Most annoying waste of firewood...

Skyrocketing liability insurance costs limit a lot of activity as well.
My sister's deceased husband managed a golf course/activity center ( they had a huge hall for events/weddings ) and firewood activities was pretty much employees only. My sister never wanted for wood or heat.

 

Here's my experience letting people cut firewood on my property.
We bought our property about 5 years ago. It has a lot of brush and small trees that I've been working on clearing. A few years ago I put an ad on craigslist for free firewood. I would offer to fell the tree if they weren't comfortable with it, but then ask them to cut the stump to the ground and pile the branches so I could burn them later. A few people were good about following the rules, but most of them avoiding cutting the stumps and did a poor job piling the branches. Some of them hid the stumps under the brush piles that I would discover months later when I'd burn the brush and discover a stump. They would also leave ruts in my fields which annoyed me but I don't think it was intentional.

Later I decided to do most of the work myself and skid the logs to the road, and selling them for $10 per pickup load (they would cut and load them). I only had a couple people do it. Long story short, I decided it's not really worth my effort to let people cut firewood when also considering the liability of them hurting themselves on my property (fortunately no one got hurt).

 

If you've ever been sued, those funny craigslist ads claiming "must have insurance" aren't so funny. They're sad that this is the way it has to be.

 

Where do you go to scrounge? You don't have tree guys bringing you wood? I'm in Bergen county and have a few who are more than happy to bring me wood. I would assume Essex would be much the same.

 

I haven't been too lucky finding a tree guy, but working on it. The thing is the scrounging is sort of the fun part for me. One time a neighbor was having a tree cut down and I asked for the wood which was a pin oak and they gave me all the branches and took the main trunk because it was too big for my abilities. Believe it or not, though I liked the easy score and immediate boost in supply, I was missing the hunt. The other thing is my postage stamp size property kind of limits things. I can only handle small loads at best to be dropped off and so I would need to find a small tree operation. Still I do ask around, but happy to scrounge

 

Understood! At this time it's sitting in the garage, stripped down to just the box. Sitting on movers dollies, ready for the move. Have to go up 5 steps to get it in the living area....will need some help for that! But it will get there.

 

That is exactly what my IS is sitting on in the garage! Harbor Freight? And yes, will need some extra muscle to get it up the steps, into living area, and swapped out with the DutchWest. Hoping to reuse the black double wall stovepipe...about 25 years old, but in great shape...probably need an adjustable section for the install. Thanks for the moving info!

 

Around here, the loggers used to pile up the rejected logs and such to let it dry for burning. We used to be able to drive up to the piles, pull out what we want before they put a match to them the next year. Now, they're required to spread all that stuff out flat on the ground over the entire area that's been logged. More environmentally friendly apparently. This does 2 things that make me want to cry. First, and most obvious is all that wood laying on the wet ground rotting. Second, it makes it darned near impossible to get your truck from the road to the tree line without destroying your oil pan, and everything else on the bottom of your truck.

 

Build a ramp, get it started on the ramp, then jack up the end of the ramp . Might take awhile and care but one determined person can do it.

 

This is what the guys used when they installed my new stove. They had to go up a hill to get to the deck so they could have a straight shot into the house.

 

I moved my AS with the exact same dolly. Be careful on your floor! I have wide plank pine floors. Once I saw the casters made deep grooves in my aluminum ramp coming put of the truck and onto the porch, I decided it would be a good idea to grab some plywood and make a path to roll it through the house on.

 

Yes! Super Rich Slug Morgan Wood Snob (Did I miss anything?) is a member here, I know this to be true cause I am him! lol Two things that stand out to me from your comment, no wait actually three things!

#1 and most important, If you get "really ticked off" over how some guy you never met, don't know, and never did a thing to you cuts firewood you need to get right with yourself cause something is not right there.

#2 Not that it matters but the way I see it is this, you talk about waste? Not picking up small limb wood, or leaving big gnarly crotch pieces you consider to be a waste, makes me a "wood snob"? a "slug"? Right? Here is how I see it (which really is all that matters anyway) firewood is a valuable resource and I enjoy cutting, splitting, burning, and selling it. It's my opinion that there is another resource you are overlooking that much more important with much more value and that is my time. Lets face it we all only have so much of it and I have a pretty much unlimited amount of firewood. So there is your answer if you were looking for one, but I don't think you were really curious about it anyway

This brings me to the third thing that really stands out from your comment. Whats with the "Super Rich"? If I was how is that a bad thing and why would it bother you? I struggled for years when we first got married, had a special needs son, we were flat broke. I just kept moving forward, never stopped, and never looked back. Never once did I care how much money someone else had or what they had. I have never met anyone successful who got that way by worrying about what others have.

 

Hey, it's super rich Mike Morgan! Good to see you on here still occasionally sir.

 

Responding to OP,

About 5 years back there was a local rancher who worked with forest service who had a crew come and cut down 99.5% of the pinion pine, juniper and cedar trees on roughly 160 acres of land(maybe 90 acres tree covered). This was ultimately done to help the sage grouse and wild turkey habitat.
The property owner then let people come onto his land and clean the place out if they so chose. I probably removed 15 cord over a couple of years. Great for everybody.
Then, in an adjacent area to that one I thought the forest service had gone in and clear cut nearly 300 acres and it was prime, large and straight wood (by our standards). I was stoked. Loaded up the saws, trailer, kids and dogs and went to the site. Only to find that it had been mulched. All but a few trees here and there for the birds to roost in. My heart sank and my raged at the stupidity!

The government, they’re here to help!

 

Just keep on leveraging the resources you have and enjoy life !
Glad you are doing well.

 

Were they mulched because it was the only cost-effective way to deal with a disease or hazard ?

 

No disease for sure but not sure about hazard.
Like I said in the post it was for game bird habitat improvement and the habitat was created instantaneously.
Not sure what that cost the forest service to do that but they could have actually generated revenue with selling permits.

 

Here on Long Island anything 18” or less is chipped. Imagine seeing primo oak and cherry 16-18” wide getting chipped. That’s why I take whatever I can wherever it is. Some people have a problem with that. Oh well too bad