Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: A gloat and the price of urbanization

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Loretto, Ontario (in the sticks, north of Toronto)
    Posts
    83

    A gloat and the price of urbanization

    I was on my way home from work on Friday and noticed that a golf course was closed for good. Turns out that the course is being torn down for houses.

    The sad part is that every tree on the course is being cut down and sent through a chipper. Oh, the horror!

    So, since I heat with a wood stove, I went and "obtained" some firewood for next year.

    What a shame though. I don't have enough time to get anything for turning. Maple, ash, birch, willow and many others. Some trees were in excess of 4 feet in diameter.

    To think that they wouldn't even offer it to the public to cut for firewood. They would rather be selfish and just chip it all away. What a waste of a resource.

    Anyhow, at least I got a bush cord out of it.
    Regards,

    Chris

  2. #2
    Congratulations on the find!

    I love Toronto and that area up there. I'm surprised that folks up there wouldn't do as you described, though I imagine there is probably some liability, and deadlines they would have to contend with.

    We see the same kind of thing down here. Farms and orchards get leveled, and it all gets trucked to the dump. The bulldozers make a mess out of the wood, so you have to find out & get there before they do. I'm starting to run out of room for wood, and have resorted to stacking the more stable stuff outside in the shade.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Goodland, Kansas
    Posts
    22,605
    Wow that is to bad. I know the city here trims trees all the time in alleys to keep them away from the city power lines. They will also take trees out if they are a threat to their lines. I have asked several times for pieces of trees they are taking down. Won't let me have any and just put them in the chipper. At he city dump I found some apple, cherry, maple, ash and elm. I ask if I could pick up a few pieces. Nope what goes in there cannot come out. So they just put all the wood in a burn pit and burn it. The city manager is a...... well won't say it here. You are right what a waste.
    Bernie

    Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

    To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone.



  4. #4
    You know if a club went to the city council and petitioned to be allowed to salvage by the ton for $ and be able to use the clubs liability insurance I'd bet they would sign off on it or at least show that " reclamation" is NOT burning at the city dump , adding smoke and praticulate/s to the air, but wise use of resources that could one day be strictly controlled and may include composting this material. Its worth a shot then when the GREEN team claims wood turners are contributing to deforestation , we could site a nation wide reclamation project to reduce the enviromental effects " burning " does, even if it is leasing a space at the dump for wood to be dumped and avaiable to users by the lb etc.
    John 3:16

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Saginaw, Texas
    Posts
    107

    I don't see what the difference is sometimes?

    The have a big machine that produces lots of chips... I have a big machine that produces lots of chips. They make a big mess, I can make a big mess. I have to sometimes clean up some of their mess and I have to clean up all of my mess. Ah... I see, they're just trying to help me downsize my workload.
    Jay Kilpatrick in Saginaw, Tx

  6. #6
    Congrats on the wood up there.
    The same thing happened down here with an old golf course that was set up on an older pecan orchrid. They just pushed the big old trees over with an excavator, and they to the burn pile.
    Got all the pecan I can handle, and a friend is milling as much as possible for himself also. The rest to the burn pile.
    Makes me sad and angry.
    Rich S.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Ivy, VA
    Posts
    1,023
    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Souchek View Post
    Congrats on the wood up there.
    The same thing happened down here with an old golf course that was set up on an older pecan orchrid. They just pushed the big old trees over with an excavator, and they to the burn pile.
    Got all the pecan I can handle, and a friend is milling as much as possible for himself also. The rest to the burn pile.
    Makes me sad and angry.
    Rich S.
    Just the other day the hospital I work at took down a 4' dia. red oak that was straight for 50', because it was close to their construction site. Not where it would get in the way, or anything, but just because. Makes me fume. 150 years in the making, gone in minutes.
    Your friend isn't in Hockley, by chance is he? There's a guy on another forum that I post on that has a massive chainsaw mill & just got a big load of pecan from a similar situation.

    Its pretty criminal what people will do for a buck. Just bulldoze it all & put in condos. Its kindof whats happening in my area. Charlottesville Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson, and its surrounding county is being carved up as we speak. Evan almighty was filmed there; that big development that the main character lives in really was going up as the movie was being filmed. Pretty sick. All the old big farms are being sliced up into tiny 1/4-1/2 acre if you're lucky parcels & new overpriced houses going up. I HATE DEVELOPERS.

    Wish I could be there in your area to get some wood; I hate sound like an opportunist, but at least you guys are taking some to keep it from being wasted.




    edit: Hope I didn't sound like too much of a kermudgeon! Just a little frustrated. I'm back in school & won't be able to ever buy a house in my hometown at the rate things are going once I graduate.
    Last edited by Nathan Hawkes; 01-29-2008 at 1:42 PM.

  8. #8
    Nathan,
    Yes, you have us pegged. Narwhale here and aggiewoodbutcher is the milling friend. The pictures he posted couple of days ago is the pecan mentioned above.
    You do any milling?
    Rich S.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Ivy, VA
    Posts
    1,023
    A little, but not as much as I'd like. There are trees to mill all the time, it seems, that I don't have any time to mill. I'm trying to stockpile enough wood to renovate a house after I graduate from school (working on being accepted to nursing school right now). I'm 31 and renting now, & I figure the only way I'm ever going to buy a home that I really love is if I put in the sweat equity. I've just gotten into turning, but seem to be finding wood everywhere that I couldn't mill that is perfect for turning. I'll have enough blanks to last me for years. I'm Aquan8tor on AS, by the way. I hardly post any pics on there; I don't have a digital camera anymore. I have a pretty decent stockpile of wide oak and cherry flitch slabs drying now, some SYP that will be a traditional workbench this spring when its dry enough, and a bunch of red oak and cherry logs that I haven't milled yet. I'm actually going to saw up some poplar logs for shed siding tomorrow and the next day, and I hope to get to a triple trunk walnut 20-22" per trunk (25' straight before the first branch) by march. I'm committed to only taking salvage trees from either arborists or some family land trees that are dying or damaged.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •