# Thoughts on freshwater driftwood



## electiccottage (Dec 5, 2011)

We have access to as much freshwater driftwood as the lake decides to toss up on our beach. We've been considering hauling the saw down and bucking some of the bigger trees to bring up and split and dry to burn. Mostly bleached with no bark left, so basically preseasoned, just needs drying, or so we figure. Thoughts?


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## myzamboni (Dec 5, 2011)

Go for it!


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## GeeVee (Dec 5, 2011)

This is one instance where he axiom that if its wood, it will burn. 

Camp fire? OWB? 

I gotta go make some popcorn....


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## mitch95100 (Dec 5, 2011)

Better make shure you have authorization to do it, i could see someone making a fit out of it.


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## electiccottage (Dec 5, 2011)

Lopi Republic 1750. If it was an OWB I wouldn't have even thought twice.

Someone might make a fit, but usually no one is around to do it. You can't see our beach access from the road, so if we do it once boating season is over, pretty much no one would know unless we said so. Besides, we could just collect from "our" portion of the beach, meaning the part that's abutting our property. We're lakefront and with erosion, our original lot lines are out in the lake by now, lol.


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## coog (Dec 5, 2011)

I would think that most boaters would appreciate you removing potentially hazardous logs and such. My family got a lot of wood by towing snags to the public landing and cutting them up.


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## Toxic2 (Dec 5, 2011)

your property, your wood, grab the saw and start bucking..

The nautical side of me( spend 2 years living on a boat) would thank you for doing so cause hitting those dead head's is no fun...


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## Iska3 (Dec 5, 2011)

When I was a kid, my dad would snag the deadhead logs out of the river in spring and haul them home. We’d saw them up later in the summer when they dried out. We heated our house for many years that way. Got some mighty big trees after the ice was out.


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## Oliver1655 (Dec 12, 2011)

Where I live in Missouri, most of the larger lakes/reservoirs are controlled by the US Corps of Engineers. Check with whoever has control of your lake. They can give out hefty fines if you are collecting anything but fish & there are lots of folks who would love to turn you in if they catch you.


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## EXCALIBER (Dec 12, 2011)

I cut a bunch of wood at my lake this year, all I needed to do was get a permission slip from the fish and game. Heck they even started loading my truck up when I came. Ask permission first and I would bet they would let you.


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## logbutcher (Dec 13, 2011)

*"permission" ?*

Puleeeeze....give us a break.

This is not the 2nd grade where you need to raise your hand and *ASK PERMISSION *to pee !!!!!:taped:

Rule: never "ask" to do anything that s completely within your adult and legal right to do. I is the kiss of death to "ask" bureaucrats for anything. 
Emphasis on adult and legal please.:bang:

In most states bodies of water are public. Driftwood 'belongs' to whoever wants it. No harm, benefit to those scrounging and to the public. 

Will all adults who agree kindly "raise their hands" ? Thank you.....thank you very much ( Elvis).


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## avalancher (Dec 13, 2011)

logbutcher said:


> Puleeeeze....give us a break.
> 
> This is not the 2nd grade where you need to raise your hand and *ASK PERMISSION *to pee !!!!!:taped:
> 
> ...




That would be the wrong answer around here. Almost all large bodies of water that have creeks or rivers providing flow into them are controlled by the TVA or Tennessee Valley Authority, and you can bet your bottom dollar they would fine you pretty hard if they caught you hauling firewood off the beach, even if its your property. Here is a good example..

In our area around Douglas lake, we have a mineral comonly referred to as "Herkimer Diamonds", a gem made of quartz. Once the lake drains down in the winter, there are quiet a few rock hounds that come out to look for em. Every once in awhile the TVA will send a truck out there and have a TVA agent ticket folks for "severing natural rock formations", a fine that usually runs you $175. And all you are doing is pickup up rocks on the ground! As the TVA explains, you are not permitted to take anything from the lake without a permit including fish, snapping turtles, etc. And of course there is no permit for rock hounds.....

Better check with your local authority, it may end up costing you a bundle for that firewood!


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## aleman (Dec 13, 2011)

For whatever its worth, the instructions that came with my insert said to never burn any type of drift wood. Why, I have no idea. They may just be trying to cover themselves from the morons who try to burn it without drying


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## Nosmo (Dec 13, 2011)

Oliver1655 said:


> Where I live in Missouri, most of the larger lakes/reservoirs are controlled by the US Corps of Engineers. Check with whoever has control of your lake. They can give out hefty fines if you are collecting anything but fish & there are lots of folks who would love to turn you in if they catch you.



This happened to a friend of mine. He was fishing below a corp of engineers dam and spotted a lot of driftwood and decided to go home and get his chainsaw and cut some of it up.

He got started and was soon surrounded by 3 or 4 game wardens who were going to arrest him. They claimed he was changing the natural environment. He told them all he was trying to cut was driftwood and nothing else.

They told him it should be left as it had naturally drifted to this spot. With a promise he would not cut any again they let him loose.

Where -- Lock and Dam #17 Verdigris River just north of Muskogee, Oklahoma - just South of Wagoner, Oklahoma.

Nosmo


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## stumpy75 (Dec 13, 2011)

There are a lot of different laws in each state regarding this. State law might apply in some spots, and others, the TVA or Corp of Engineers (ACoE) has jurisdiction. On the Great Lakes, it's up to the states, and it varies from state to state. Some are very strict, and some don't care... I know of some spots near me that are private lakes that it would be fine to take it as long as it's on your land (but even that designation can be tricky....where does your land start?). 

If it was me, I'd make sure it's not a ACoE or state owned (or controlled) lake, and go for it. Can't see why freshwater driftwood would not make good firewood either. Used quite a bit of it in campfires along Lake Erie (don't know if it was legal or not, but nobody complained!).


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## ancy (Dec 13, 2011)

My FIL does it along the river banks on his land. He just brings a small broom to remove any sand and goes to town. I would still think it is hard on chains but he says nope!


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## TMFARM 2009 (Dec 13, 2011)

avalancher said:


> That would be the wrong answer around here. Almost all large bodies of water that have creeks or rivers providing flow into them are controlled by the TVA or Tennessee Valley Authority, and you can bet your bottom dollar they would fine you pretty hard if they caught you hauling firewood off the beach, even if its your property. Here is a good example..
> 
> In our area around Douglas lake, we have a mineral comonly referred to as "Herkimer Diamonds", a gem made of quartz. Once the lake drains down in the winter, there are quiet a few rock hounds that come out to look for em. Every once in awhile the TVA will send a truck out there and have a TVA agent ticket folks for "severing natural rock formations", a fine that usually runs you $175. And all you are doing is pickup up rocks on the ground! As the TVA explains, you are not permitted to take anything from the lake without a permit including fish, snapping turtles, etc. And of course there is no permit for rock hounds.....
> 
> Better check with your local authority, it may end up costing you a bundle for that firewood!



does WNY have a TVA?????


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## stihlrookie (Dec 13, 2011)

*Yep, I would check*

Corps of Engineers manages the lake up to the highwater mark where I am at. Same thing as already said, you need to find out for sure and get permission. No sense getting a ticket for some free wood. They still tug some logs around on the lake by me and they are all marked. Logs slip out of the boom all the time and go adrift, they are the property of the logging company regardless of where they end up. It is considered theft if you take those logs. Examine what you are cutting thoroughly. Besides being embedded with sand most likely, many pieces of driftwood I see have metal sticking out of them. Nails, bolts, cable, railroad spikes, iron loops....be careful.


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## dms (Dec 13, 2011)

Didn't that jerk on the logging show get in trouble for removing logs from the river and that is why he had to go to another state? I think he also got nailed for collecting disablity and working too. I don't know the laws in NY but, I supect we have somenthing stupid on the books.


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## myzamboni (Dec 13, 2011)

aleman said:


> For whatever its worth, the instructions that came with my insert said to never burn any type of drift wood. Why, I have no idea. They may just be trying to cover themselves from the morons who try to burn it without drying



They are referring to oceanic driftwood which has salts which don't play well with steel stoves.


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## dwraisor (Dec 13, 2011)

To echo what several others are saying, if the lake is controlled by the Army Corp of Engeniers, be careful. While they probably would not have an issue w/ removing dead wood, as we do it yearly at the campground for marshmallow cooking fodder. Where they will get you is for creating errosion issues, by driving any wheeled vehicle (atv, tractor, golfcart) on the Corp land (below the red line) we call it, or the high water mark. Here in KY if you own lake front property that extends below the red line, you need a permit to mow the grass. No live cutting is allowed. I have never heard of any issues w/ dead wood removal from shorelines, not sure about sunken deadheads, but again it is the driving on the land they will ticket you for. I saw them tell a parent in a campground the kid could not drive a power wheels on the pavement because it was not a street legal vehicle, and it wasn't allowed on the grass. What the?!

dw


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## avalancher (Dec 14, 2011)

TMFARM 2009 said:


> does WNY have a TVA?????



No,I am sure they dont. But I am pretty sure they have an agency that is just as anal, and just as willing to hand out a ticket for something as minor as picking up firewood. Every state has em!


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## JBinKC (Dec 14, 2011)

I have burned driftwood on a rare occasion. It will burn OK in the stove.

In my area it is permissible on Corps land provided you buy a timber harvesting permit from the forester which limits you to downed trees and limbs under 10" in diameter. One year it was permissible to do for free on Truman Lake for any size log for about a month after a large flood which very few took advantage of and eventually cost the corps million of dollars to clean up. 

I don't know the rules on Lake of the Ozarks which is owned by Ameren but if it is doing damage to your property I would remove it because they won't.

In my experience I find harvesting driftwood a crapshoot anyway much of the time the wood has little heating value as most of its usually punky low btu river bottomland species.


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## logbutcher (Dec 14, 2011)

avalancher said:


> no,i am sure they dont. But i am pretty sure they have an agency that is just as anal, and just as willing to hand out a ticket for something as minor as picking up firewood. Every state has em!



no


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