Firewood from Private Woodlots

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Firewood from Private Woodlots

• Peter J. Smallidge
• NYS Extension Forester
• www.ForestConnect.info

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Why Cut Firewood?

• Reduce home heating costs
• Reduce dependence on fossil fuels
• Improve tree growth in your woods
• Sell for extra income
• Reduce disease, defect and undesirable trees in
  your woods
• Family fun and exercise

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Todays Objective

• Help forest owners enter into or refine their
  skills in the production of firewood.
• Safety
• Woodlot improvement
• Production marketing strategies

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Firewood Considerations

• Outline
• Scale(s) of production
• Equipment
• Selecting trees
• Storage
• Sales and marketing

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Firewood Considerations

• Full cord 4 x 8 x 4 128 cu ft.
• Face cord 4 x 8 x ? 32 sq. ft.
• Cord
• 5155 lbs green
• 4966 lbs seasoned
• 2.5 tons / cord
• dry 20 moisture content

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Safety Equipment and Risk Reduction

• Chaps or pants (80)
• Helmet with face and ear protection (35)
• Steel toe boots (75)
• Game of Logging for Landowners (125)

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Components of Production

• Wood acquisition
• Log handling / blocking
• Moving logs or blocks
• Splitting blocks into firewood
• Storage

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Scale of Production
1 to 15 cords / year
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Scale of Production (estimated)
1 to 15 cords / year

• Chainsaw 250 - 700
• Safety and felling equip. 150 - 250
• Handcart 75 - 100
• ATV 2500 - 7500
• ATV cart 100 - 400
• Splitting maul 15
• Total 340 to 8000
• 6 person-hours per cord

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Scale of Production
5 to 25 cords / year
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Scale of Production (estimated)
5 to 25 cords / year

• Chainsaw 500 - 700
• Safety and felling equip. 150 - 250
• ATV 2500 - 7500
• ATV arch 300 - 600
• Tractor and skid plate 10,000 (used)
• Splitting maul 15
• Power splitter 250 (rental?)
• Power splitter 1500 - 7000 (buy)
• Total 4300 - 12,500
• 4 - 6 person-hours per cord (???)

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Scale of Production
gt 50 cords / year
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Scale of Production (estimated)
gt 50 cords / year

• Chainsaw (2) 500 - 700
• Safety and felling equip. 250
• Tractor and skid plate 20,000
• Power splitter 1500
• Firewood processor 15 - 35,000
• Buy logs 30 - 50/cd del.
• Total 12,500 - ???
• Cut and skid 2 cds/hr split 1-3 cds/hr

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Equipment

• SAFETY !!
• Felling
• Chainsaw
• Moving
• Hand cart, ATV, arch or wagon, tractor, skidder
• Processing
• Maul, hydraulic splitter, firewood processor

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Selecting Trees

• Retain trees that support your ownership
  objective
• Remove stems that are good firewood

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(No Transcript)
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Leave the winners and cut the losers
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Cut trees of poor form and low vigor
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Release 2 to 4 sides
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How do you put the tree on the Ground?

• One opening in the canopy
• 12 side lean, or
• 16 back lean, or
• Forward lean, but good tree adjacent

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Directional Felling

• Game of Logging for Landowners
• Dont chase the tree
• Directional Felling Advantages
• Reduce hung trees
• Safely and quickly release hung trees
• Position log for extraction
• Reduce risk of personal injury
• Increased productivity

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Game of Logging for Landowners

• Benefits
• Know your limitations
• Reduce downtime
• Sharpen you own chain
• Avoid dangerous situations

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Is All Firewood Equal?

• Really good (gt 20MM BTU / seasoned cord)
• Apple, beech, oak, locust, sugar maple,
  hophornbeam, hickory, black birch
• Good (15MM 20MM BTU / seasoned cord)
• White ash, red maple, elm, white birch
• Poor (11MM 13MM BTU / seasoned cord)
• Willow, basswood, aspen (popple), butternut,
  softwoods

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Storing Firewood

• Fell and leave leaves to accelerate dessication
• Ideally seasoned 1 to 2 years
• Split to expose wood fiber
• Store above ground
• Protect from rain and snow
• Stack for access

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?
?
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Considerations for Efficiency and Production

• Exam by physician
• Personal protective equipment
• Lift with your legs
• Core exercises year round
• Use modern equipment
• Use sharp tools
• Use the appropriate tools

• DO NOT damage residual trees
• Avoid equipment on soggy ground to prevent root
  damage
• Leave tops high as habitat and deer barrier
• Leave small diameter wood in the forest

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Marketing Firewood

• Neighbors and friends
• Your community networks
• Daily and weekly newspapers
• Establish a client base
• Customer perks
• Stack the wood
• Minimal loose bark and debris
• Dont sell muddy firewood

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Firewood Distribution

• Customer picks-up
• One load at a time
• Multiple loads

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Legal Considerations

• You can be sued for anything at anytime
• Business insurance
• Truck hits clients house
• Firewood falls on clients son
• Chimney fire
• Errors and Omissions (?)
• Bottomline talk to your insurance agent
• Cover the load

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Legal Considerations to Sell FirewoodNYS Ag and
Markets

• Hardwoods exclude conifers, aspen, basswood,
  butternut, willow, gray and paper birch.
• Seasoned wood must specify duration of
  seasoning
• Advertising of wood requires three dimensions in
  feet and inches
• Sales tax should be collected (?)
• Revenue should be reported to IRS and NYS

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Useful Websites

• www.ForestConnect.info (Cornell Univ.)
• www.woodheat.org
• http//www.csia.org/homeowners/firewood.htm
• http//forestry.about.com/od/firewood/ (many
  extension links)
• http//smallfarms.ifas.ufl.edu/environment_and_rec
  reation/forestry/firewood_production.html

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Estimated Cord Volume by Diameter to a 4 top