OT - chipper sought

Argh! no it doesn't. The carbon released by the burning was absorbed in very recent years when the trees where growing. It is the burning of fossil derived fuels that have a carbon foot print.

This is a better than just burning but carbon is still released into the atmosphere as the wood decays. It could possibly be argued that letting the wood rot is worse as the carbon will be released in the form of methane which is 20 times worse as a greenhouse gas than CO2 from burning...

I must admit to agreeing with Dave on the green issue but that's another point. I've got a DIY shredder that works quite well if your not in too much of a hurry. It's far too small for your needs though. Have you thought of hiring one or hiring the services of a tree surgeon who owns one just to use his machine? Googling chipper hire brings a few results for machines that will take 50mm dia for about =A355/day. In other words, about 250 miles in the BMW. The commercial ones can be much bigger and quicker. Of course, the larger pieces could go to good homes for firewood.

How big are these trees? I'm sure you're also aware of the precautions to be taken using chain saws. I assume you're not felling them with axes!

John

No it doesn't, wood is carbon neutral, it only puts back what it has absorbed - so unless you are burring 'living coal'...

I could do with one myself, having had half of a very large beech tree come down in a storm three weeks ago, not ours but half in & half out of the garden but no bu**er else is likely to clear it up. Much of it will be turned into logs, but there'll still be a great deal of small stuff left!

Tim

Should anyone be interested, this is what we did this Easter.

Kim Siddorn

Our local council tip takes green waste for composting. That means any tree stuff up to 150mm diameter. I've taken a few big trailer loads down there recently.

John

Do the splitting into logs sooner rather than later. Beech gets much harder to split once it has seasoned for even a few months. Had some "green" beech delivered once split some until the store was full and left the rest for a few months. It went from splitting if you simply used the weight of the splitting axe to having to significantly swing the axe.

You do still need kindling to light the logs that'll be everything down to

You are right of course Dave, I'd not thought past the escaping hydrocarbons!

The trees are between twenty & thirty years old. The smaller ones myself and others have attacked with gurt axes, but even little 'uns take a lot of energy to take down & it leaves a manky stump at some distance from the ground. We have three chaps with chainsaws and all the protective gear who know what they are about & leave a flat stump only a couple of inches high. Their party trick is to drop a tree onto an unoccupied reflective waistcoat!

The wood we either cut into post lengths - we've a lot of fence to erect and the rest is logged up for the fire we have each evening we are there. Dried for a year, it is actually clean & spit free. This leaves a lot of brash to get rid of & the pile is currently 30 feet long, 15 feet deep and 10 feet high.

regards,

Kim Siddorn

Ours takes green waste, but they don't take trailers other than tiny ones, and there would be a good few loads even with my 8 x 4 trailer. Also our soil is mainly heavy clay, needs all the help it can get, composted chippings are one way to help it. Am I right in thinking that proper composting won't produce much methane?

Tim

I've never had much to do with beech before, thanks for the tip. I think the same is true to some degree with all hardwoods, but I can imagine 'seasoned' beech might be a bit of a sod.

Yes, well, I just 'measured' the thing (pacing & hand span), what came down is about 60' long, over 30" dia at the 'base' where it broke from the main trunk, about 16' from the ground. Some pics at

Tim