Since when does EPA prevent me burying a dead tree? Are they crazy? Raw wood buried in dirt is carbon sequestered that will sooner or later become new wood by decomposing and becoming soil. Any forest is plumb full of broken branches and such doing the same thing on their own.
I was wondering along the same lines. Maybe its some sort of code to prevent settling and not necessarily the epa???
A lot of our main highways between communities were just paved logging roads which were built over tree stumps and debris. Now the roads have sinkholes and the sides are falling away from the center. It is a real mess. They were trying to save money and get it done quick.
Same thing with a lot of the old logging roads in the woods around here....they used to lay logs across the base before the gravel was laid down. they called it "corduroy"
Oh its done all the time...just sayin there are rules about it...they tried to fill in a large area at work a few years back, taking whatever for fill. Someone went berserk when they found out there was stumps buried...made 'em dig most of them out...I think it was EPA related...wasn't actually there in person when it went down, totally second hand. I just know I got the exact same story from several different people. (could have been Ohio EPA too, or maybe the local watershed authorities)
Gotta remember, these were the same people pushing for farmers to bag cow farts...http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LE...nia.html/RK=0/RS=9YwcehWsO3e.ZOmRyulIVMUi1TI- This article makes me LLOL everytime I read it
I'm not sure what the law is in NYS on burying stumps or logs. Part of our town is in the Adirondack Park so NYS considers us a fire town so we're suppose to have a permit when burning brush but our town doesn't enforce it and the DEC doesn't either, that's why I only burn in the winter or when it's very wet.
After I do a few things tomorrow, I'll pick about three trees we'll take down in this area starting on Monday unless something changes.
Technically you are operating a landfill without a permit. Rubble and stumps decay in as little as 5 to 10 years with enough oxygen and may simply cause a sinkhole or depression as it settles or, worse, develope an air pocket in which children have slid into and died. You can get a permit to bury construction debris here but everything has to be certfied, done by procedure and documented and the site becomes unbuildable. It's such an expense that most just pay for dumpsters and disposal/recycling. Our town runs a huge tub grinder for stumps. Because they need stumps to sell the chips it's pretty much illegal to do anything with stumps beside bring them to the tub grinder. For a fee of course.
Since I'll be talking with our code enforcement officer in the next week, I'll ask him about this issue. I have read a few articles online on why states have stopped this.
They've had buildings collapse because someone used logs and stumps for fill then put in X amount of soil then sold the lot without the buyer having any idea what that person did.
I thought this area lost more snow but I was wrong so I'll hold off finishing until this area is ready. Once the snow melts that area will be wet so it might be a few weeks.
I'll be taking the plow off the tractor and then put on the bucket so I can remove the pine rounds in this area, we're getting this area ready for some fill.
