Forestry officials survey the area that is to be harvested and mark and record the individual teak trees that may be cut. This is usually specified by measuring the girth of the tree at breast height to ensure that the size falls within the parameters laid down by the Burma Selection System.

Girdling

The trees marked for felling are girdled and left for two or three years before felling. Girdling is the cutting of a groove through the sapwood in a ring around the tree, killing the tree while it is standing. The main intention is to render the logs light enough to float, water being the main form of transport to the mills, but it also has the effect of starting the seasoning of the wood.

Green logs

In certain circumstances, where land transport (road and/or rail) is readily available, the trees may be felled without being girdled. This produces “green” or unseasoned logs. Green logs are easier to slice into veneers, as the wood is more pliable.

Extraction

After felling, the logs are trimmed and cross-cut into manageable lengths for extraction. Drag holes are cut to take the pulling chains, and the underside of the leading edge of the logs is curved to avoid snagging as they are pulled along the ground. Logs are hauled to the nearest creek, mainly by elephants but also by buffalo and bullocks.

Creeks

For many months of the year, the creek beds are dry. The logs  are laid out to await the heavy monsoon rains, which produce a sufficient rise of water to float them out and start them on their long journey to Rangoon. As a rule, a great deal of help from elephants is needed in the higher reaches. The creeks are often narrow and tortuous, and during a rise in water level jams frequently occur at bends and against fallen trees. Where possible, specially trained tusker elephants break up such jams and keep the logs moving as long as there is sufficient water to keep them afloat. When the water level falls, any jams that remain are broken up and the logs rearranged to await the next rise. Gradually, the logs make their way further and further downstream until the water is deep enough to enable them to be made up into rafts.

Rafts

It usually takes about two months for the rafts to drift from the rafting depots to the log depots and sawmills in Rangoon. During this time, they must be steered past the shallows and kept secure, so huts are
erected on the rafts for the crew and their families. It has been estimated that anything from five to ten years can elapse between the girdling of a tree and the arrival of its logs in Rangoon, and in some cases the logs may have traveled as far as 1200 miles by water.

Burma Selection System

In 1856, Dr. Detroit Brandeis, a German botanist working for the Government of India, arrived in Burma. Dr. Brandeis’s report and recommendations became the basis of the Forestry Policy that is still in force today. His first priority was, “To protect and, as far as possible, to improve the forests, to arrange the cutting so as to keep well within the productive power of the forests, and to ensure a permanent and sustained yield from them.” This remains the cornerstone of the National Forest Policy. The Burma Forest Act of 1881, reenacted in 1902 and with subsequent amendments to reflect changing situations, still remains as the basic law covering forestry in Myanmar. Forest areas since that time have been classified into protection forests (to protect watersheds and deter soil erosion), reserved commercial forests (making up about one-third of forest area and permanently dedicated to forestry, with a strict annual allowable cut to ensure a sustained yield), local supply forests (to supply the local population with fuel wood, building material, and non-wood forest products), and nature reserves. All forest lands are owned by the state and managed by the Forest Department.Teak trees growing naturally in the forests of Burma are scattered. It was therefore essential to instigate an effective forestry management system in order to maintain a sustained source of teak. So over 40 years, Dr. Brandeis created the Burma Selection System to meet this need. His system, he said, was based on this principle: “to cut sparingly, to select the trees to be cut with great care, and simultaneously to increase the proportion of teak in the forest by planting.” He was also acutely aware of the failings of human nature. He believed that unless a forest had a long-term commercial value it was unlikely to be protected. He added: “Cutting, however, has to be made in order to produce money. I knew perfectly well that unless the forest could be made an annual net source of revenue for the government, regular forest management was unlikely to be maintained. These cuttings, however, I was determined, should be regulated by a well considered plan, the object of which would be the maintenance and not the exhaustion of the forests.” It is Dr. Brandeis’s system which still forms the basis of the present forestry management plan. Under the Burma Selection System, trees above a fixed girth are harvested on a 30-year cycle. At present, the minimum girth required before felling, at breast height, is 6 feet (1.8 meters) in poor quality forest and 7’6” (2.3 meters) in good forests. In addition, an annual allowable cut is fixed to ensure the absolute sustainability of the forest. It is natural regeneration, therefore, which produces, and will continue to produce, the majority of the teak in Myanmar