Went up into the mountains today looking for some Douglas Fir. Got one standing dead that died in a forest fire 10 years ago and then cut the one right next to it hoping it also was a Douglas Fir. It was hard to say since most of the bark was gone or singed from fire but once I got it down I could tell it wasn’t Doug fir I am guessing it was a spruce. Never burned that before but looked up the btus on a chart and was bummed. Oh well. I can use it for shoulder season, kindling, and the outdoor fire pit. Always good to have some wood for short fires.
Spruce is good for early season when you just want to take the chill off but don't want to roast everybody out.
Nice little haul there TD! Havent you harvested spruce in the past or was it that nice smelling white spruce?
Spruce sure beats an empty woodshed! Lots of places Spruce is the main bill of fare and they get along just fine. Just make an appointment with Doug for the next trip!
In my area, Douglas Fir is the Premier Firewood, but we get a lot of White Fir where we cut. White Fir heats the home just fine, just have to pack the stove Tight and Full, and reload it a bit more often. Our first year in our current home, the Wife found a guy on CL, that had 5 LARGE (30+” DBH) Norway Spruce cut down, didn’t burn, just wanted the trees to go away. We got over 6 cords from that score, the Spruce dried Fast, and burned well, but I was sure glad that I was using a hydraulic splitter, that was some KNOTTY stuff, but it heat our home, and the price was right Some Hardwoods in the mix would be nice, but they are pretty scarce in our area I Might have mentioned before that for us, Hardwoods are either downhill from the trailer, too far from the trailer or all too often BOTH Doug
It's not that hard to rig a winch up to use as a yarder. Done that more than once to pull blow downs out of lakes & up steep banks. Longer pull just needs more rope.
I burn white spruce, it’s the primary tree in the region by a long shot. I will say that up here the long cold winter makes for tight grain. It burns surprisingly well for what it is l, however it’s not hardwood. I have lived in places that the a single growth ring is 1/4 inch apart. Here I have anywhere between 7-15 rings in a 1/4 inch. It would depend on how tight the rings are for you there in Az. Worst case it’s shoulder season wood, best case it’s a species that most everyone else overlooks.
It’s not a matter of being hard to rig a winch, it is Not Allowed, in the Mt Hood NF. The rules vary from NF to NF. In the Mt Hood NF, we are only allowed 6 cords per Household, and we are not allowed to fall any trees, or winch In the Bend/Fort Rock unit, they are allowed 8 cords per household, and can fall standing dead up to 24” DBH, Not allowed to winch In the Wenatchee NF, they are allowed 12 cords per household, can fall standing dead up to 20” DBH, and are allowed to winch up to 200’ It just depends on where you are cutting, unfortunately, our area has the most restrictive rules. You would THINK that the rules in the National Forests would be more consistent, but they are not Doug
I have wondered about getting my allotment in the Mt Hood NF, and getting some additional from the others. I don’t think that they compare permit purchases between NF’s. It wouldn’t be practical to fill all my possible permits among the other NF’s. The Bend/Fort Rock unit is a solid 3 hours each way from home, But my Mom inherited property near there, so I could get a bit over 2-2.5 cords when visiting Mom’s LaPine property, I have gotten some Lodgepole off the property while my Grandparents were still alive. The Wenatchee and Tonasket NF’s are a solid 5 hours each way, but I sometimes get sent to Wenatchee, WA for work, so hey, I’m getting paid hourly rate for driving there and back, plus 56 1/2 cents per mile for personal vehicle use getting there and back, so taking the trailer and a couple saws with, and cutting a load on the weekend is practical. My trailer is a 6x12 tandem axle, with 6’ side boards on it. Depending on the species and MC, I can get over 3 cords of volume, which dry Lodgepole, close to 3 cords puts me scaling 8,000# on 7,000# worth of axles, so that is over, but a comfortable overload for me, that trailer has handled that in stride many times Green D Fir puts there at about 2-2.25 cords, dry white fir is usually 2.25-2.5 cords or so. So going just to get wood, isn’t practical, but if I can piggyback getting wood onto a trip for other reasons, then 2+ cords is worthwhile Doug
I burn a lot of spruce. It's easy to find around here. The spruce trees here grow to well over 100 feet. That's a lot of wood in one tree 'aka' a lot of bang for your buck. Spruce burns well. Heats the heck out of my house. A lot of the heat output actually has to do with how efficient your stove is. For me, I keep my stove thermometer in the upper end of the "burn zone" at all times - whether I'm burning hardwoods or softwoods. I just have to add wood a little more frequently if I'm burning softwood. This is Doug Fir. Grey bark. Tight grain. Red core. Amazing firewood. It's the "hardwood of softwood." The bigger rounds in this pic are Pine. I can't really tell what the smaller rounds in the pic are. Blue pine beetle outer rings in the bigger rounds. White core. Either Ponderosa or Lodgepole. I'm leaning toward Lodgepole due to the nice roundness and seasoning cracks. Ponderosa doesn't develop cracks as it seasons the way Lodgepole does.
Understood. One would think that they would want as much dry deadfall & standing out as possible to mitigate the fire danger, but as we all know gov't agency & common sense seldom go hand in hand. There are a lot of rules like that for state land cutting permits here too. I was working private property next to a piece of state land a few years back, the C.O. came over & we were talking. He asked me to take out some hazard trees that they didn't have enough staff for along a bike trail. I politely declined stating I didn't want the liability of bikers etc. Told him 1K per tree removed & cleaned up if they closed the trail for two days while the work was being done. He asked me to submit a bid & ins papers which I did. They denied it in his budget. Sure enough the trees came down one by one & blocked the trail everytime, closing it while they pulled people off other jobs to clear the trail. No idea how much money they lost, but they make big dollars off those trails. He retired & I've never bothered to even get a fuelwood permit again. Just not worth the hassle. Few hours spent talking to local landowners & I've got more wood available than I can ever use & no hassles. Biggest issue I have now is very warm winters that the ground doesn't freeze long enough to get good access in some places. I could skid six days a week all winter & never get it all.
OMG, I don’t even want to think about the fine, and possible banning from cutting in the NF, if I got caught winching blow down out of a lake. We are not even allowed to cut within 300’ of a “Wet Area” to cut and/or winch from the shore or Heaven Forbid IN a Lake, the Ranger would likely have a Coronary on the spot. I imagine that it is to keep “Pollutants out of the water”, but a saw doesn’t throw that much bar oil, or oil in the exhaust, 300’ seems rather excessive. The winching ban, is I’m sure because of “Soil Disruption and Erosion “ concerns, and winching FROM a Lake would channel that erosion run off directly into the Lake, Big No No, In MY Opinion, both concerns are blown out of proportion, but the Rules, are the Rules, Like them/Understand them or Not, suffer the consequences at one’s own risk. Granted, I have NEVER, had any of my Tags/Permits, Loads or Equipment inspected, the potential fines and loss of privileges just don’t make it worth it. This being less than 100 miles from where “Mostly Peaceful Protesters” were injuring, even Murdered one person, burning a Federal Courthouse, and otherwise disturbing Public Peace, without Consequences, some violations are dealt with more seriously than others. Again it defies Logic. Doug
AC, we have to drive past a bunch of blow down that we can see from the hwy, but the whole area west of Government Camp, has been CLOSED to wood cutting for as long as I can remember. One would think that they would want that fuel load removed, but every year that area remains closed, and the fuel is still there. It has been mainly by the Grace of God, that we haven’t had a Fire in that area. It also makes no sense that wood cutters are allowed to fall standing dead in some NF’s, and not in others It gets back to Like/Understand them or Not, the Rules be the Rules Doug
