What is the point of chippers?

[Lowestoft Firewood]

Round our way we definately don't have room on verges either

[Dan Maynard]

Apart from "oh that's let the light in", "Well that does look a lot when you get it on the ground" is about the second most common comment - to which I say "That's ok, it will look less when we've put it in the chipper"

I think the vast majority wouldn't want the piles of brash in their garden so we take it away. I don't know anywhere to lose brash for free but chip can always find a free home so it's much better to take it as chip.

[Paul in the woods]

I think I've mentioned this before - I've tried asking people not to chip but it's like I'm talking a strange language. I have plenty of room to stack the brash, I'll stack it so just leave it where it falls. I think it's a primeval instinct to chip, that and the fact they've carted a new chipper for over and hour so it must be used.

 

Having watched a large family of stoats playing in an old pile of brash it's worth the effort.

Edited October 26, 2020 by Paul in the woods

[Khriss]

27 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

Yes I realise this, but what about when there is no need to remove waste, like my neighbour?

Well. As part of a management system you can use it for habitat,  burning it is an option and more enviromentally friendly,   or on big sites it can be bundled for certain purposes.  K

[gary112]

The point of chippers is cos if you are a pikey it makes it easier to tip in a gateway on the way home from ripping some poor sole off,like the tw&ts do round here

[Toad]

32 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

Yes I did say I understand lack of space in gardens....but what about huge roadside verges?

Roadside verges are generally the responsibility of the highway authorities, who take a dim view of people fly tipping branches etc on them.

[scbk]

I gotta say I do think chipping is sometimes done a bit too often. I think it must be human nature to leave a 'tidy' job, or it's just what is expected.

 

There was a lot of work done in a woodland locally, paid for by some kind of grant. Cutting all the small stuff to open it out, leaving all the decent trees. Anything under 6" or whatever went through the tracked chipper. Obviously working to the spec provided.

But you get the feeling if the brash was just left, it would've rotted faster than the mountains of chip all round the woodland, would've saved days/weeks of a diesel engine blaring away, and less ground disturbance.

[Squaredy]

56 minutes ago, Toad said:

Roadside verges are generally the responsibility of the highway authorities, who take a dim view of people fly tipping branches etc on them.

Well I was meaning when the trees were cut on the verge, not brought from elsewhere!

[Rich Rule]

I guess for the same reason we use trucks instead of horse and cart.

 

Technology has advanced to the point of making everyday life somewhat easier.  If you have to do multiple trees in a day it isn’t economical to stack brash piles.  Yes, for the odd job or some woodland work, but 2 or 3 different job sites in a day, 5 or 6 days a week...  it is much easier to dispose of the arising with a chipper.

 

The customers pay me to remove the tree, not to rearrange it in a pile in a corner of the garden or land.  Even the major forestry contractors here in Norway, will separate millable logs from pulp logs and then get a giant chipper in and chip the brash...  or they will transport is somewhere and chip there.  Usually for biomass, but usually a chipper is involved somewhere down the line.

[aspenarb]

I can think of quite a few instances where we have windrowed everything, a few of the country parks around here are into their habitat piles. We were on the M5 a few years ago and the spec was to drag all brash up the bank and windrow adj to the fence, not sure whether that was for habitat or to stop animals wandering down the banks on the motorway. Almost all the roadside trees we fell around woodlands these days just get pulled in and left as is, not often the time or budget to trim them out.

 

Bob