The Firewood Situation

[neverrude]

I'm with you. I have not cut a live tree in years. No need to. Around here I have tons and tons of dead Elm and now the Ash. Why cut a live tree?

I guess to some its seems more manly or something.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

You cut what you have available to you. If you are lucky enough to have a good supply of dead-n-down to cut then that's great. If not, then ya gotta cut what is available.
You guys are starting to sound like a Green Peace convention :greenchainsaw: .

 

[SWI Don]

The only live trees I cut are cut because they are not supposed to be there. About a dozen small 6-8" hedge and honeylocust this afternoon plus countless sprouts using up the gas in the saw after getting some mulberry for smoking off of an old brush pile.

I have a lot of sources around here. What I cut is more a matter of ease of getting to. If I can't drive up to it, it gets pushed lower on the list. New stuff pops on the list all of the time.

Don

 

[abohac]

You cut what you have available to you. If you are lucky enough to have a good supply of dead-n-down to cut then that's great. If not, then ya gotta cut what is available.
You guys are starting to sound like a Green Peace convention :greenchainsaw: .

No not a tree hugger at all, however I would just as soon see a tree grow up to be a log and then be used for furniture or something more useful than firewood. Then use the tops for firewood. Just seems like comon sense to me but you do whatever you have to in your woods.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

That's just it. Lots of people (like me) don't have woods at all. You just cut whatever is available. Doesn't matter to me whether it's dead, a cull, or a premium veneer log. If the land owner tells me it's ok to cut it, it all makes firewood. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Ian

PS... I wouldn't know a veneer log if it landed on me LOL

 

[woodbooga]

You cut what you have available to you. If you are lucky enough to have a good supply of dead-n-down to cut then that's great. If not, then ya gotta cut what is available.
You guys are starting to sound like a Green Peace convention :greenchainsaw: .

Yup. Availability is the key, but I'll take dead and down/seasoned on the stump any day. I have a barnfull of dead stuff that I could burn tomorrow if need be, as well as a couple cords of felled-last-year red oak seasoning in my sunny dooryard for this winter.

Based on my own instincts and some of the comments posted here, I'm more aggressively gathering to have a supply to hedge against a potential shortfall in 2009-10.

Is Green Peace in the tree hugging business? I tend to think of them more as intervening on the high seas to prevent whale hunting, with the Sierra Club being the more landlubberly organization. Don't give much currency to either.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Is Green Peace in the tree hugging business?

They hug trees when they're in port. They would hug trees at sea but have found that a difficult task. Really they're guys that are into boating but don't fish or ski and need a reason to go out. LOL... in reality I don't know but I got the idea across.

Ian

 

[woodbooga]

sign of the times

My brother works in the southernmost part of NH which, while technically/geographically is part of NH, culturally it's really the northern tier of the greater Boston area.

On more than one occasion, he's seen soccer mom types loading roadside deadfall into minivans and other suburban vehicles of choice. On at least one occasion, he's wittnessed shouting matches in progress erupting over who had a rightful claim to a woodpile.

Down there, there's so much sprawl that there aren't as many woodlots, so supply is real short.

Viscious cycle: $4.50/gallon heating oil makes heating a huge McMansion untenable, so homeowners look to alternatives. The proliferation of said McMansions reduces the number of unbuilt plots of land. Fewer woodlots means less supply. The result is what's happening on the roadsides of the suburbs. Yuk.

 

[Zodiac45]

It's not about tree hugging. It's just common sense and sustainability. Why cut a healthy live tree when there's dead wood down or on the stump available? The wood is available for use sooner because it's semi dry and you are doing smart forest maintainance. You're getting fire hazards out of the picture and making room for healthy trees too prosper and grow larger. Certainly there are situations like clearing, building, hazards, landscaping, thinning, culls, etc.. where live trees are removed. I cut wood for a living remember. I'm just saying that I believe in sustainable practices, particularly in regard too firewood. I like my work and would like too have work in the future. I'm old enough too have seen excesses and poor resource management. We're paying the price for that today.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I know... I was just responding to neverrude's "they must think it's manly" comment. If you have a woodlot of your own to maintain it only makes sense to thin it properly and not just hack everything down willy nilly.

On the other hand, if someone wants a perfectly healthy 36" dbh oak down and I think I'm up to the task (which would be questionable).. well down it comes. Not that it's ever happened. Two weeks ago it was a 12" half rotten apple and a 16" 3/4 rotten honey locust. Didn't get a truck load out of them combined. More trouble than it was worth but hopefully will lead to better pickins later.

Ian

 

[woodbooga]

I know... I was just responding to neverrude's "they must think it's manly" comment. If you have a woodlot of your own to maintain it only makes sense to thin it properly and not just hack everything down willy nilly.

On the other hand, if someone wants a perfectly healthy 36" dbh oak down and I think I'm up to the task (which would be questionable).. well down it comes. Not that it's ever happened. Two weeks ago it was a 12" half rotten apple and a 16" 3/4 rotten honey locust. Didn't get a truck load out of them combined. More trouble than it was worth but hopefully will lead to better pickins later.

Ian

With me, I prefer the dead and down stuff because I'm lazy and don't have unlimited space to season freshly cut/split stuff.

Good point about the relationship building. Hopefully your charitable efforts will be kindly rewarded by the firewood gods. Myself, I cut and hauled off a local landowner's 30' blowdown poplar in hopes that I'd be invited back should any of his maples go from vertical to horizontal.

Keep your chin up about that apple, anyhow. The half that ain't rotten will burn real good and smell great, too!

 

[Husky137]

Plenty of live wood gets cut in sustainable forestry, especially when thinning out the low grade to release the good stuff for future harvesting. Less competition results in higher yields.

 

[husky455rancher]

i try to get all the dead trees i can get get. my dad has 2 acres and i got all his dead trees by now. i get whatever wood i can from people but i have cut quite a few live trees at my dads house. he dosent care what i cut and it saves me from buying wood. im pretty picky about whjat i cut though i dont wanna destroy all his land. i still wanna ask his neighbor she has quite a few acres if i remember right. theres gotta be plenty of dead trees there.

 

[beerman6]

With the recent storms around here,I'm getting calls almost everyday for "free" firewood.I'm trying to get it all,but my back is about shot right now.I might have to take it easy for awhile and let a few loads go. :censored:

Edit to add... Ed*L has offered me some on his dads property,and I feel like an ass,cause I havent gotten it yet.

 

[Bruce Hopf]

Just some notes on what I'm seeing in my area regarding supply/demand, and I'm wondering what some of you guys are seeing locally.

In a word, it's just nuts around here. I've sold almost as many saws year to date as I did all of last year. I've got my first load of splitters coming in today and half of them are spoken for. Good hardwood is plentiful in my area, and many people are going in that direction. And those that are already burning, are expecting to burn more this year to avoid oil/propane as much as possible.

For those of us that cut our own wood, not much has changed. Free wood is a little harder to find, and you have to move a little quicker to grab it. There was a good size ash that blew down in Monday's thunderstorm just around the corner from my house. I thought about jumping on it on the way to the store yesterday morning, but the pieces were too big to move with out cutting and I didn't want to fire up a saw at 7:15AM. On the way home at around 6:30, there wasn't much left! Got about a 3rd of a load of 6" stuff.

But for everybody who is selling or buying wood, it's just insane right now. Most sellers have asked us to stop giving out their cards since they are so far behind with their regular customers. In addition to the oil price issue, last winter dragged on and on and most people burned their wood piles down to the ground. A person who would normally order 5 cords, is ordering 8. Buyers who don't have a regular supplier are have a tough time finding one. And those that do are getting more promises than wood.

Things are kind of tight on the supply side as well. There isn't much building going on now, so wood from clearing jobs is pretty much non existent. So the only guys with a steady supply are loggers, but they are more inclined to sell it in log lengths than cut and split. So, a lot of people who need to buy wood are going to have to cut it up themselves.

Prices are at $200 now, but most guys see it going up past $250 by heating season. But the real issue isn't going to be how much is costs by then, but how much is left. There probably won't be any seasoned wood period.

The other thing is that this whole firewood scramble is still gaining momentum, so it's likely to get crazier as the summer goes by. By Fall, it's really going to hit the fan. It should be interesting.

What are you guys seeing out there?

Well I may as well get my two cents worth in too, Recently during last winter we had our 16 acre bush logged, Soft Maple, and Ash. Over 300 trees where taken out of the bush.
So far I have cut 40 tops, that the trees where fell out into the fields of both sides of the bush, most of them into 4' lengths, because it was getting too close to seeding to cut, and split them up properly, into desired lengths, and all the brush had to be moved off the fields.
I have stacked it up behind the barn, and if it ever stops raining for more than 2 days, I'll get it cut up with the buss saw. This pile has been sold for 65.00 per face cord.
I haven't advertised yet, but going to start soon. going to try and sell as much as possible green out of the bush, to prevent extra handling, of loading, and unloading, then piling, and reloading again. I will split it in the bush.
I have built a rig for my loader tractor to pile in exactly one face cord, and dump it where ever or load it, to be delivered.
Bruce.

 

[Scootermsp]

Cut standing dead last

I'm cutting (and splitting for faster drying only) for my OWB. I have 9.5 Acres of mostly hardwoods on my lot and figure good management and some free softwoods from a local land clearing guy I know should be sustainable over the long term. Right now I just want to cut the bent/twisted live stuff to season, I'll leave the standing dead for last since that's ready to burn. Also anyone out there with OWB use softwood in Fall/Spring and save your hardwoods for the coldest part of Winter? thanks (first season with OWB coming up) .

 

[bowtechmadman]

That's exactly what I do. Burn popler, cottonwood, sassafras and some pine (slab wood from buddies mill), in the fall and spring. Oak, Maple, ash and cherry during the coldest months.

 

[retired redneck]

Price Went Up $30.00 A Load

Talked to my wood man today,last year $150.00 a load this year $180.00 a load,a load is a farm truck cut split & delivered within 10 miles, about 1 1/2 full cords per load,ordered three loads,still cheaper than propane...............

 

[rguseman]

I hope this is sufficiently close to topic so I don't get hollered at I just didn't want to start an entirely new thread.

I see pictures and references to tri-axle loads, grapple loads delivered by what I am assuming to be logging companies or lot clearing companies. I am curious whether any of the Wisconsin boys know of any companies in or around southeastern Wisconsin that offer loads like that for purchase. If so could you PM me, please.

From what I have seen in the markets and with these threads I am trying to firm up as many sources of "cheap, free or economical bulk firewood as possible so I don't have to start paying the professionals for cut and split wood.

 

[BSD]

I figured I would bring this back to the surface....

Now that oil has dropped BIG TIME since summer 08 what do you all see as the future of firewood? Prices maintaining? dropping? raising?

I've been kicking around the processing business as a sideline venture to keep my guys busy in our off-season. As a landscaping business we have a lot of equipment that can do double duty. Tractors/FEL, trailers, trucks. etc.