I was cutting on national forest land last week and saw branches near the road like someone had cut up a fir. So I looked around to see where the rest of it was and found the trunk just off the road and mostly obscured by a small 4-5' hump in the terrain. The only part visible from the road would have been the cut end, except somebody tried to hide it under a pile of branches. I like the way that person thinks. My truck was about 25% full already and the legally accessible part of this tree was enough to fill it up. Nice and straight with almost no knots. Sometimes ya win. Sometimes ya lose. That's public land wood cutting.
Knowing there's competition adds another layer of fun, adds a little urgency to a job. Nice you scuffed that up though!
Nice find and Goldilocks sized to boot. Seldom does good firewood get by an eagle eyed FHCer yourself included. Here's a dumb question blacktail. What if someone leaves a "keeping wood" sign there? Ive done it before but not in recent years. Common sight around here when trees cleared in front of houses by utility companies.
Permit rules only allow cutting trees that are down naturally within 50' of the road. It's perfectly normal to cut a load off a tree and then find the rest of it gone within a few days.
This is out in the middle of a national forest. Nobody is putting a sign out to claim ownership to anything.
For some perspective, these are some other public land spots I've cut at in the last couple of years. Different people cut on them and by the end of spring it's gone. I took 2 truck loads off that big hemlock above the road, as did some other scroungers. After 2 weeks the whole thing was gone.
Looks like a target rich environment with more to come. Rules of the road are different everywhere. I too wouldn’t cut on someone else’s score. Other side of the coin is lots of folks think we shouldn’t be cutting roadside scores at all. A broad spectrum. Now if it was a free for all in one of our state forests,,,,first come first served and I don’t care if someone else didn’t finish their plate You leave the table and I’m eating the last pork chop. I can see how that would become the norm.
Love seeing your truck and your dog. I had a T for a while but the underside was deteriorating horribly.
True. Ive left a cut and come back and gone. Snooze ya lose. If i see another hoarders cutting ill usually pass on it, unless many months later and no one has come back.
Sometimes the forest service drops trees because they are blocking trails or fell and are blocking roads and they start the process to make it inviting for us firewood cutters to come take away… and they don’t put a sign on it. It’s just understood unless it’s in your truck, it ain’t yours. But get it in your truck and it is. After a forest fire is a great time to find a lot of these trees as they dropped them to try to create fire breaks. I found a lot of oak one year they cut and left and no one found till I stumbled on them.
Very different round these parts. Even seeing Brad w/ the roadside scrounges is way different. Here you risk someone coming out w/ personal protection equipment, if ya know what I mean.
Agree 100% in this situation. This is public land and if I have a permit, I own the wood just as much as another person with a permit. Obviously, I won't horn in while another person is cutting unless there is a massive pile of logs where I can cut at the other end of the pile. If we have chatted for a while during a coffee break and he mentions that he has split too much for this load and is coming right back for the rest of the splits, I won't take any of his. If they are still there 3 days later they will come home with me. There is literally so much area and too much wood out there in the National Forest for people to squabble about it.
