Gabrielle
Sep29-05, 01:32 PM
Oil prices, romance create firewood intrigue
By Rex Turner
High on the back hill, a red maple stood alone, apart from the solid mass of leaves, trunks, and limbs that started behind the rock wall. I approached slowly, allowing my eyes to follow the ever so slightly bending stem as it narrowed and split, feeding into a bushy top. A hot sun hung above, and the leaf shadows danced in rhythm with the breeze rolling on and off again across the hill top. I crouched down to inspect the base of this perhaps 40-year-old plant, then stood up, admired once more the heights of its crown, and took one step back. I then fired up my shiny chainsaw and cut that sucker down lickety-split.
All melodrama and joking aside, I did cut the tree. In fact, I've cut down tons of trees (though I'm still no professional). Growing up with only a woodstove for heat, I've no qualms when it comes to cutting trees--as long as I know there's concern for sustainability, aesthetics, wildlife habitat, and in select situations, the principle of "hands off" preservation.
There's a long tradition of heating Maine homes with wood, and considering the price of oil these days, I'm guessing more and more folks are looking back to our heritage fuel. Crackling fires and stocky black stoves are romantic, and they do hearken to a tangible sense of connection with the land. Of course, burning wood is also a lot of work, and it starts with the cutting.
Cutting wood is a little bit like hunting, though the stalking leaves a little more room for error. In both cases, the lesson or reminder is one of grounding. Both eating venison sausage and warming numbed fingers above a woodstove stoked with ash from your woodlot bring you to the realization that the cycles of the world are old, and they will outlive you. You can't help but remember that sustenance doesn't ultimately come from the supermarket and heat doesn't have to come from liquid dinosaur bones spewing out of the ground.
Getting firewood in the wood box requires cutting trees, limbing them, cutting the trees into transportable segments, cutting those segments to stove length bolts, and then splitting the bolts. As many readers can attest, it's a lot of work. Of course, anybody can order wood to be delivered just as oil or propane is delivered. Dry, split hardwood firewood, including delivery, is running about $200 a cord (with some accounts of prices up to $230/cord). For those who don't know, a cord is a stack of wood 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long.
How much bang do you get for your buck with firewood? Pretty much all species of wood produce 7700 BTUs of heat per pound (a BTU equals about the energy of one lit match). However, some species of wood are denser. So, a cord of white cedar (softwood) will produce 12.2 million BTUs while a cord of red oak (hardwood) will produce 24 million BTUs. Fuel oil, for a reference, produces 140,000 BTUs/gallon.
So, can you save money by buying wood? It's more complicated than you might think. Cooperative extensions can help, and one web resource is provided by one such organization. The University of Nebraska's extension service has a Web site at:
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/consumered/g957.htm.
This site helps sort out the financial implications of purchasing wood. As one might expect, having access to a woodlot changes the whole equation (though it often adds in much more personal labor too).
Burning wood is a world-wide tradition. That doesn't mean it's everybody's cup of tea. If you're jumping into it and you're looking for advice, you might want to check with local stove dealers. You should also inquire with a chimney sweep or your local fire department to see if your chimney is safe. As a side note, your insurance agent might be another to contact, for you could inadvertently be out of code or put yourself there.
One good piece of advice regarding what wood to burn comes from an instructive poem I discovered in the Maine Forest Service publication, Forest Trees of Maine. The poem provides useful information, and in the spirit of all good poetry, expresses, especially in the last lines, the essence of an experience.
WHICH WOOD BURNS BEST?
Beech wood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for long it's laid away.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
Elm wood burns like a churchyard
Mould;
E'en the very flames are cold.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your rooms,
With an incense like perfume.
Oak and maple, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter cold.
But ash wood wet and ash wood dry,
A King shall warm his slippers by.
C.P. Ackers
Adapted from "Practical British Forestry."
Rex Turner is on the staff at Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute (MCLI).
Rex Turner, Lake Science Educator
Rex has diverse experience connecting kids and adults with the wonders of Maine's natural and cultural heritage. He has worked as an Interpretive Ranger at Acadia National Park, a Historic Interpreter at Old Fort Western, an Environmental Educator, and an Earth Science Teacher. Additionally, he and his wife Erika aligned Project Wild and Project Learning Tree environmental education curriculum with the Maine State Learning Results. Since 2004, Rex has been a contributing columnist for the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel. His articles focus on advice, reflections, and anecdotes relating to nature-based recreation in Maine. In addition to being a practicing Registered Maine Guide, Rex is also an active member of the National Association for Interpretation (he is a NAI Certified Interpretive Trainer). Rex has a BS in Recreation & Parks Management from the University of Maine as well as an interpretation and natural resource management focused MS in Forestry (also earned at Maine).
http://mlci.org/default.asp
By Rex Turner
High on the back hill, a red maple stood alone, apart from the solid mass of leaves, trunks, and limbs that started behind the rock wall. I approached slowly, allowing my eyes to follow the ever so slightly bending stem as it narrowed and split, feeding into a bushy top. A hot sun hung above, and the leaf shadows danced in rhythm with the breeze rolling on and off again across the hill top. I crouched down to inspect the base of this perhaps 40-year-old plant, then stood up, admired once more the heights of its crown, and took one step back. I then fired up my shiny chainsaw and cut that sucker down lickety-split.
All melodrama and joking aside, I did cut the tree. In fact, I've cut down tons of trees (though I'm still no professional). Growing up with only a woodstove for heat, I've no qualms when it comes to cutting trees--as long as I know there's concern for sustainability, aesthetics, wildlife habitat, and in select situations, the principle of "hands off" preservation.
There's a long tradition of heating Maine homes with wood, and considering the price of oil these days, I'm guessing more and more folks are looking back to our heritage fuel. Crackling fires and stocky black stoves are romantic, and they do hearken to a tangible sense of connection with the land. Of course, burning wood is also a lot of work, and it starts with the cutting.
Cutting wood is a little bit like hunting, though the stalking leaves a little more room for error. In both cases, the lesson or reminder is one of grounding. Both eating venison sausage and warming numbed fingers above a woodstove stoked with ash from your woodlot bring you to the realization that the cycles of the world are old, and they will outlive you. You can't help but remember that sustenance doesn't ultimately come from the supermarket and heat doesn't have to come from liquid dinosaur bones spewing out of the ground.
Getting firewood in the wood box requires cutting trees, limbing them, cutting the trees into transportable segments, cutting those segments to stove length bolts, and then splitting the bolts. As many readers can attest, it's a lot of work. Of course, anybody can order wood to be delivered just as oil or propane is delivered. Dry, split hardwood firewood, including delivery, is running about $200 a cord (with some accounts of prices up to $230/cord). For those who don't know, a cord is a stack of wood 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long.
How much bang do you get for your buck with firewood? Pretty much all species of wood produce 7700 BTUs of heat per pound (a BTU equals about the energy of one lit match). However, some species of wood are denser. So, a cord of white cedar (softwood) will produce 12.2 million BTUs while a cord of red oak (hardwood) will produce 24 million BTUs. Fuel oil, for a reference, produces 140,000 BTUs/gallon.
So, can you save money by buying wood? It's more complicated than you might think. Cooperative extensions can help, and one web resource is provided by one such organization. The University of Nebraska's extension service has a Web site at:
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/consumered/g957.htm.
This site helps sort out the financial implications of purchasing wood. As one might expect, having access to a woodlot changes the whole equation (though it often adds in much more personal labor too).
Burning wood is a world-wide tradition. That doesn't mean it's everybody's cup of tea. If you're jumping into it and you're looking for advice, you might want to check with local stove dealers. You should also inquire with a chimney sweep or your local fire department to see if your chimney is safe. As a side note, your insurance agent might be another to contact, for you could inadvertently be out of code or put yourself there.
One good piece of advice regarding what wood to burn comes from an instructive poem I discovered in the Maine Forest Service publication, Forest Trees of Maine. The poem provides useful information, and in the spirit of all good poetry, expresses, especially in the last lines, the essence of an experience.
WHICH WOOD BURNS BEST?
Beech wood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for long it's laid away.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
Elm wood burns like a churchyard
Mould;
E'en the very flames are cold.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your rooms,
With an incense like perfume.
Oak and maple, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter cold.
But ash wood wet and ash wood dry,
A King shall warm his slippers by.
C.P. Ackers
Adapted from "Practical British Forestry."
Rex Turner is on the staff at Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute (MCLI).
Rex Turner, Lake Science Educator
Rex has diverse experience connecting kids and adults with the wonders of Maine's natural and cultural heritage. He has worked as an Interpretive Ranger at Acadia National Park, a Historic Interpreter at Old Fort Western, an Environmental Educator, and an Earth Science Teacher. Additionally, he and his wife Erika aligned Project Wild and Project Learning Tree environmental education curriculum with the Maine State Learning Results. Since 2004, Rex has been a contributing columnist for the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel. His articles focus on advice, reflections, and anecdotes relating to nature-based recreation in Maine. In addition to being a practicing Registered Maine Guide, Rex is also an active member of the National Association for Interpretation (he is a NAI Certified Interpretive Trainer). Rex has a BS in Recreation & Parks Management from the University of Maine as well as an interpretation and natural resource management focused MS in Forestry (also earned at Maine).
http://mlci.org/default.asp