Stopped at the feed store for some birdseed today and while i was waiting i checked out the firewood bundles. This cracked me up!
I treat my firewood to heat too! In a black box specially designed for heat. I get the kiln dried part, but seriously, heat treated?
That's a strange way to market firewood. I would think "kiln dried" would've been enough to get the point across but I guess they had to make sure they reached the people in the metal working crowd too.
Actually it's NY state law if you want to be able to sell firewood that can be transported more than 50 miles you have to heat treat it to 160F for 75 minutes and label it as such! Untreated firewood grown in NY may not be transported more than 50 miles (linear distance) from its source or origin unless it has been heat-treated to 71° C (160° F) for 75 minutes. And........... If purchasing and transporting heat-treated firewood, it must have a receipt or label that says, "New York Approved Heat-Treated Firewood/Pest Free". This is the producers' declaration that the firewood meets New York's heat-treatment requirements. Most "kiln-drying" processes meet the standard, but not all, so it is important to look for the appropriate label. Heat-treated firewood may be moved unrestricted. From here: Firewood and Invasive Pests - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
The marketing manager must've been in need of a stress-relieving process so he walked behind the kiln right before coming up with this half-baked idea to heat-treat the wood before it went out to the customers to get blazed up.
I read that page when I first started out in firewood and also learned about that Self-Issued Certificate of Origin. So I carry a few blank copies of that in the glove compartment in case I get stopped en route back from one of my scrounging adventures. They have these regs in order to try and curb the spread of pests........but I don't think a lot of people follow the regs.....and likewise it's probably pretty hard to enforce it when someone packs some splits in the back of the car to their country house or to go camping..... EAB is pretty much everywhere now.....
Ours is pretty much just the honor system. We cant cross county lines, but no one is really busting anyone's chops over it. On the other hand, there are few hoarders here. Its mostly Arborists that move wood around here any amount of distance. A lot of people that need smaller amounts of firewood just go to the local tree dump and pick up some. We do have bundles that are sold here, but they are usually coming from elsewhere. We don't have EAB in our county.
Poor ash trees!!! Lucky you have not been hit....yet. speaking of local dumps I have to go there and participate in the trade up program where I dump all the rotten and nasty pieces I don't want and replace them with beautiful wood just thrown away at the dump. The dow guys always look at me funny but I feel like a kid at a candy store!
Heat treated is for killing bugs, there is a standard that has to be met to allow for interstate commerce/quarantine zones and use of the term for marketing and merchantability. There is no standard for "kiln dried" and is as ambiguous a term as "face cord".
I see 'em all the time.....because I'm looking for the MB stamp. MethylBromide.....If it has MB I can't use it in my raised garden bed construction because the heavy metal (bromide) is toxic and will leech into the vegetables. HT is what I look for and so far, all my pallets have only had HT stamped on 'em. If it doesn't have a stamp and I can't tell if it's good I use it for holz hausen stacks..... Ultimate Guide To Pallet Markings - Universal Pallets.
