There is no greater incentive to take a look at the kind of wood you can burn to heat your house when record breaking temperatures have frozen out most of the Eastern Shore this month. This seems to be on the mind of Echo Hill Outdoor School‘s Andrew McCown in the latest installment of Cool Outdoor Stuff.
As one can predict, each wood comes with different advantages, but they also come with own history and esthetics that only Captain Andy can make captivating.
-DW
This video is approximately six minutes in length. Gibson Anthony is the videographer
Richard V. Norton says
Very well done and professionally presented video.
However I fundamentally disagree with the implied premise of cutting healthy trees for firewood.
As a retired member of the Maryland Forestry Board, Kent County, I became aware of an active lumbering industry harvesting hardwoods for valuable board applications like furniture and flooring. I learned that the trimmings of trees and logs can yield huge branches of no mill value.
Why not make a video encouraging the harvesting of ‘commercial’ and storm damaged limbs by an individual?
I suggest that a group study the benefit of leaving this wood on the ground for a nourishing rot, VERSUS use of this wood for the supply of firewood. Cutting a live, healthy tree for firewood, or chipping should be discouraged. Consider managing the highway trimming. Nova Scotia power companies road crews leave firewood along the highways for free pickup.
I ask that the producers of this video make a new video presentation on cooperating with the Forestry B board and its mandate by law, and then present the concept of working with Maryland Forestry Boards for firewood. Lumber companies, tree clearing companies, and the MD highway commission to focus on the trim of limbs from mill grade lumber or right of way restoration After a storm such a large amount of wood is ground and used for mulch.
I shall go out on a limb, and ask that the Forestry Board encourage regulations to make it possible for a person to glean firewood from cuttings after logging or trimming. [with permission of land owner].
Dick Norton
andrew McCown says
Thank you, Dick, for your comments. I didn’t mean to suggest that people cut live trees for firewood. The Maple that I had in the video was from a tree that had been taken to the ground by a large deadfall. It would have been good for me to have suggested that firewood from downed trees from storms and right of way clearing is hugely available here on the shore.
Currently, the power company has been aggressively clearing and there is a lot of wood available, all one has to do is get permission from the land owner.
I support all the Forestry management practices you suggest. Healthy forests are critically important to the health of our environment here on the shore.
Thank you for your years of service on the Forestry Board.