroom cultivation. This would dramatically reduce flammability. This would require access to LARGE quantities of water and lots of time/energy spent irrigating or moving bolts of wood into/out of water tanks. If you just innoculated the logs and let them rot in place there would be some extra moisture from the fungi, but nowhere near the same reduction in flammability. It would certainly hasten decomposition and increase biodiversity.

Peter Ellis wrote:What sort of useful fungus grows on those trees?

According to this website you might try Phoenix oyster or turkey tail.

I believe you are overstating the water requirements. Soaking in a tank is a technique used to trigger flushes with shitake, but you do not routinely dunk the logs. They do require a significant water content in the log for the fungus to thrive and in a region prone to wildfires that may be a challenge to maintain.

Greetings Morgan, When in New South Wales, I went to a fair where they were demonstrating Chainsaw mills, Not like the Alaskan chainsaw mill, but several different kinds with racks. Some that could be cranked and cut Gum and other trees into slabs that were then cut into lumber.

I would think you could cut all those logs into lumber for use or money. Get one of those mills and Bob's your uncle!

Richard