Burn Pile

[Gologit]

It is a shame. But business is business, and liability issues (read lawyers) run business today.

You make a good point. Years ago we'd let firewood cutters come in after we'd get through logging a piece of ground. We'd make a cull deck (non-merchantable logs) or designate an area of poor grade down timber that they could have. Those days are long gone.
Now, with liability concerns and what it costs us to oversee the firewood cutters, we don't let anybody in anymore.

We had some problems with people not being content with what we gave them and cutting out of our saw log decks or destroying burn piles to get at what they thought was good firewood. We had to pay a man, sometimes two or three men, to stay up there and keep the firewood people from causing more problems. It was an additional cost that we didn't need. We finally came to the conclusion that firewood cutters were more trouble than they were worth and we closed them out. It was a smart move on our part. On a neighboring piece of ground, not ours, a firewood cutter died when he cut his leg with his saw. His family sued. You can imagine the hassle the landowners went through even though they were found not to be at fault.

It's cheaper for us to chip whatever we can and either burn or broadcast the slash. The chips usually get sold to bio-mass power plants. We no longer have to waste time and money keeping the weekend warriors from being a danger to us or themselves.

I agree with Slowp that good burn piles are structured. By building the pile properly you get better results. I've seen construction and land clearing burns where everything was just thrown in a heap and torched. Very inefficient...but I guess some people do whatever is easiest for them.

 

[slowp]

In our area, whole tree yarding is often done on private land. A processor sits on the landing, bucking and delimbing. That makes for some nice big piles, and landing size can be at a premium. Those piles have very little dirt in them since they are not piled with a cat, and are really take off nicely when torched.

On the east side, I've worked where whole tree skidding was going on. During one cold winter we gave the OK for the logger to keep the landing pile burning. That kept the landing at the size specified, and also kept some of the equipment warmish when left overnight. The snow was quite deep. I wore snowshoes to get about or stayed on the skid trails.

 

[ppkgmsy]

You make a good point. Years ago we'd let firewood cutters come in after we'd get through logging a piece of ground. We'd make a cull deck (non-merchantable logs) or designate an area of poor grade down timber that they could have. Those days are long gone.
Now, with liability concerns and what it costs us to oversee the firewood cutters, we don't let anybody in anymore.

We had some problems with people not being content with what we gave them and cutting out of our saw log decks or destroying burn piles to get at what they thought was good firewood. We had to pay a man, sometimes two or three men, to stay up there and keep the firewood people from causing more problems. It was an additional cost that we didn't need. We finally came to the conclusion that firewood cutters were more trouble than they were worth and we closed them out. It was a smart move on our part. On a neighboring piece of ground, not ours, a firewood cutter died when he cut his leg with his saw. His family sued. You can imagine the hassle the landowners went through even though they were found not to be at fault.

It's cheaper for us to chip whatever we can and either burn or broadcast the slash. The chips usually get sold to bio-mass power plants. We no longer have to waste time and money keeping the weekend warriors from being a danger to us or themselves.

I agree with Slowp that good burn piles are structured. By building the pile properly you get better results. I've seen construction and land clearing burns where everything was just thrown in a heap and torched. Very inefficient...but I guess some people do whatever is easiest for them.

I appreciate this post. It's from a perspective I wouldn't ordinarily think about. Thanks.