Forum Topic

Free firewood

Hi there everybody.We're a small, dedicated Tree Surgery company and never charge the client for dumping costs: 100% of our waste is recycled.All the woodchip goes to allotments and local parks, and all the wood is donated to keen wood-burning citizens...As it's hot at the moment nobody burns wood (apart from us) so our log pile is getting bigger.IF YOU WANT FREE LOGS FOR THE WINTER, COME AND GET THEM OUTSIDE OUR HOUSE IN ACTON (ON THE PAVEMENT): 51 CUMBERLAND PARK, W36SXAll is small-ish size.Ta.Bertrand (07887 721 301)Creative Urban Tree Surgery.

Bertrand Maurer ● 5787d17 Comments

I don't know the precise plans, but the trees are, as you say, very mature, and it may be that taking a very long term view the Council is planning to ensure that when the current trees end their natural lives there are successor trees planted. I doubt if this is the case as the current Council shows no signs of thinking long term on anything.Too much of the planning in the last 20+ years w.r.t. Shepherd's Bush Green has involved fiddling about with s public open place. True it was just a plain triangle of flat land with paths along the most common routes and some foot-worn paths where there was no tarmacing. I didn't object overmuch to the creation of a dog exercise area nor to the curious Man on the Moon sculpture and children play area. However something could have been done to avoid the duplication of paths both under the tree avenues and within them and to protect grass area where people shortcutted across corners. Officials have been promising or threatening landscaping for many years but, if and when it comes, it must be based on a genuine consensus of what people want after a real consultation and not be based on those ludicrous architect's drawings where a tree is viewed from directly above as simply a green circle or where human beings come off a Letraset plonk-a-body set. I would also like to see some accounting of where all the Section 106 monies supposedly destined for improving the Green over the last 20 years or so have gone.

Dan Filson ● 5775d

I still think that felling sound mature trees is vandalism and should not be allowed. Especially just to introduce trendy 3d "mounds" that the trees are in the way of. We have probably the only healthy mature Chestnut tree in W London and they want to fell it for no reason that is sane. Plus many others on Shepherds Bush Green

Vivienne James ● 5775d

Apology accepted! I'm still puzzled as to whether burning wood - presumably seasoned so it issues minimal smoke - is legal? What I read and cited above seems to exclude anything except anthracite and the listed products

Dan Filson ● 5781d

I'm sorry Dan if I reacted vehemently to your message.I can't see the smog coming back, but I do understand your point and I'll make an effort banning non-seasoned wood from my personal environment. But seasoned hardwood is definitely smoke-free and I can't accept pollution arguments against it. I have a hybrid LPG-unleaded truck for my business so I do my bit too.Ta.Bertrand

Bertrand Maurer ● 5781d

Hi Becky,Thanks for your offer.I'd love to come and pick-up some of these off-cuts for our fire-lighting.We're only a stone-throw away from Churchfield Rd..I'm off for 8 days tomorrow but when back I'll contact you. Can you text me your number on 07887 721 301 please?Ta.Bertrand the Tree Surgeon

Bertrand Maurer ● 5781d

Surely it is green wood that when burned produces all the smoke and filth, and a well laid fire, using a well weathered and seasoned stock of wood produces a high heat and little smoke. Someone on Wood LAne has a bl***y bonfire every weekend and when my washing is out.... really annoying!

Vivienne James ● 5784d

I like open fires, I like coal on them and I like wood fires likewise, and quite like the occasional garden bonfire. The fact is that, quite apart from any fuel inefficiency, which is in many ways not my business, open fires in homes cause pollution. I am concerned about the pollution on a personal basis because I quite like to have my second-floor bedroom window open at night and I don't like smoke from neighbouring chimneys coming in. This is an experience I have suffered in recent winters on those nights where the smoke does not rise sharply from chimney stacks but drifts around.Is wood a legal fuel? - on the face of it from the minimal research I have done, no it isn't - the attched link lists those are are, in England, apart from anthracite and I don't see wood there, seasoned or otherwise:http://www.airquality.co.uk/smoke_control/fuels.php?country=eOn the general debate, I found the attached Guardian article from 2005 informative:http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/dec/13/ethicalmoney.leohickmanonethicallivingI can find nothing pleasanter than on an autumn evening in the countryside catching just a hint of the smoke from a cottage burning some local wood, or going into a country pub and finding a blazing wood fire there crackling away. But I don't want smoke in my bedroom, nor smog in London - which I vividly remember, including buses going at 2 mph and smog coming into the lower decks through the open rear platform, with passengers retreating further in, and a terrible coughing. I am also concerned, but not obsessively so, about global warming , climate change etc., but I'm not so concerned that I would go to the wall to outlaw rural use of wood or the occasional garden bonfire anywhere.I'm sorry Bertrand reacted so vehemently to my post on this subject which if it is re-read will be found to be posed in the form of a question and not a virulent call from a prosecuting purge. I am grateful for Richard's rebuttal. I just wish Bertrand and others who advocate urban burning of wood showed a little respect for those whose chests do not benefit from inhaling smoke. If you want to see me get really annoyed, I'll move on to cigarette smoke, especially that emitted from cigarettes that are not actually being smoked by the person holding them.

Dan Filson ● 5784d

And if you want some kindling to start that fire, there are small seasoned pine off-cuts building up in my workshop in Churchfield Road, W3. (I thought the lastest was that burning wood is a good thing).Becky.beckybellcabinetmaker.blogspot.com

Becky Bell ● 5784d

"because all that nonsense was put in after people got so ill from the smog"The London smog of December 1952 killed 4000 people.  Those of us who survived it don't regard the Clean Air Acts as nonsense.

Richard Jennings ● 5784d

Hand-cuff me, I'm obviously out of date (or am I ahead of the times?... because all that nonsense was put in after people got so ill from the smog...).Open fires are the best. My logs don't smoke.Come and sit next to our fireplace tonight and you'll see what I mean.

Bertrand Maurer ● 5785d

That's a good point. If one removes a large tree near a house without taking in consideration change on water levels in between soil particles, one can create more problems than before since heave (lateral displacements of soil strata) can occur, often with catastrophic results...Don't know what the Shepherds Bush Green "regeneration plans" are. + If trees are to be removed we must be sure that more replacement ones are to be planted.

Bertrand Maurer ● 5785d

"The Clean Air Acts that you so kindly refer to say that one can burn SEASONED hardwood in smoke-less zones. ... Please get your facts right before crying for prosecution."Talking of getting facts right, the Clean Air Act 1993 says nothing about seasoned hardwood.  It prohibits burning anything that emits smoke from a domestic chimney in a smoke control area.  I've read several local authority sites that say that burning wood in an open fireplace in their area is illegal. I've also seen advice from several organisations that say that in smoke control areas you are not allowed to burn wood except in authorised stoves.Presumably you use such a stove?  It would have been helpful to advise others to do the same.

Richard Jennings ● 5786d

So presumably then if a large tree is suddenly removed, the adjacent properties might suffer from excessive water... might even float.What are your thoughts on the "regeneration" plans for Shepherds Bush Green and the removal of of a diverse group of mature native trees?

Vivienne James ● 5786d

Hi there, Yes my company is CUTS (Creative Urban Tree Surgery) and our website you probably have already visited.We do an excellent work and we NEVER work for Local Planning Authorities. The only street trees we do are the ones in private front gardens and yes, pruning is our speciality, so our trees are beautiful.The severe pollarding you witness on council street trees is due to the un-imaginable amount of insurance claims councils have had to deal with over the last 20 years. Root expansion of large trees can be very detrimental to house foundations, especially through roots' influence on soil plasticity indexes (moisture content). By pollarding, one removes the water-sucking parts of the tree and forces it to create an 'emergency crown' by draining its reserves of carbohydrates it has stored in its roots over the winters. The resulting crown is the hedgehog effect of zillions of suckers appearing on tree boles, trunks, limbs and branches.... Further pruning is obvioulsy required to control such regrowth.Finally, Ash trees live up to 150 years but only very big ashes will get there. Most pollarded ashes in urban settings will live 70 to 80 years.Ta.Bertrand

Bertrand Maurer ● 5786d

OK.If I have the choice between a source of my own free fossil fuel to warm my house and a source of electricty/gas that will hit my wallet, I won't hesitate.The Clean Air Acts that you so kindly refer to say that one can burn SEASONED hardwood in smoke-less zones. The alternative to wood is smokeless coal that one can get on the market, but I believe it has been found to be more toxic to humans than seasoned hardwood...Please get your facts right before crying for prosecution. I burn seasoned hardwood and I donate it to whoever feels the same as me.Bertrand Maurer

Bertrand Maurer ● 5786d

How do people burn firewood in their homes without breaching the Clean Air Acts etc?I can definitely smell the fossil fuels being burned in my area in mid-winter, and wonder why no more people - or why no people at all - are prosecuted.

Dan Filson ● 5787d

Thanks.. I wish I could. What is the name of your company?Is this you? http://www.ecocuts4trees.com/Some of us despair at the ghastly amputations that go on in the London Boroughs in the name of "pruning" so I hope that you do a good job and flourish. How long do Ash trees generally last?

Vivienne James ● 5787d