Alaska wood collection

[jargo432]

While watching one of those shows about the people of alaska they showed them collecting firewood.  They would go out in boats and get floating logs in the river and cut them up for firewood.  I was wondering if they do that because it's easier or is there some law preventing them from cutting down live trees?

[SLawyer Dave]

The sense I got is that they try not to cut too many living trees for firewood primarily because it is not that "efficient" to do so.  The "floaters" come down the river immediately after the big break up, (Ice Flow), when the water is able to scour the banks taking all of the dead/fallen logs with the current.  So generally these floating trees are only available for a few days.  They are "washed", seasoned, and much easier and quicker to pull to shore and process, as opposed to trying to pull full sized logs through the bush with only 4 wheelers and snow mobiles.

They have also shown that when the residents go out into the forest to cut trees for firewood, they generally are looking for standing dead trees.  Any moisture in a standing dead tree is going to be drawn down by gravity and more quickly evaporated by the wind.  I would suspect it could take a couple cool Alaskan summers to properly season firewood, especially given that any moisture in the tree during the winter months will be frozen in place.  I've also seen the people profiled in the shows explain that at least during the winter, they generally only cut dead standing trees because they can be  burned immediately, while the living trees are much harder to cut and process as they are literally "frozen", and can't be burned or split until they thaw and then season.

On some of the "Alaska" shows, they have also shown people cutting live logs to use for both milling lumber out of and for use as large structural beams and runners to move cabins.  So again, I think it is much more of an issue of efficiency, and what is going to work best for the specific chore they are going to use the wood for.  You also have to remember that most Alaskan forests, especially with the pine beetle infestation of the last couple of decades, have tremendous amounts of dead standing trees, so that is primarily what they want to use, (so as to preserve the living trees). 

My brother-in-law has lived in Kodiak, Alaska for the last 8 years or so.  There, the only native tree of note is the Sitka Spruce.  It apparently is immune to the pine beetle, and given the much less harsher marine climate, there are generally very few standing dead trees in their forests.   So it is general practice there to go out and cut living trees for firewood, (as I think is normal for us in the lower 48).   While the two of us use to be able to cut green wood here in California and have it perfectly seasoned in 6 months over our long, hot and very dry summers, there in Kodiak, he generally has to lay in his wood at least 2 years ahead of time.  So again, if he had dead, standing trees available, that is what he would be wanting to cut.

[Pullinchips]

i need at least 2 years to season my wood here in SC for it to get to the proper MC for my EPA stove!!!

[Warbird]

As an Alaskan I will say that driftwood is easy to harvest, if you've the right setup.  I personally have never collected my firewood that way and don't know how long it takes to dry.

Regarding seasoning green Alaskan wood, it only takes 6 weeks if you harvest early.  I will let our local experts speak for themselves:

Research Findings
Spring Harvest
All species of firewood that were
harvested in the spring and split cured over one summer
when stored in a wood shed, solar kiln, or covered with a
tarp. Firewood that was left uncovered, however, dried to
20% within 6 weeks but then absorbed moisture from rain
and snow throughout the year.
Whole logs did not cure over the summer under any
storage scenario.

Taken from:  http://cchrc.org/docs/snapshots/curing_firewood.pdf

[Onthesauk]

Couple folks I know who live on the coast don't burn driftwood.  Say it has salt in it and corrodes wood stoves.  Have no idea whether its true or not.

[SPIKER]

Couple folks I know who live on the coast don't burn driftwood.  Say it has salt in it and corrodes wood stoves.  Have no idea whether its true or not.

Onthesauk: The show they are talking about is fresh water river, floaters coming down from floods in spring after ice tears them out of banks or where they laid on stream edges from previous dead trees..   

They also show them managing stands by girdling the trees to kill them a year or two in advance (at least some of the fire wood sellers do/did.)

Love the show and watched it a lot. 8)


Mark