Where to find free down trees?

[Billy_Bob]

With the cost of gas so high, I want to find free firewood close to home. This would be trees which have been cut down and the owner wants to get rid of the wood.

I have not done this before. Up to now I have paid for wood cutting permits from the Forest Service and gone up to the woods to get my firewood.

So how do you folks find down trees like this free for the taking? Newspaper classifieds? Drive around, see down tree, ask homeowner? Place ad in local newspaper? Other?

Also I can imagine all sorts of trouble with this! Any things to avoid or beware of? I don't intend to cut down any trees for anyone (that should keep me out of trouble), just remove the wood once the tree is down.

 

[Blakesmaster]

There always seems to be ads on craigslist of people giving away their firewood. One place to check. I'd also try to find some smaller tree services in your area. I have a few guys that haul my wood from jobs I do in their neck of the woods. They're happy for the free wood, and I'm happy for a few extra hands to carry it out of the yard and load it.

 

[motoroilmccall]

Yep, free ads on Craigslist can find you a lot of free wood. I check on there fairly often, go get free wood, buck it, split it, and sell it as firewood. Its free to me, besides the cost of fuel, and I sell it for about $50 a cord depending on what kind of wood it is.

 

[darren_nh]

$50 a cord! I will take 100.

 

[2FatGuys]

Yep, free ads on Craigslist can find you a lot of free wood. I check on there fairly often, go get free wood, buck it, split it, and sell it as firewood. Its free to me, besides the cost of fuel, and I sell it for about $50 a cord depending on what kind of wood it is.

At $50 a cord, I'll pay you to package and ship it to me! I'm hoping you mean the "New York Cord".... which some call a rick or face cord. If you are selling 128 cu ft of wood for $50, then you are screwing yourself.... and not even getting the kiss to go with it!

 

[motoroilmccall]

Face cord! Yeash, you guys jump right to full cord. Most of what I get is Pine and Spruce, not something you can burn in a fireplace real well. Half of it I sell is still wet, so it'll have to sit for a year anyways.

The guy down the street from me sells a full cord for $75, but again, its mostly junk wood. You should see the piles this guy has, easily 20ft tall, all split, just heaping in his yard. If he gets a nice load of hardwood he'll charge $150-$200 per cord. There just isn't demand for it around here, and the price reflects it.

 

[Octane]

You can also contact your state's DNR and they can tell you where you can go get trees on state land.
They will let you go in and get trees that have fallen down, so some of the wood might be rotten, but hey, at least its free.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Pine is fine. Just burns a little faster. Most of the wood burned in North America is pine.

It would be more if it weren't for the old wives tales about it being dangerous because of creosote.

 

[JLROOT]

Look for woods full of blowdowns and ask the landowner. Works for me. People around here are pretty trusting. It does not hurt to throw in the sob story about the 4 kids and fuel oil being so high. Its all true!

 

[mile9socounty]

Old times.

Back a few days (years) ago. Roseburg Lumber and Seneca Jone's never really cared if you cleaned up the landing for them. You know, welfare wood, free wood. Now if you get caught on their property. They will take your saw, your truck and your guns, if you have any. Only way to really get wood down here is by knowing someone in the Timber companies. Or just know where to go and how to talk too.

 

[tomtrees58]

At $50 a cord, I'll pay you to package and ship it to me! I'm hoping you mean the "New York Cord".... which some call a rick or face cord. If you are selling 128 cu ft of wood for $50, then you are screwing yourself.... and not even getting the kiss to go with it!

ny cord ?? i have sold on L I four 33 years now never hard of a n y cord pal its full or haft tom trees:monkey:

 

[wdanforth]

Golf Country Club

Check with the local country clubs. In Ohio they have many trees to cleanup through out the year. Check with the head maintenance/grounds keeper. There will be a storage area usually close to the maintenance building.

 

[mudguts]

Orchards, or your local utility co, be it(phone, power, cable etc...)may have untreated poles. I burn the untreated cedars like there's no tomorrow. 90% of it goes up in the burn barrel whilst partaking in

 

[Hosted]

Here in Indiana our county goes through and clears the ditch banks every few years. I noticed piles of trees laying around waiting to be burned. One of the crews told me that it would be up to the owner who said take all I wanted. They ended up stacking all of the logs for me in softwood and hardwood piles which was amazing. I now have more logs than I know what to do with. I don't know if they do anything like that around you, but it's worth watching out for.

 

[woodbooga]

for the outgoing among us...

A lot of times, I'll just be driving along, see a downed tree or deadfall in someone's yard and make a mental note. If I happen by later and see the homeowner in the yard, I'll pull in and make the ask.

Helps if you are outgoing and have an easy time striking up a conversation with strangers.

Word to the wise: don't bother if the house has a chimney sticking up out of the roof since the fuel will likely be destined for another hearth.

 

[fiasco]

My town is doing a bunch of road construction/repairs nearby, and one day I noticed a sign next to a pile of hardwood "Free Wood". Five minutes later I had the trailer backed up to the pile.

Basically they're letting me have anything that isn't good enough to sell to one of the local mills (and recoup some of the cost of road repairs, keeping my taxes down, yay!). So far there has been more than two cords already this year! It goes in fairly small bites for me, a Subaru wagon and a 4x8 trailer can only haul so much.

Somebody did steal a bunch of logs they'd set aside for veneer.

I should really be out there splitting instead of posting here...but ask your local highway department, if you're in a small town where they don't think too long about the liability of you loading up wood given to you by the town, you can sometimes really score.