Most annoying waste of firewood...

Ok, so piggybacking off another thread got me to thinking (along with a few or so beers) what’s the biggest waste of firewood you see?

1. Farmers burn piles. I get burning brush, but the big stuff doesn’t really burn down in piles. Just let somebody buck and take it away. Win win!

2. Standing dead/downed rotting away. Now it’s worth nothing and a PIA to clean it up!

3. City and or arborist hauling wood to the dump where it gets buried! I get it arborist make more money getting ride if trees and there’s not a lot of money in CSS, but hay, just call me and I’ll haul it away for free!!!

What else is an annoying waste of wood?

 

ya i called brookings nd water town dumps and they said once its on site theres no taking it out of there so sad

 

Watching all of the wood that is down on state land laying there rotting because nobody wants to get a permit to cut it up. More people would probably be willing to buy a permit (it's actually pretty cheap, $15 for 2 cord IIRC) but you cant use any motorized vehicles unless on a road. Therefore no atv's to help drag things out. Also you have a limited amount of time the permit is good for (2 weeks I think).

 

^^^^ THIS ^^^^ I see lots of it around here, and strangely enough, there are plenty of woodburners. Why?!

 

Millions of trees in the forest for millennia.... rotting away. Can't save 'em all, but save what you can.

 

Lots of wasted trees. To the west of where I live in the foothills of the Cascade mtns. There is thousands of cords of standing dead lodgepole that no one is allowed to cut. Mostly on usfs land, they don't want any woodcutting in recreation areas. Any of the national forests in the American west all need thinning and more timber harvest. Wildfires have been horrible last few summers. The landfill where I live won't let anyone take anything either .

 

Its kinda funny how in PA, every state forest has there own regs. Here ....1 cord,20 bucks,give 2 roads you might cut on, 10 days to get it, desrip. n license of vehicle, no motorized vehicle can be used to fetch wood.
Now to the OP ?......i hate seein a lot of old farming fence rows full of dead or dying Black Locust goin to waste....want to stop by n ask about cuttin but never do. Hate rejection...

 

Tree service companies that chip everything up 6” diameter. That’s perfect size!

 

Around here they have whole tree chippers. The chips fetch more than the logs.

 

Coming home from work to see where neighbors had an oak and maple tree removed and all the wood is gone. Ok maybe the company has a “we get the wood and the removal price is lower,” that I get, but to then observe the same neighbor have “seasoned” firewood delivered a couple of months later....

Then as others have said, it’s upsetting seeing all the firewood that goes to the landfill and God forbid you try to take it, they act like you are committing a felony and will revoke landfill privileges.

 

This! Tree services only save tree trunks, which are picked up by log haulers. Everything else gets chipped, even huge limbs. Then the load of chips goes to the dump, where it is mixed into the landfill. Maybe some chips up north make it to a biomass power plant. But in my town, it looks like the tree services just dump chips. Fortunately the town does not own a chipper, so whatever the parks dept. cuts gets dumped as logs and brush. And the dump turns a blind eye to small-scale wood scavenging.

 

In Anne Arundel they allow anyone to salvage pallets, wood chips, and firewood. You have to sign a little liability waiver. I've done the pallets which worked out pretty good, but there's not usually much good wood set aside.
And for some reason, no chain saw may be used. Are they afraid the noise will break the tranquility of our peaceful, mechanized landfill? Or is it that the 2 stroke smell will foul the beautiful landfill aroma?
Much of the time folks just grab wood from those that are dumping it. The County guys don't seem to mind that.

 

Looking at CL adds.....i wish i was closer to west of Baltimore. Im amazed at all the free wood people want to get rid of from having tree services....lots of hickory,oak,locust ,ash, on n on

 

The government built a new terrain interstate highway through my county, to connect to an existing four lane divided State Highway. that section had to be rebuilt to Federal Interstate highway standard, which i guess includes no standing trees for specific distance from the road.

A company cut down a lot of trees and ran them through giant shredders. They wouldn't allow neighbors to cut thrm up for firewood. About 8 miles on each side.

I think it was their fault for asking. Had they just done it after hours and Sunday, i doubt anyone would have given them a second look.

 

You are lucky, Howard County nothing leaves the landfill except for termite ridden compost and poison ivy laden mulch you have to pay for.

 

1) I burned 40-50 brush piles this fall.
Some of them had Poplar over 12" in dia.
Poplar makes poor fire wood, why waste my time with it, and it does burn down to nothing but ash.

2) we'll have part ways here. I NEVER cut dead trees or downed rotting stuff. I'll cut freshly downed stuff as long as it was live wood before it recently got knocked over.
Dead wood, especially standing stuff is great for wildlife. same for downed rotting stuff. I like to manage my wood lot for wildlife and do various habitat improvement things. Lots of live trees get cut in the process. Thats the source of my firewood.
Just because man does not use it does not mean its going to waste. Nothing in nature goes to waste.

3) I'll agree that City stuff should be offered up for free for the hauling. Around here if they (Asplundh) prune or cut trees along the road they stack the larger stuff and it disappears due to wood scroungers. Of course this is rural area so the mind set is different. If arborists can sell the stuff better for them. Its smart business to monetize any "scrap" generated.

I have approx 20 acres of hardwoods, lots of stuff lays rotting in the woods, I can be picky about what I cut and save.
Like I mentioned above, nothing in nature goes to waste.

I have given away lots of quality firewood in the past. I find its hard to get rid of most of the stuff. I have mentioned it to several people, I never hear back from most.

 

My neighbor across the road had about half an acre cleared last summer with a large excavator. The contractor took all the trees, most of which were good hardwood, and just piled them up, roots and all. It's still sitting there, rotting, I am sure he will try to burn it in the spring. Probably at least five or six cords of good firewood in there and he doesn't burn wood. My bad for not asking for it all, I'm sure I would have gotten it, but it was all gone and piled between the time I left for work and when I got home.

The right-of-way clearings for roadsides and power lines bother me the most. Usually the wood just sits there until it's compost.

 

A lot of wood snobs out there who really tick me off. Here they have invested in chains saws and a wood burner of some type then a hrydrlic splitter and they still leave knots in the woods.

A good example is super rich Morgan with outdoors with the Morgans youtube. there is a lot of slugs like him leaveing knots.

I see some of the stacks of wood pictures on this sight and bet there are a lot of wood snobs who have those stacks they do a line so they are straight and level. Knots would screw that up.

Campers at the state forest camp ground used to pay my dad some good money for knotty uglys too. they liked them because they lasted longer.

Al

 

I don’t mind leaving some wood on the ground. It gives bugs places to live, which helps the food chain and returns some nutrients to the ground.

I don’t always burn the limbs either. Birds, rabbits and chipmunks love making homes in the downed brush piles.

 

I see several government related examples. Is it really any surprise to anyone that the words "government" and "waste" are synonymous?

I'm going to switch it up and say bon fires. Not the ones normal people make out of junk plywood, cardboard boxes, old furniture, used motor oil and toxic rubber products...but the ones the yuppies from the city make when they come out to the rural areas and pretend to have a country side to them and then leave their trash everywhere. I don't really know if they're wasting good wood or not, but anything yuppies bring to the rural areas is waste in my opinion.