Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[motownbrowne]

One way to look at it ..... We need a good reminder now and then about how far left state and local regs can go. Shudder to think it could happen where the rest of us live.

Of course there's the flip side too... I don't know about you, but I don't want to breathe air like they've got in Beijing. It's very common to hear people complaining about emissions regulations here, and while I agree in part (I only use a tractor 100 hours a year so reducing emissions from my tractor is not a big help) I also see the other side.

I was just in CA, OR, and WA for about 3 weeks. Obviously it varies by area, but I was honestly pretty surprised at how many homes have and use wood stoves, and how many chimneys I saw that were just belching out nasty thick smoke. Wisconsin isn't immune either. People out here look like they're about to take up arms when the EPA talks about outdoor wood boilers. Then the same people will brag about how they can burn 100# pieces of green wood without splitting them. Same deal, nasty smoke filling the whole valley. Obviously not everyone does that crap, but it has the effect of giving OWBs a bad reputation for emissions, and basically inviting regulation.

Personally, if I lived in a city, especially one like SF with stagnant foggy air, I wouldn't want to be surrounded by wood stoves. It'd be one thing if more people would actually get a year or two ahead in their wood stash and actually burn dry wood, but for whatever reason, that seems difficult.

Do I heat with wood? Absolutely, and I would sure hate to give it up, but I also recognize that there's a time and a place for everything. I try to do my part and burn dry seasoned wood and not be a nuisance in my neighborhood.

 

[goeduck]

Of course there's the flip side too... I don't know about you, but I don't want to breathe air like they've got in Beijing. It's very common to hear people complaining about emissions regulations here, and while I agree in part (I only use a tractor 100 hours a year so reducing emissions from my tractor is not a big help) I also see the other side.

I was just in CA, OR, and WA for about 3 weeks. Obviously it varies by area, but I was honestly pretty surprised at how many homes have and use wood stoves, and how many chimneys I saw that were just belching out nasty thick smoke. Wisconsin isn't immune either. People out here look like they're about to take up arms when the EPA talks about outdoor wood boilers. Then the same people will brag about how they can burn 100# pieces of green wood without splitting them. Same deal, nasty smoke filling the whole valley. Obviously not everyone does that crap, but it has the effect of giving OWBs a bad reputation for emissions, and basically inviting regulation.

Personally, if I lived in a city, especially one like SF with stagnant foggy air, I wouldn't want to be surrounded by wood stoves. It'd be one thing if more people would actually get a year or two ahead in their wood stash and actually burn dry wood, but for whatever reason, that seems difficult.

Do I heat with wood? Absolutely, and I would sure hate to give it up, but I also recognize that there's a time and a place for everything. I try to do my part and burn dry seasoned wood and not be a nuisance in my neighborhood.

I burn well seasoned wood in an EPA 86 percent certified stove and other than right after I refuel you cannot really tell I have a fire going. Totally agree with you about the nuts burning green wood and belching out smoke. Besides those people our biggest problem is the population base keeps swelling, largely from the city and from other countries. They move in the area and then fuss about a little smoke.

 

[4570Man]

It doesn't seem like a mind boggling concept to get a year ahead in wood, but most people don't. I'd guess locally 90 percent or more burn green wood. The people selling "seasoned" wood that's been cut between a couple weeks and a couple months doesn't help either. And the people burning the 100 pound sticks. It would take years for those to season in a proper wood shed. Most people don't have one and they'll never season outside. With the high humidity here even split wood will never season unprotected anyway. I've about come to the conclusion that if you don't have a proper wood shed you might as well burn 1 year or less stuff. All it does is rot outside.

 

[John_Mc]

One way to look at it ..... We need a good reminder now and then about how far left state and local regs can go. Shudder to think it could happen where the rest of us live.

I live in one of most left-leaning states there is, and this state supports heating with wood. (Yes, they did ban the sale of new non-EPA compliant outdoor wood boilers, but frankly, I have no argument with that. I had to regularly pass through valleys and hollows where just a couple guys burning their green wood in those hogs had the whole neighborhood so smokey it looked like a foggy day and made your eyes water driving through it.)

It's not necessarily a leftist thing, it's an ill-informed regulator thing. If someone burns their wood cleanly, there should be no problem. What they do on their own property is their own business - until it interferes with what I am doing on mine. If they are smoking up the whole neighborhood, that's an issue: figure out how to keep all that crap on their own property and in their own lungs or give it up.

 

[ericm979]

The SF bay area has a large population, nearly all urban or suburban. The geography and winter weather can cause pollution to sit in the valleys, especially when the air is calm. It can get pretty disgusting when viewed from above. Imagine not a few people burning wood in a valley but a few million. On still days there's a layer of noxious green stuff.

The urban counties have not banned wood burning. On bad days they call a "spare the air" day in advance. (the next two days will be spare the air days, we have calm air). There's a limit of about 20 a year. Wood burning is banned on those days unless you heat solely with wood, then you're exempt. The counties here are large and have far flung rural corners, like where I live. No one here is going to care if you burn wood on a spare the air day. In town someone might.

I wish that the air regulators had given more consideration to rural mountain residents when formulating this particular regulation but I can see the need for it. I've lived in the SF bay area for most of the last 50-something years. The air's better now than it was in the late 60s/early 70s, even though the population's much larger. I've not always been totally happy with some details of emissions regs but I can see the need, and that they have been effective in reducing pollution. BTW the prevailing wind blows our pollution eastwards, so the rest of the country can be thankful that our regulations make the air you breathe a little better.

 

[goeduck]

Seems like if the county would show up at the offender’s house, inspect the woodpile with a moisture meter and fine the snot out of them if it is green . Nah, that wouldn’t work....

 

[tjkubota93]

Sounds like any other rule/law. Negatively affect the ones that do right because a a few idiots don't do right. I will admit that alot of times I don't really know a better way to do it. Hard to be selective in a fair way.

 

[ultrarunner]

It is more a one size fits all approach... the EPA compliant stoves are not the problem... but that would be a loophole per the regulators...

My home has a cat equipped stove installed with a permit and I use only seasoned oak from storm fall on my land...

I do agree that some were using burning to dispose of trash and would burn anything...

Had a stack for newly cut/split wood at one home... hadn't been in back for several months and one day I noticed the wood was gone... tenant burned all of it... I said you were told the wood was not seasoned and not to be used... his reply was once it got going it burned OK...

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Loading a 20 foot 6 inch American Black Cherry on my BSM,

almost there,

and now, it's ready to be milled!

SR

 

[goeduck]

Black cherry.... can’t wait to see the boards. Nice.