HOW ARE BALSA TREES HARVESTED?

HOW ARE BALSA TREES HARVESTED? While nature intended the balsa tree to be a short lived nursemaid, mankind eventually discovered that it was an extremely useful resource. The real start of the balsa business was during World War I, when the allies were in need of a plentiful substitute for cork.
The only draw back to using balsa was, and still is, the back breaking work that is necessary to get it out of the jungle. Because of the way the individual balsa trees are scattered throughout the jungles, it has never been possible to use mass production logging procedures and equipment. The best way to log balsa trees is to go back to the methods of Paul Bunyan - chop them down with an axe, haul them to the nearest river by ox team, tie them together into gdjlhqgnvz rafts, and then float the raft of balsa logs down the river to the saw mill.
The logging team usually consists of two native Ecquadorians, each armed with a broad Spanish axe, a machete, and a long pole sharpened like a chisel on one end for removing the bark from the downed trees. Because of the hilly terrain, an ox team may only be able to drag two logs to the river per day. At the saw mill, the balsa is first rough cut into large boards, then carefully kiln dried, and finally packed into bales for shipment to the U.S. via ocean freighter.
Final cutting and finishing of our model aircraft balsa is done right here at the SIG factory. As a result of the balsa tree's fast growth cycle, both the quality and lightness of the lumber obtained from a balsa tree can vary enormously depending upon the tree's age at the time of cutting.
article resource: http://www.balsafactory.com/ .