UKH

Hey all, so ignoring the grumps in this thread http://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/t.php?t=613193&v=1#x8023877 it appears that I am close to getting permission to hack a few branches from my local FC managed wood.

They are happy for me to leave the brash as this just mulches (and its what they do themselves) and as they have a major problem with the plant she agreed it would be a win-win. I would also take lot of twigs and branches for kindling.

The final check is whether they are happy with me being by myself of in working parties - it seems they have lots of restrictions on using power tools which would be an absolute no-no but they may be OK for me to be lonesome using only hand tools such as hatchets or handsaw.

So assuming that I get permission, which seems likely from what the local forester said, has anyone got any personal experience of burning the rhodo logs? Google suggests that it is a good wood when seasoned, which I can do in my store.

I think that when something appears too good to be true, it often is; if this plant is such a menace as most would agree on and with the proliferation of ownership of wood burning stoves then surely the best course of action would be to mobilise the masses. Free wood on the one hand and pest clearance at the same time.

Thanks

R

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Burns well, especially if it is free

A pain to cut up, OK if you have the time.

In reply to Rick Graham:

Used it in a wood burner and open fire and burns well. Double winner if you get it free and are helping to stop it spreading everywhere.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:
My only addition to what those above have said is;

sadly it's pretty unlikely that chopping for firewood will actually solve the Rhodo problem. As you're right it is a total pest and ecological thug and regrows pretty happily from the stumps. Usually the best way to stop it coming back is by drilling holes into the cambium layer in the stump and filling it with glyphosate to kill it dead. But as your free firewood source perhaps that's not what you want!

I'd be interested to how you get on with it as I have a special loathing of Rhodo and Cherry Laurel, so I think burning it would probably give me extra satisfaction!

Best of luck with it!
*edit for my typo's

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Spent quite a lot of my career clearing rhododendron, it will burn fresh but you need a good hot fire takes a couple of hours to get going right - start with a little dry wood, then you can burn whole branches, burns very well if dried out a bit. Best to burn all brash as I've seen bits where stumps/roots have re-grown through brash piles and it is a nightmare to clear again. You can kill off root system by painting stumps with glysophate it works best if you do this on the day you cut and put food die in it so you know what bits are done. Get a really sharp bow saw (I like bachco) and pair of loppers, change the bow saw blade every hundred hours or so. Enjoy getting fit, not much big timber on a rhoddy.
B

In reply to Rick Graham:

The second of the above is the key point.

Cutting by hand, you benefit from 'the double warm' - in this busy day and age, that would only be of some kind of benefit if you could turn the art of woodcutting by hand into a specialist form of martial art that would exercise your climbing or other muscles in a useful way. So maybe make sure you saw equally left and right handed, work out if you can use your feet, possibly by developing prehensile toes, and maybe also consider doing it while hanging upside down from a nearby branch?

P.S. your enthusiasm and energy is to be admired though

In reply to Rick Graham:

I did some work with the btcv when I was a kid and found this to be very true.
Although I was quite weedy until my early twenties.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Think this will be of interest: www.firewood.co.uk/heating-qualities/