Get my chainsaw or wait...

highway Dpt. he said "it is on town land so go after 3:00"

Just IMO, but "better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission"
But you do have 1 verbal "it is on town land so go after 3:00"
But again, that's me.

Best if both said OK though.
Might be prudent to be sure :zip:

Get it in writing if you can. Ask the borough or township head to give you a permission slip. Then yer covered!!

lctatlp said:

After talking to everyone involved, I think I'm getting those giant rounds tomorrow.
Nice pickin as the guy told me.

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:lol:

Depending on what is meant by the terms you wrote, it can get hairy.

If these are high tension "power lines," then some utilities don't like anybody (firewooders, ATV riders, hikers, etc.) to go into that area.

If these are regular roadside utility poles and lines, then you might run into issues with the homeowner/landowner who owns the property (utility co. has right of way, but not ownership). Where I am in PA, it's best to ask the landowner/nearest house for permission.

If it is truly "town" land, then I'd go with what the town says.

TreePointer said:

Depending on what is meant by the terms you wrote, it can get hairy.

If these are high tension "power lines," then some utilities don't like anybody (firewooders, ATV riders, hikers, etc.) to go into that area.

If these are regular roadside utility poles and lines, then you might run into issues with the homeowner/landowner who owns the property (utility co. has right of way, but not ownership). Where I am in PA, it's best to ask the landowner/nearest house for permission.

If it is truly "town" land, then I'd go with what the town says.

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Agreed.

I think if it is clearly town property then I'd just take the wood. After all, a guy from the crew said it would be ok, right? That is good enough for me. If the property looks like it might be in somebody's yard or somebody might consider it their yard I guess I'd knock on the door, tell them that the city guys said it is OK for you to take the wood, but you thought you'd let them know what is happening. Probably they'll say great, go ahead. If they complain then I might leave it, unless they were jerks about it in which case I might take it for spite. Nah, I wouldn't do that, but I think asking, or maybe you are really just notifying, the neighbors is a good idea.

It's the contractors property.
We do clearing and saw logs/wood are value figured into the bid price. If the wood was brought to the roadside from a distance its likely they will market it otherwise they wood leave it or chip it where it lay. I know a few crews that work mostly residential/city lots that have detachable video systems in the cabs of equipment to catch vandals and theives.

luckilLEE said:

It's the contractors property.
We do clearing and saw logs/wood are value figured into the bid price. If the wood was brought to the roadside from a distance its likely they will market it otherwise they wood leave it or chip it where it lay. I know a few crews that work mostly residential/city lots that have detachable video systems in the cabs of equipment to catch vandals and theives.

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+1 . . . If the wood was hauled down to the road there is a pretty good chance the contractor is planning on hauling the wood off to make a little more money.

I would do some more fact finding before I start cutting.

Jags, I'm not Lee for sure but can tell you that it could be either way with the guy in the bucket. At least it is that way in our area.

lctatlp said:

It was 12" to 24" rounds about 8 to 15' long. within 10' to 25' of the road. I was going to go yesterday to saw it up, never made it, I went this afternoon to buck it and it's gone. Not sure who took it, maybe someone like me or the contracted tree company. Damn I shouldn't have hesitated. I think part of it was on town land but most was abutted by a farm that owns hundreds of acres in town. Anyway, I got several truck loads of oak that i could lift so I made out fine.
I'd estimate 25 to 30 truck loads of mostly oak I scored from this, the Oct snowstorm and the Sept hurricane. I love scrounging, it's fun!

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8-15' are saw logs. Log truck more than likely removed them. If it was junk wood it would have been left tree length.
Known or unknown wood theivery is triple damages plus fines and court cost. Be glad they were gone.

lctatlp said:

Wood thievery?
Are you saying the logs left on the side of the road on the town's property or close to abutters property is thievery? I pay taxes.

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You pay taxes, but you don't personally own the trees in the town or city parks or state forests. It's not uncommon for municipalities to contract with timber companies to have some trees sent to a mill.

Heck, I'm actually happy when a local municipality gets money from timber cut down during one of their building/maintenance projects. There are all kinds of stories where good timber or firewood trees are sent to a dump or, worse yet, the municipality has to pay to have them disposed.

My guess is that every situation like this is very different, depending on what part of the country it is and exactly where the wood is. I always err on the side of "ask, ask, ask" but sometimes it's a legal limbo kinda deal and you just have to use your best guess.

Seems like in this one it's probably better off that you let it go. I doubt you will ever find out if this was the correct decision or not though. Not to worry, there will almost always be more out there that will be more (pun intended) cut n' dry. The whole "not knowing where the next windfall will come from" is part of the scrounging game. I buy wood (all locust) to supplement my scrounging because scrounging has such a degree of uncertainty to it. It' just how it is unless you have a guaranteed woodlot to supply yourself with.

Better safe than sorry.
I grew up down in Plymouth and powerlines/gaslines were off limits without written consent.
Be glad they are gone.

If you are scrounging for next year's wood supply, that oak would probably not be ready anyway. Not knowing how far ahead you are on your supply makes it difficult to give good advice. If you are working on next year, my suggestion is to go ahead and bite the bullet and weed through the shysters and buy some wood NOW. Having a supply on hand makes these kinds of decisions more rational...

The Divine Providence of Scroungingâ„¢ should not be your primary source if you are putting up random find wood for anything less than a year out, especially Oak. Once you get ahead (elusive for me...) it should make all of this much clearer. YMMV.

If you are going to scrounge from utility, right of way clearing, etc. you need to find out several things first as stated above. You need to find out your local laws on the different things such as easements, right of ways, and whatever terms your area uses. This varies from area to area. You also need to verify what the land is and who actually owns it. For example, my land has 2 utility "easements" on it. The first is actually an right of way that is owned by the County and that section I have the right to "use for access" but I do not own it or pay taxes on it. The Second is an "utility easement" that has power lines running across it. This land is actually my land which means I own it, pay taxes on it, and according to the law here I have the right to anything on it except the utility equipment. No one is allowed on this land except the utility company and contractors. And even they are only allowed by restriction of emergency, maintenance, and inspection. Up until 2 years ago they were not even allowed to cut trees on this type of property without the owners permission. Now they are allowed to cut any trees which are interfering with the utilities but they must ask the owner what they want the utility to do with the trees, as the trees are still owned by the property owner. They have the choice of the contractor leaving the wood or the contractor must remove all wood at the owners discretion, and if the trees are deemed of value the land owner has the right to fair compensation. They must even repair any damage done in the process to return the area to the equivalent state as before to the extent of grinding the stumps, re leveling the ground, and repairing the grass or landscaping to its original condition.

If you are lucky your area will have an online GIS site that you can go on to look up the property boundaries and who owns the property. The reason I state all of this is every area is different and handles easements, right of ways, and property boundaries differently. Another example of differences is in my County almost all of the land the roads are on, including a minimum 10' easement along them, is owned by the County or State. However the County next to me almost all of the property boundaries extend to the center of the road except the State roads and Interstates. In today's tricky world do not assume and check first. Taking wood off someones land around here could land you in jail for theft and trespassing, or worse.

Just because wood is on the side of the road doesn't mean it's free for the taking . . . oftentimes this is where a contractor or logger will stack the wood so the trucks can easily pick up the load (especially if the conditions are such that going off road may result in the truck getting stuck in Spring time.)

It's always better to ask . . . in my own opinion.