Woodburners and fuel market

[Bearwood]

When I explained my two main reasons for owning a wood to a Canadian colleague as; somewhere to relax and unwind, and as 'fuel security', he looked at me strangely and enquired as to how many guns and spare tins of food I had.

Jokes aside, I guess he doesn't quite understand the concept of fuel security (in the form of wood at least) coming from a land where it is in such abundance.

[Chunkymunky]

Ultimately there is enough fallen wood in public woods and hedgerows to keep many a wood store full for decades.

I often drive through thetford forest where fallen trees are merely left and only standing wood harvested. Strikes me as a terrible waste of resource.

I collect wood from a few local woods with permission that keep us going for some time. We certainly haven't purchased any wood in 3 years yet don't own a wood ourselves.

[Bearwood]

Whilst harvesting fallen wood is useful, although if the wood is managed, you could be destroying a habitat. The FC operations note 15 provides good info on the subject:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/ewgs-on0 ... adwood.pdf

As does this PDF:

http://217.205.94.38/pdf/RIN241.pdf/$FILE/RIN241.pdf

I attended a course a couple of years ago on woodland habitat management which listed (if I remember correctly) around twenty different types of deadwood habitat based upon degrees of decay, structure, age of tree, density if understorey etc.

I believe that in the past collecting dead and fallen wood from the forest floor was seen as useful, but as with anything, the powers that be soon change their minds.

[Chunkymunky]

This is not fallen wood you would want for that. Certainly lately with high water levels fallen trees in local water courses has been a plentiful source.

Local brook sees huge rises during heavy rain and larger trees effectively blocks water flow. I remove for people and split etc.

I think it's all well and good looking after ecology but every fallen tree doesn't need to become a habit.

[MartinB]

I believe that in the past collecting dead and fallen wood from the forest floor was seen as useful, but as with anything, the powers that be soon change their minds.

It's like how for decades fires were put out in the Sequoia forests in the US.

We seem to forget that forests were taking care of themselves for many a millennia before we turned up and decided they needed our care.

[Bearwood]

I believe that in the past collecting dead and fallen wood from the forest floor was seen as useful, but as with anything, the powers that be soon change their minds.

It's like how for decades fires were put out in the Sequoia forests in the US.

We seem to forget that forests were taking care of themselves for many a millennia before we turned up and decided they needed our care.

Too true. I you've not already had the pleasure of reading it; 'Fire Season' by Philip Connors is a great read. It does go a little off-topic from time to time, but generally its concerned with Philip's own experiences through a season atop of fire watch post in the Gila National Forest.

[MartinB]

I believe that in the past collecting dead and fallen wood from the forest floor was seen as useful, but as with anything, the powers that be soon change their minds.

It's like how for decades fires were put out in the Sequoia forests in the US.

We seem to forget that forests were taking care of themselves for many a millennia before we turned up and decided they needed our care.

Too true. I you've not already had the pleasure of reading it; 'Fire Season' by Philip Connors is a great read. It does go a little off-topic from time to time, but generally its concerned with Philip's own experiences through a season atop of fire watch post in the Gila National Forest.

We visited Yosemite and Sequoia national parks back in 2001 and inspite of them being quick growing blighters, it is evident that there is a generation of sequoias missing when you look around at the sizes of tree you see.
It is amazing how big the mature trees get. General Sherman messes with your head.

[Bearwood]

Ultimately there is enough fallen wood in public woods and hedgerows to keep many a wood store full for decades.

I often drive through thetford forest where fallen trees are merely left and only standing wood harvested. Strikes me as a terrible waste of resource.

I collect wood from a few local woods with permission that keep us going for some time. We certainly haven't purchased any wood in 3 years yet don't own a wood ourselves.

I think this is where the two (simplified) theories of woodland management will always differ. Some people feel that the woods are there to be managed through intervention, and others think that the relationship between the custodian and the woodland is purely symbiotic.

Linking back to OCP's original post, I personally think that good quality bio regional firewood will become highly prized in the coming years. It'll be a testing time for the FC to balance the needs of the industry and environmental goals.

[Chunkymunky]

Ultimately there is enough fallen wood in public woods and hedgerows to keep many a wood store full for decades.

I think you'll find that is called 'theft'. There is no right to collect fallen wood from anywhere without permission of the land owner, and that includes 'public' land such as FC and council owned; for these a formal license is required and may not be available.

The myth that anyone can just pick up wood lying around has no basis. It is the owners prerogative what happens in their wood, hedge, or land, you can't just walk in and help yourself. If that was so, anyone could walk into your garden and start pulling stuff out of your borders.

If I found anyone taking anything from my wood, be it bluebell bulbs, fallen wood or flowers, they would meet a pretty frosty reception and might end up being threatened with prosecution, depending on whether they were apologetic or lippy. There is a balance, blackberries, mushrooms, flowers or sloes from the hedge by a public roadside or footpath are fair game, although technically you are not allowed to take anything from private land if committing trespass.

I personally only remove anything with permission. If it is in a waterway and is causing an obstruction then Severn Trent, highways agency and environment agency all view the removal of offending articles as a civic service and through local contacts I get called and told of such things.

I have a 30ft tall tree that's fallen into a garden to remove, several really tall long fallen pines that have broken fencing too. By just getting my name and leaving a card with a few people often get calls.

[Chunkymunky]

The council controversially cut down a whole row of firs by the local park last week. They stacked the logs to obviously remove the next day. They were all gone when they arrived!