Imported kiln dried logs - does anyone actualy buy them?

[shavey]

the sooner we copy sweden and the north europe countries the better, use every last piece, the trees cut young for firewood, the brash chipped for biomass and community boilers the stump out and chipped then coming through immediately and replanting young plants.

we still are not getting small woodlands back into production too much consultation and not enough action. - again i could go on about so called grant funding and improvements - but dont get me ranting on about that!

firewood will never compete prices wise with such as coal, but surely if we encourage the burning of softwood where some would say " oh we only sell premium hardwood " tosh - they are not proper firewood merchants - all wood is good!

if they only sell harwood - and customers get used to this we are on a downward spiral.

we need quick growing commerical production and reeducate so called firewood merchants , stove installers etc who have jumped on the bandwagon of seeing a growing industry.

just my opinion

prepare to be shot down in flames

joy

 

this is a very good point and a very good post:thumbup::thumbup:

i sell alot of logs throughout the year and i only sell mixed loads its just the way it gets stacked some loads will be 15% softwood some will be 50% softwood but all the wood will be well seasoned and most of the softwood used will be wood that isnt good enough for timber ie knotty or croooked so the wood is heavier if it is knotty there are always people that complain but thats my deal so take it or leave it

people buy the lognets no problem full of softwood

 

i would sooner have a nice load of douglas rather than a load of turkey oak any day :thumbup:

[santacruz]

Everytime I hear that logs can be too dry and they burn too fast I just despair. Whole tree harvesting including the below ground biomass is not a great idea in my opinion. I believe that mainly in the UK trees are grown on poor soils where every bit of nutrients is important. As the tree grows the tree takes up these nutrients and they are mainly used and stored in the needles, if you then remove all of this you run into some serious problems. In Sweden they are organised and the biomass goes to large scale schemes where they collect the ash then return in to the woods. I cant see that happening in the UK, even if we did the soils under spruce plantations are mainly organic and cannot hold onto the nutrients when returned in this rapid way. Many soil scientists have warned against whole tree harvesting for many years but no one has listened to them. Sustainability is about more than just CO2.

[Logsnstuff]

Everytime I hear that logs can be too dry and they burn too fast I just despair. Whole tree harvesting including the below ground biomass is not a great idea in my opinion. I believe that mainly in the UK trees are grown on poor soils where every bit of nutrients is important. As the tree grows the tree takes up these nutrients and they are mainly used and stored in the needles, if you then remove all of this you run into some serious problems. In Sweden they are organised and the biomass goes to large scale schemes where they collect the ash then return in to the woods. I cant see that happening in the UK, even if we did the soils under spruce plantations are mainly organic and cannot hold onto the nutrients when returned in this rapid way. Many soil scientists have warned against whole tree harvesting for many years but no one has listened to them. Sustainability is about more than just CO2.

 

I drive past alot of premature clearfells up here, it's 15 years since we were forestry contractors and it seems we were the last that new how to do selective thinning now its just flatten everything and its quite sad to see it. tigercats running out the woods with 25 ton loads not exactly kind to the ground either.

[Lorn Logs]

I wouldn't buy it I, not worth it. The worst thing I see is FC forests after they have been harvested with a huge amount of log, brash and stump just left lying, and they won't let anyone take it away to turn into firewood or biomass. There's a forest opposite my house which has recently been harvested and the amount of perfectly good wood just left lying is unreal. I'd clear it for free, just for the wood but they won't let anyone on with a machine to do it. An that's the govt for ye !

[broonie]

Aye its amazing , around here they just leave stacks that aren't a full truck load to rot

[Lorn Logs]

Yes, that too. Timber that's too short for the mill gets left lying on the hillside here, I could clear the whole thing with my wee forwarder and I'd pay them for the timber, but all ye get is a NO....bolloxed if ye try to help, I don't understand it

[gensetsteve]

I think they have tom leave a certain amount to create habitat for bugs and things.

[Lorn Logs]

They do, but I'm talking about hillsides littered with timber just getting left to rot away. Decent timber too, that would be fine for firewood....some stacked too, maybe 4 or 5 high, just getting left. Lucky bugs, think I might become one....

[muttley9050]

It's important not to think that leaving a pile of brash is good enough habitat, some bugs need to live in deadwood for upwards of 5 years before they mature and different species require differnt types of wood. There May be some wastage, but this is not always the case, and letting some of the nutrients leech back into the soil can't be a bad thing.

James

[Logsnstuff]

It's important not to think that leaving a pile of brash is good enough habitat, some bugs need to live in deadwood for upwards of 5 years before they mature and different species require differnt types of wood. There May be some wastage, but this is not always the case, and letting some of the nutrients leech back into the soil can't be a bad thing.

James

 

there is usually a rule to leave a certain amount of standing timber with the tops cut for birds of prey and the beetles get a good share of the timber also but some sites they trash the lot. I spoke to one of our old operators couple of months back and he had just finished a job they took the 4.9m logs and the rest went to ground roughly 85% wasted then the next job he's on is run for biomass and he's facing the sack if there's anything over 2" top D left in the rack.