Typical comment

I can recall being in tight places with money and no wood where I would burn almost anything I could find but thankfully my dad drilled it into my brain that green trees are a last resort.... Not for burning... for harvesting at all.

His rule, and my grandfather's, was deadfall (if it was solid), standing dead, and then and only if it was needing to be cut for clearing a road or path were we to cut green wood.

I will never forget the "discipline" my brother and I received when dad found out we had been practising our axe skills on live trees. I was about ten and brother 8 and a half or 9 when we decided we wanted to use the axe. I think we got a dozen or more large poplars down in the north pasture bush over the course of a few trips out there before we got caught.

To this day it drives me crazy when I see people cutting live trees as they walk past dead standing and dead fall trees.

yeah, last year me and my dad helped cut some wood for my uncle. Before we left I talked with his wife and she said she could tell by the way I was splitting wood that I knew what I was doing. I explained that I had plenty of practice as we heat solely with wood and that I was actually at least a year ahead and had it all stacked and drying. She got a very troubled, worried look on her face and said, "But if you dry it so long, won't it be too dry??". I just smiled and said that my stove liked dry wood and didn't even try to explain. Apparently they burn mostly green red oak - somehow.

also, and yes lowroad.. , I too mostly only cut dead and down wood. I'm a big time tree hugger (who also happens to love running a chain saw) - and only cut living trees if for example a friend needs to have a tree taken down in their yard for some reason - I'll do it to save them money and then I get the wood - since the tree was going to get cut anyways. but yeah another benefit is that dead and down wood often will take less time to season.


back to the original topic though - just from observing how people cut wood in my area - it seems like probably the majority of wood burners do not burn seasoned wood. Lately a lot of people have started using those outdoor wood things that produce more smoke that a freight train - they just toss in whole rounds of green wood.

Backwoods Savage said:

I've often thought it might be interesting to have someone like that stay with us for a while just to see what difference there is burning good dry wood vs. freshly cut.

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Let them near your stove and........

Was it seven years supply of wood you had in store, or two weeks ;-)

FLINT said:

just from observing how people cut wood in my area - it seems like probably the majority of wood burners do not burn seasoned wood. Lately a lot of people have started using those outdoor wood things that produce more smoke that a freight train - they just toss in whole rounds of green wood.

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Having been to my brothers last summer, and enjoyed a barbeque with one of these things going, I know what you mean. His idea of a good time was to throw a mass of green fir tree on it and have smoke billowing across the whole area. We left early as the wind changed direction and we were all smoked out.

I dread him getting a woodburner

Backwoods Savage said:

....He told me about buying some oak that was really dry. It was so dry it simply burned up too fast! He was happy to get some green wood so it would last longer....

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Yup, sounds exactly like the people around here.

That's like "Oh man- I have to do something about my wife. She's a gourmet cook and now I'm getting fat from the good food. And she's crazy in the boudoir, and now I have a back ache. And all that money she makes as a bank president is so hard to keep track of..."

I love knowing everything too.

Adios Pantalones said:

she's crazy in the boudoir, and now I have a back ache

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Damn Frenchmen ; Not Canucks.

Look, I don't know sheetz about woodstoves, but how do people go to sleep with a stove full of green wood and the damper open so it'll burn?? hh: Cause that's scarier than the aforementioned Canuck at a wedding reception

I've been trying to educate my wood customers for 23 years to season their wood. I still have the same customers calling for wood the 1st of Dec and wanting GREEN when the could have at least called in April and ordered green. Your wasting your breath . Let em burn green wet crap.

Backwoods Savage said:

So I met his buddy this weekend. One comment really got me. He told me about buying some oak that was really dry. It was so dry it simply burned up too fast! He was happy to get some green wood so it would last longer. He also made some comment about how easy it is to burn wood. Just throw some wood in the stove, open the draft and forget about it until that wood has burned up.

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Dennis,

Between creosote build-up with wet wood and over-firing with the dry wood, it is people like that who will make the newspaper... but not in a good way. Sometimes, as much as you want to instill knowlege upon the un-informed, they will still not get it. Don't beat yourself up on this one. We are all listening here...and learning!

Jon

EatenByLimestone said:

There are plenty of reasons why I would leave dead trees standing and cut live ones. It's all in what your goals are.

Dead trees are places for animals to live. A rotted out tree can provide a den for all sorts of animals.

You may decide to create a clear cut in a certain area in order to create edge habitat for deer, grouse, etc. On the other side of that, some animals like completely undisturbed habitat...

If you are managing the woodlot for certain species of value your goal could be to reduce overcrowding so you may selectively cut out less desirable species. You may even cut out the desirable species if they are growing too close for them to mature correctly.

There are all sorts of reasons to cut one tree over another, it all depends on what your goals are.

Matt

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Very few people look at the bigger picture of woodland management like you do.
They just look for a tree which is either dead, and easy to get to, or live, and even easier to get to.
I actually left a small pile of oak rotting at the end of our garden, deliberately for a small stag beetle population which lives here.
We see them in the evenings in June and they are great to watch.
But they, and many other smaller critters tend to prefer wood that rots very slowly, like oak.
Silver birch seems to rot very quickly under the bark once dead, and supports very little life whilst rotting away.
Which is why I tend to go for standing dead birch over oak.

We have a shoot near us, and I'll be over there shortly to remove some trees which were cut down in October.
They need removing before end March, once birds are nesting in the area, they cannot be disturbed.
Quite a few wood piles will be left as habitat piles, and others will become firewood.
Hopefully that will be my 2014/15 wood taken care of

I leave some trees to rot- it's good for the carbon base in my woods. I have a large brush pile I've been composting for years, though it's provided a place for a groundhog to dig a home and launch his attacks...

Some people are not teachable.

Hi Dennis...if the young dudes are cuttin' stuff on your woodlot that you don't want them to cut whose fault is that...
I manage my wood lot like some have said on this forum...I leave some of the big dead stuff for wildlife and take the smaller...either standing or on the ground if it's solid for the most part. I also thin out some of the larger standing trees depending on alot of factors. The wood I burn is between six months and a year old...both hard and soft wood. I burn my wood in a large Allnighter that is about thirty years old. It has served me well.

lo cal said:

Some people are not teachable.

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Too sad. Maybe they are "show-able"? Bring them into your home in the evening, show them the hot fire from dry wood, and have them back for breakfast in the AM to show them the coals, ready for more tasty seasoned wood?

There must be something to get the message to sink in....

Fortunately, like others have mentioned, my father and grand father taught me this when I was just a lad. But I had one fall when I didn't fill my wood room before snow flied (just lazy), and had to bring in some snow and ice covered chunks in February, and could barely keep the frost out of the house with that hissing fire nightmare. Lesson learned! I'm 2 years ahead now.

Backwoods Savage said:

A week ago I agreed to let a relative cut some of our dead white ash. He usually cuts wood with a friend and would really like it if I let his friend come in too. So, I agreed because I don't want to see too much wood go to waste. They are young and I remember what it was like at that age.

What really gets me though is that these two guys will not let their wood dry. They want green wood. I've talked to the one before about the wood but even after that, one day I drove past his place and it was raining. Sure enough, the wood was covered....completely. I guess you gotta keep that awful rain off the already wet wood... So now he waited until he was out of wood to come cut. He is smiling all the way and I'm happy for him but evidently can not tell him much.

So I met his buddy this weekend. One comment really got me. He told me about buying some oak that was really dry. It was so dry it simply burned up too fast! He was happy to get some green wood so it would last longer. He also made some comment about how easy it is to burn wood. Just throw some wood in the stove, open the draft and forget about it until that wood has burned up.

Very typical for folks to think that way. I've often thought it might be interesting to have someone like that stay with us for a while just to see what difference there is burning good dry wood vs. freshly cut.

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I usally show people my shop where the furnace is and pumps into the house. Hot air and water. At that point when the feel the house warm and the water hot there all questions.

EatenByLimestone said:

lowroadacres said:

I can recall being in tight places with money and no wood where I would burn almost anything I could find but thankfully my dad drilled it into my brain that green trees are a last resort.... Not for burning... for harvesting at all.

His rule, and my grandfather's, was deadfall (if it was solid), standing dead, and then and only if it was needing to be cut for clearing a road or path were we to cut green wood.

I will never forget the "discipline" my brother and I received when dad found out we had been practising our axe skills on live trees. I was about ten and brother 8 and a half or 9 when we decided we wanted to use the axe. I think we got a dozen or more large poplars down in the north pasture bush over the course of a few trips out there before we got caught.

To this day it drives me crazy when I see people cutting live trees as they walk past dead standing and dead fall trees.

Click to expand...

I think you have to look at the goals you want for your woodlot. There are plenty of reasons why I would leave dead trees standing and cut live ones. It's all in what your goals are.

Dead trees are places for animals to live. A rotted out tree can provide a den for all sorts of animals.

You may decide to create a clear cut in a certain area in order to create edge habitat for deer, grouse, etc. On the other side of that, some animals like completely undisturbed habitat...

If you are managing the woodlot for certain species of value your goal could be to reduce overcrowding so you may selectively cut out less desirable species. You may even cut out the desirable species if they are growing too close for them to mature correctly.

There are all sorts of reasons to cut one tree over another, it all depends on what your goals are.

Matt

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+1 Matt

NH_Wood said:

EatenByLimestone said:

lowroadacres said:

I can recall being in tight places with money and no wood where I would burn almost anything I could find but thankfully my dad drilled it into my brain that green trees are a last resort.... Not for burning... for harvesting at all.

His rule, and my grandfather's, was deadfall (if it was solid), standing dead, and then and only if it was needing to be cut for clearing a road or path were we to cut green wood.

I will never forget the "discipline" my brother and I received when dad found out we had been practising our axe skills on live trees. I was about ten and brother 8 and a half or 9 when we decided we wanted to use the axe. I think we got a dozen or more large poplars down in the north pasture bush over the course of a few trips out there before we got caught.

To this day it drives me crazy when I see people cutting live trees as they walk past dead standing and dead fall trees.

Click to expand...

I think you have to look at the goals you want for your woodlot. There are plenty of reasons why I would leave dead trees standing and cut live ones. It's all in what your goals are.

Dead trees are places for animals to live. A rotted out tree can provide a den for all sorts of animals.

You may decide to create a clear cut in a certain area in order to create edge habitat for deer, grouse, etc. On the other side of that, some animals like completely undisturbed habitat...

If you are managing the woodlot for certain species of value your goal could be to reduce overcrowding so you may selectively cut out less desirable species. You may even cut out the desirable species if they are growing too close for them to mature correctly.

There are all sorts of reasons to cut one tree over another, it all depends on what your goals are.

Matt

Click to expand...

+1 Matt

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I don't think many of us would have a problem with managing your woodlot. The issue is when your approach to your goals are based off of ignorance, such as green wood will burn better so I will only cut live trees.

I just dont get it, my niece and her husband who know nothing about burning wood had a wood burner installed this year (non epa) and even they know green wood sucks as they had some, so some people who have burned wood for years still think green wood is better? I would kick those people off of my land in a heartbeat and let them freeze their testicles off.

I have a guy at work how has an old smoke dragon and he cut wood between Thanskgiving and Christmas to burn this year. He says the new stoves like my Fireview may not use much wood but they don't put our enough heat and such. He says the wood burns better when it has just been cut and split. Glad I am not his neighbor getting all the smoke fram that stove.

I cut live trees all the time for firewood and logs. It has been proven a few times that depending on current market value , a well managed acre of woodlot will provide a greater financial return over time than an acre of cropland. Besides the sawmill doesn't have much need for standing dead logs.
So they will always be people who argue that "green" wood is fine to burn, but I don't care, they don't live at my house. Each to their own.

Dennis: I still have numerous oak trees down since the ice storm of 08' so I don't have to take any more trees down for at least 2 -3 more years. I have 3 acres, 95% oak. Some people just don't want to listen about burning seasoned wood. They are the ones that will argue that burning pine produces creosote. I enjoy reading post from you and other experts on this forum and have learned a lot. Stay Warm Jim