power/phone line wood left

[Iska3]

Here is a pretty simple rule of life....

If it is not your land, then it's not your land to take from.


It all belongs to somebody. Just because you see some one else pick from it doesn't make it okay. It should be rather simple to go to the local township or county seat, check the plat book, and get permission from the owner. I own several pieces of land, and people that ask to hunt, fish, cut, etc are welcome to. Those that don't bother to ask permission get "an ear full". You assume that the wood laying there is unwanted, yet I as the landowner assume that it will be there when I go to get it next week, month, year.

:agree2: We have property north of us and I've let tree trunks stacked or lay by the side of the road for a year or more. Take anything from my property without asking and you are trespassing.

 

[woodbooga]

No argument there.




That's not quite right.

Around my part of Virginia, the power companies, VDOT, and utility people will leave wood on the side of the road, on public property, because they count on wood scavengers to pick it up and save them the expense of disposing of it. If it belongs to the public, it belongs to me, too, so I'm not stealing if I help out with the unwritten, but still very much recognized, standard system for keeping our road sides clear of downed wood.

Just last year VDOT had some crews come along Route 7 (between the Blue Ridge and Hamilton) and cleared out a lot of ailanthus. They neatly cut it to firewood lengths (taking extra time to do so), and stacked it (mostly) alongside the road, chipped the brush, and left the rest to the scavengers. I didn't want any of it myself, but it was fun to watch each pile disappear over the next week or so. Most of it was where you couldn't really find whose property it was in front of, some of it you could have, but it was all clearly on the highway, not private property.

The alternative is for the taxpayers to pick up the tab to have that wood hauled to a landfill and wasted.

I don't see a problem with this system.


Now, on another part of my commute route, there's a bunch of nice oak dumped here and there along the road (a less traveled road) in chunks of various sizes. It's been there since a mid-winter storm, and I think it's pretty clear nobody there wants it. I'm pretty sure it's also on public land, but I don't plan to touch it until:

1. I've looked at a plat map to verify it's on public land.
2. I stop at each house to ask if it's okay. ONLY AS A COURTESY.

If it turns out it's actually on the private land, I'll ask as a moral requirement, before I touch it.

Do you see a problem with approach?

That was very much the case here - perhaps apart from the written letter of the law - for many, many years. But of late, towns that once had populations of 800 are now communities of 3,000. Municipalities that once had 2,000 denizens are now inhabited by 8,000.

Around here, it was once the case that wanted wood was chucked on the inside of a stone wall (most of our side roads are lined with these vestiges of 19thc. agriculture). Stuff up for grabs was left near the roads edge (culverts permitting).

With so many folks 'from away' swelling our population, it's harder for the niceties of unwritten understandings to persist. As a result, it is now better to assume (here anyway) that all wood is off limits. Used to be that checking in with a road crew was more than enough. Nowadays, they don't want to say have at it after 5pm when we're done.

Too bad. As noted earlier in this thread, I'd been eyeing some logs. About 2 Ranger loads worth. Instead of my removing it for the mutual benefit of my family and the town, the municipality had to pony up the expense of the logs' removal.

Not to bemoan too much the loss of small town rural life, but what could have been a win-win was instead a lose-lose.

 

[banshee67]

update on this one:

me and a buddy stopped to grab some of the wood one evening, and .. well it didnt go as planned to say the least.
we loaded up a bunchof real nice 24+ diameter rounds of sugar maple, 4-5 nice straight 8ft poles of 12" black birch... then some maniac appears out in the woods screaming at the top of his lungs saying its his wood and his property...
clearly its not private property, and every year in the same little area a tree or 2 goes down and knocks out power for a day or more, its honestly ridiculous, same exact spot everytime, same bunch of hacked up nasty sugar maples that drops a limb on the power lines and ####s us all. so my buddy tells the guy "why dont you start maintaining your trees if they are yours, and stop knocking our power out every year" the guy had no response but kept on going about the cops and bla bla bla.. so we threw the bit of wood off the trailer he was crying about, and left...
come to findout, it wasnt his property.. he was just being an idiot.. and 90% of the wood we loaded and then unloaded back to where we got it, is still sitting there.. the rest was most likely scrounged by someone driving by... oh well

 

[merlin1]

I have problems with wood poachers in my area here in the Wet Mountains area of CO. They seem to come in on the access road and take trees 40-50 feet from the edge...looks like they take a tree or two at night then take off. Scum bags...I'd probably let them have most of what they cut anyway if they asked for it since there is a lot of half dead stuff around where they steal. With all the BLM land around where wood is free to cut, why poach off private property?

 

[ropensaddle]

Having been one who left wood I can tell you I have seen much ado over this! I was asked many times if they could get wood and I always said if the owner does not want it and you wait until our operations are over I have no problem. I have had nuts pull up get out and start loading while I'm removing 15 foot overhang over 3 phase! I promptly have run those types off.

 

[Toxic2]

I usually just run the saw for a good 15 mjns bucking..i dont load anything untill i wait to see if anyone comes a runnjng( and they will..lol)..if all clear i start to load. Its is always best tk ask if a house is nearby tho

 

[cus_deluxe]

haha 4 1/2 year old thread

 

[ropensaddle]

haha 4 1/2 year old thread

boredom rotflmao