Saw mill grinds through tornado-wracked grove

Snapped trees are still valuable

By Dylan Thomas

ST PETER — The mangled grove of snapped and splintered cottonwood trees along the Minnesota River just south of St. Peter will be a lasting reminder of the Aug. 24 tornado.

Months later, crews from Hiniker Saw Mill are still cutting logs from the mature trees downed or severely damaged in the storm. Owner Steve Hiniker said things looked much worse when he first walked through the area.

“It was a mess,” Hiniker recalled.

Those who drove Highway 169 in the days following the storm remember the scene: towering trees uprooted by the wind and thick trunks snapped in two. The comparison to so many matchsticks was unavoidable.

But the future of that lumber isn’t matchsticks; it’s likely to become pallets and shipping containers.

“It’s a tough, stringy lumber, and it’s strong,” Hiniker said.

Hiniker Saw Mill was contracted by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to clear the grove. Most of the land is MnDOT-owned highway right-of-way.

Woody Woodruff, a local MnDOT highway maintenance supervisor, said other contractors would have charged by the hour to complete the job. Hiniker Saw Mill is working for free, and in exchange will keep all of the lumber.

Just how much lumber could be harvested from the grove was hard for Hiniker to estimate.

“It doesn’t take long to get to 100,000 board feet,” he said.

Each board foot is equivalent to 1 square foot of lumber 1-inch thick.

Hiniker said each 1,000 board feet of the cottonwood lumber would sell for about $200. That would make 100,000 board feet worth roughly $20,000.

“Dollar-wise, there’s a lot of wood down there,” he said.

Hiniker’s crews are only working part-time at the job, heading down to the grove a few days a week. It’s slow going, but he planned to have most of the usable lumber cleared in two weeks.

“It’s difficult to get through there,” Hiniker said. “You have to cut things out of your way.”

Woodruff said all of the hazardous trees were removed immediately following the tornado. The logs and branches left when Hiniker completes his work may remain there a few years.

“As long as the road is safe ... we’ve got plenty of time to take care of things,” Woodruff said.

It could be several decades before the drive into St. Peter looks the same, said Cindy Johnson-Groh, executive director of Linnaeus Arboretum at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Johnson-Groh said a cottonwood with a foot-wide trunk is typically between 50 and 75 years old. Still, that means they grow “pretty doggone fast” compared to most hardwoods, she said.

She guessed that within 30 years the area will look like a forest again, with young elms, silver maples and cottonwoods filling in the empty spaces.

The tornado left behind many more broken trees than just those near St. Peter. Hiniker said he took dozens of calls from the owners of downed trees looking to sell lumber.

Barry Rosenau, owner of Quality Tree Service, said surprisingly few homeowners requested tree trimming following the tornado. But Rosenau figured those whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the storm may have been too busy to check on their trees.

A damaged tree should be trimmed now, before a broken limb becomes a safety hazard or affects the tree’s health, he said.

“Now, with no leaves on (the trees) would be a great time to take a look (for damage),” Rosenau said.