I went for a hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains today. There had been an ice storm in the upper elevations last month (odd since we've had no wintry weather down low in the foothills) and lots of trees and large branches were down all throughout the forest. Probably 50% of the branches came down. I was on a trail maintained by a hiking organization so the trail was clear, but mile after mile was nothing but downed hickory, oaks, locust, cherry and maples. The trail crews cut logs where they fell on the trail so I couldn't help but see the fresh cuts and think about what great firewood it would make. A lot of the trees had been standing dead so the fresh saw marks revealed wood that looked really dry ready to go! There were no cleared trees along the roads though so I'm assuming the local mountain folk took advantage and stocked up. Lucky them.
A shame to see the wood go to waste
- Thread starter wahoowad
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I feel the same every time I walk through the park behind my house. It's a long, thin park around a stream. Lots of nice big oaks down here and there, lots of poplar if you're into that, and some cherry and some hickory. Most of it would be a pain to haul out, and I don't know if that is allowed anyway, but still all I see is piles of wasted firewood. Some neighbors recently had a massive oak fall in the park just behind their house, but there's no truck access, and what am I going to do to a 4' diameter oak with my 16" bar anyway?
DiscoInferno said:
I hear ya. I have a 70' little over three foot diameter red oak down on a downhill incline on the property right now. I go look at it every once in a while, groan and go back to the house.
My saw will cut it just fine. Then my scrawny sixty year old butt has to get those rounds up that hill, loaded, back to the house and then split them.
The same neighbor called the county about another oak that was even closer to their house a year ago; the county came out and left only a 20' stump. I cut and hauled a cord from behind their backyard. I tried using a cart, but they had big tree roots everywhere. I carted a lot of large (40-50lb) logs by hand from the woods, through the backyard, and around to my truck. Great cardiovascular workout and all, but I decided it was easier to wait for people to post to craigslist that the wood was at the curb.
I damn near killed myself lugging wood like that up a hill to my truck. It was too sweet a find for a newbie wood scrounger to pass up. Now I keep eyeing those $49 (2000 lb.) and $99 (3000 lb.) electric winches sold at harbor freight and tractor supply. Those could drag some decent logs up a small incline, or a wagon if the land was flat.
As painful as it may be to walk away from the deadfall, rest assured that although it may not end up as firewood, that wood is being recycled nicely. In the short term will become home for many forest denizens. Eventually as it breaks down it will be come food and fertilizer for future forests.
When they clear for developments a round here they have mulching mechince that grinds up the logs into a mountain. Piles of mulch bigger then a house. Now thats a waste.
I drive into Manhattan everyday to work. There's about 4 mature oaks cut into about 10' rounds lying by the Sawmill River Parkway. They're absolutely no place to pull over and even if there were, I'm sure someone would call the cops if they saw a nut out there with a chain saw cutting them up into moveable pieces. It's about 4 cords of beautiful oak that's just going to sit there and rot. Ugh!
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