Found this long azz screw in my ash pan this morning. Must have been buried deep inside a round or something. I frequently find screws, nails, barbed wire etc. 90+% of the wood I process comes from the Pike National Forest. I’m amazed at the metal that ends up in trees that come from the forest. Who is hiking through the woods driving screws into trees?
That screw looks like it was one of millions drove into trees all over the country on April 22, 1970 during the first Earth Day. The hive mind reached a unanimous decision that day. In order to save the trees, posters had to be secured to every single tree accessible by hiking trail all across the continent. While we can look back today and wonder why they thought wounding trees in the name of conservation made any sense to them, we can rest assured that surely we have evolved as a species since then Last week I burned some dead black locust that was full of nails. Although I found it in the woods, the area was former open farmland so I’m guessing at one point it held barbed wire or something. I tried to pry them out before they saw my stove but that wood is so hard, the nails would only come out by fire.
I didnt think screws like that were very common in the 70’s? I wasn’t alive then so I don’t really know.
I’m not sure how old it is, but it’s unusual looking. And it is old. Because it was deep inside of a big Douglass Fir split or round. That’s what I’ve been burning lately. I didn’t even see it sticking out.
Now now we mustn’t jump to conclusions here. If the smoke coming from the chimney smelled like patchouli and granola then maybe the case could be made...
Good question. The head was small and very distorted. I couldn’t make out what type of tool would drive it. It wasn’t a Phillips. I already chucked it in the trash in the garage.
Sorry, no pictures. I've found lengths of wire and fence, nails, spikes and screws of varying sizes, styles and ages. Not in the firebox but found in a round while splitting a .58 cal. miniball. By the rings grown over the entry we guess the slug hit the tree about 1900 or slightly before.
Whether that particular nail was from that earth day we don’t know but there are those nails in trees all over still from that day. Regardless, another good reason for safety gear, especially eye protection. Lots of different metal in trees everywhere from who knows when…
Those were different times in American history. We did not want to see anyone hurt or killed. I can't say the same for some lumber companies who injured and killed a few protesters in Humbolt County, CA and Wallowa County, OR. I can only speak for the group I worked with in Barbour County, WV. in '71. Generally we used big spikes so they could be found by metal detectors before they were felled or milled. And we also told timbering companies where and how many trees were spiked. Was it the right thing to do? I've thought about it a lot over the decades. When I visit areas of responsible harvesting and planting and areas of thick, 100 year old hardwoods, I have to say that, at that time and in those places, yes it was. It's unfortunate we couldn't find another way, but yes, change was needed to maintain a supply for tomorrow's America. And yes, in the summer of 1969, when I was 16, I went to Woodstock and May of 1975 I marched in D. C. against the war in Vietnam. I'm just an old hippie and I don't know what to do!
Thanks for your perspective and experience Ralphie Boy . FWIW, I would’ve marched alongside you to protest the Vietnam war (had I been around back then) especially knowing the whole Gulf of Tonkin fiasco that started that debacle... But anyway, right or wrong, I suppose something drastic had to happen before fundamental changes were made in conservation. A lot of that started with Teddy Roosevelt, but like anything, change is a process, not an event.
I hear ya, man. Like Eric Wanderweg said - That’s great perspective. I’m a conservationist at heart. I think most of us here are. Similar mind-set, different approach.
I fished this stuff from the ash tray, over the years . I keep the stuff for conversation starters. All this stuff was fully buried in splits from back when I was buying cordwood. These things were obvious No saws of mine, were injured in the discovery of this tree metal.
Too bad they just removed his statue from the front of the Museum of Natural History in NYC. Put up to honor him as one of the first conservationists and naturalists that prioritized those things. He also helped establish national parks and forests to help preserve the nation’s natural resources. Ironically it was he who founded the progressive party which currently does not know even it’s own history and has labeled him a “racist” and exiled his statue from where it belonged in front of the museum of natural history and expelled it to the boondocks of the Dakotas. Scary what happens when people do not know history and the truth gets so distorted and misrepresented.
