What is the Environmental Impact of Burning Wood?

[HillStreet]

In my town in Maine I obtain a seasonal permit for "camp fire" as I have a fire pit in the back yard. When I burn brush, I have to physically go to the Fire Department to obtain a permit for that day only. Required safeguards are water (hose or buckets), phone access, and full extinguishment when you leave the fire area. I have not been spot checked yet, and that is a routine practice as I understand.

 

[MossRoad]

We wood burners kinda look at it like it is carbon neutral (isnoring all the other stuff that is produced). True, all wood will eventually release its carbon by rotting, burning or other means.

The 'carbon neutral' does apply to woodburning over the long run but not in the short run. I have (and will continue to) burned more wood in my lifetime than would have decayed in the same amount of time.

Harry K

I burn about 50 locust trees every year. I have planted 2000+ trees on our property, + I maintain another 10,000 in an existing woodlot that regenerates itself as I cut. Therefore, I've done my part and actually am in the positive column for carbon via wood burning. (don't ask me about my car's impact, though )

 

[farmer2009]

Here if you are within sight of highway and it's daylight call dispatch and tell them you are burning a brush pile. Unless it's no burn season then can't be within 150 feet of a wood line and can only be lit from 6pm-6am. Otherwise just light it. If neighbor calls it in and the fire department shows up have a dozer or at least tractor and disk close by. If fire department pulls up to a fire and you have a dozer sitting there they look at you and say "looks like you have it under control" and leave. Learned this when the neighbor caught dads back field on fire. Another neighbor rolled in with a dozer and the fire department said "we're done the dozer is here". Stuck around and talked till he had a fire road around 35 acres and then left.

 

[DaveOmak]

To keep it simple, if I burn 100 pounds of wood in my stove, what happens to each of those 100 pounds? Ken Sweet

Ken.... It is recycled.. 100 %... sulfur for crops.... CO2 is necessary for all plant life to grow... H2O for all life on earth.... and the tree that was cut down makes room for a new tree to grow.... The ash contains a myriad of elements from the earth and if put into your garden, plants use those nutrients..

 

[DarkBlack]

Particularly troubling, is the EPA proposed requirement that new coal fired plants reduce the amount of Carbon Dioxide emissions.

EPA proposes strict emission limits on new power plants

Speaking of CO2, Where I live, it's cloudy 2/3 the time. Clouds have 2-4 times the "greenhouse effect" as tree feeding CO2. Why isn't there a political war on clouds?

 

[sixdogs]

I read an article today about a study that showed it was several degrees warmer during Medieval and Roman times. Wasn't much fossil fuel being burned then.

Study: Earth was warmer in Roman, Medieval Times | The Daily Caller

The article notes that scientists are now scrambling for an explanation to allegedly warmer temps of today and are looking at the sun as the answer. Wow it's always in the last place you look.

 

[/pine]

I read an article today about a study that showed it was several degrees warmer during Medieval and Roman times. Wasn't much fossil fuel being burned then.

Study: Earth was warmer in Roman, Medieval Times | The Daily Caller

The article notes that scientists are now scrambling for an explanation to allegedly warmer temps of today and are looking at the sun as the answer. Wow it's always in the last place you look.

Since all the "warmers"'s (henny penny's) evidence is evaporating before their eyes...they will be scrambling to save face...can you say "I told you so"...LoL...!

 

[cqaigy2]

Since all the "warmers"'s (henny penny's) evidence is evaporating before their eyes...they will be scrambling to save face...can you say "I told you so"...LoL...!

It's evaporating because of the heat......

 

[ultrarunner]

5 million+ acres of forest burn every year,and that's OK,but we just try to keep warm,and get attacked.

This is what's happening in California and there is a lot of money on the anti wood side of things.

Some of the coldest weather for days and a burn ban.

If they could find an easy way to tax wood I'm sure the situation would change.

 

[dave1949]

A current article about wood stoves, EPA re-write, emissions, etc.



Tougher pollution limits for wood stoves might just backfire | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

An excerpt:

Using seasoned hardwood, the [Jotul] F45 Greenville can burn up to eight hours and heat a 1,600-square-foot house, but send out only 2.31 grams per hour of fine-particle pollution. That痴 less than a third of the maximum emissions allowed by the federal government for similar stoves, making it one of the cleanest-burning, mass-produced stoves on the market.

But the government says that痴 not good enough. Twenty-six years have passed since the Environmental Protection Agency set emission standards for wood heaters. This winter, the agency is putting the final touches on a far-reaching and controversial update. It would require wood-stove makers to slash particulate emissions to 1.3 grams per hour in 2019.