And a large number of hardwood trees that grew slowly in thick woods also are resting in the river, said Cyr. Today in the forest, you can get trees with seven to 15 rings per inch. Even when dried out, those slower-growing trees would weigh much more than logs harvested from today's managed forests, Cyr said. His Kennebec River application, which was filed at the Bureau of Parks and Lands on June 28, notes that this year's proposed salvaging would remove 150 hardwood and 50 softwood logs that total about 20,000 board feet. Hardwoods in the water include oak, maple and birch.
Softwoods are mostly hemlock, pine and spruce.
Cyr would work on the salvaging project into the early fall with businessman and log buyer Hector Beaulieu, of Lyman. Logs would be stockpiled temporarily on land owned by AD Electric Co., of Sabattus. The lot is on the river's west side, in an area east of the junction of Old Belgrade Road and West River Road. Cyr said he started looking into salvaging logs last year after reading about old logs that were removed from the Edwards Dam foundation of timber cribbing. Logs will start to crack after you take them out of the water.