Road side cutting, ask or dont ask.

Be that guy. That wood may be on a power line right-of-way but it belongs to the landowner. They probably will be glad to have it gone.

Always ask when houses are near.
Usually pays off big time. Some times , you end up with additional scores.

If already cut to size, worth stopping & asking for sure.
I bet most will gladly have you take it & appreciate that you asked

Part of me wants to say just take it because if you don't someone else will. But the others are right. Take 2 minutes to ask them.

Who's going to yell at a guy with a running chainsaw in his hands?

If it's near a house... and by near I mean a few hundred feet max, I'd go ask. Otherwise... finders keepers!

Ask the crew doing the cutting first. The can tell you if they can let you have the wood or if the property owner has to give it to you. Around my neck of the woods its the power company's wood and the crew cutting can give it away. However I never picked much that they have cut that was of any good size.

Bottom line, always ask, the worst that can happen is you'll be told no, don't ask and something worst could happen.

Best if you ask. Power line is not usually power co.'s property around here.
I'd be ticked if someone came along to get wood from my power line property w/o asking.
Everything belongs to someone, and if it's not yours,......well, it's not yours.
There's a lot of that cutting going on around here too.

You should definitely ask.

If it's near a house... and by near I mean a few hundred feet max, I'd go ask. Otherwise... finders keepers!

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If anyone starts grabbing wood a few hundred feet from my house, they're going to have issues.

Anytime you see cut up wood, it is somebody's property. If it's not yours, find out who's it is.

higginscl said:

The last couple of days there has been a company cutting down trees along the road i drive to work. Im assuming the power company hired them cause its only on the power line side of the road. This is just on the outside of town but its all somewhat near homes. My question is should I stop at all the houses on this stretch of road and ask if they are doing anything with the wood or just stop and pick it up. I feel like i should but i dont want to be the guy going door to door for free wood.

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I would ask, they're doing the same in our area. I noticed they cut a Maple (nice size) down that had a posted sign on it near the road.

" Do you mind if I clean this up for you? I'll use it to heat my home"

Do you ever see oak or other hardwoods that they cut lying on the side of the road?
I think maybe the trimmers know what they got there

Paulywalnut said:

Do you ever see oak or other hardwoods that they cut lying on the side of the road?
I think maybe the trimmers know what they got there

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See that many times. I've seen oak laying around for years. You wouldn't think so in this area but it happens a lot.

Every time I have asked I ended up scoring more than just the wood that was laying by the side of the road. Last year after sandy I saw a road crew cutting in front of an empty lot between 2 houses. I noticed a guy at one of the houses was in his yard splitting with a maul so I went over to ask him if he was going to take the rest of the wood the crew was cutting. His reply was "No f#%king way! I didnt realize how hard this is to do.Take all that stuff and take the rest that I already dragged over,I will even help you load it". Between what was by the road and what was in his yard I scored a half cord.

Around here it is. If power lines run through the woods, the power company owns the land or leases it from someone. In residential, dunno, it's mostly buried.

PapaDave said:

Best if you ask. Power line is not usually power co.'s property around here.
I'd be ticked if someone came along to get wood from my power line property w/o asking.
Everything belongs to someone, and if it's not yours,......well, it's not yours.
There's a lot of that cutting going on around here too.

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Interesting.

Woody Stover said:

Be that guy. That wood may be on a power line right-of-way but it belongs to the landowner. They probably will be glad to have it gone.

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Met a few people that really like to see "that guy"

I know that it is tempting to just grab wood because you think "no one else wants it" or "someone else will just take it if I don't", but always always ask around and get permission. You'd be suprised how many times the answer is "yes, take it"! Some people will even look at you in astonishment like "you mean you actually want that? Isn't that a lot of work?" lol...

"One man's junk is another man's treasure".....

This happens in our town all the time. People get a tree cut down, leave it there so they can process it on the weekend, go to work the next day, and come home to find it GONE. It really pizzes me off too. They give scroungers a bad name.

Just out the street from me, a buddy of mine cut two big maples down (a sugar and a Norway), bucked it up, and left it for the homeowner and the homeowner's son-in-law to process. The next day, almost a third of it was missing. They had to put a sign up and install a game camera up to keep an eye on something that was in their back yard!! Since then, that son-in-law was in a horrible motorcycle accident, and will probably be needing firewood and won't be able to process it in the near future. Someone else has some of his heating wood....

Knots my knickers, I tell ya......

Anywhoo, make it a point to ask. Even if they say "no", you'll have the piece of mind knowing you did the right thing.....