Slash pile burning (Clark Fork, Hope: how much, house, cost of)

[Boone1791]

Tis the season for slash pile burning. Obviously this is a good thing -- clearing out the forest floor and burning it under controlled conditions rather than leaving the potential for it burning under uncontrolled conditions.

On the other hand, numerous big and small slash piles burning puts a lot of smoke into the air and can haze out the whole area. And this is just the sort of thing that does not help on the global warming front -- releasing sequestered carbon.

I don't know what the solution is. It's just so inexpensive and effective to do it the way it's always been done. Here we have tons and tons of "fuel" that could potentially be used productively (and "scrubbed" to reduce harmful emissions), but clearly there's no way to move that fuel to a place where such productive use could be made. And to keep the carbon sequestered, burying a huge slash pile is not really a reasonable option, considering the comparative cost of just burning it.

So we've got two competing issues. A good one that unfortunately involves a bad counterpart. With no solution to the bad counterpart, I guess we'll just have to suffer the hazy days and the carbon release that is deleterious in the long run. Unless someone comes up with a brilliant solution.

[nm9stheham]

Can you get to the piles with a rented/towed brush chipper, and is it small enough to work through a chipper? (Not a 'toy' chipper!) Of course, that leaves stuff on the floor that can burn, but will decay a lot faster and not as much of a burn hazard. And the how much carbon do you release with a motor driven chipper and the truck towing, etc? (We'll ignore your CO2 emissions while doing all the work LOL)

The thinking/knowledge of the carbon cycle is that this slash pile carbon is going to end up into CO2 or methane regardless, either fast (burning) or slow (decay). The only way to stop that part of the carbon cycle is to bury the wood, as you note.... but that is a lot of cost and work and more carbon release in the equipment operation.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Burning slash puts a lot less carbon into the air than the forest fire you get if the forest isn't kept cleaned out.


Wood smoke isn't all that bad. The particles in the smoke settle back to earth pretty quickly and carbon is something that plants use when they grow.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

Can you get to the piles with a rented/towed brush chipper, and is it small enough to work through a chipper? (Not a 'toy' chipper!) Of course, that leaves stuff on the floor that can burn, but will decay a lot faster and not as much of a burn hazard. And the how much carbon do you release with a motor driven chipper and the truck towing, etc? (We'll ignore your CO2 emissions while doing all the work LOL)

The thinking/knowledge of the carbon cycle is that this slash pile carbon is going to end up into CO2 or methane regardless, either fast (burning) or slow (decay). The only way to stop that part of the carbon cycle is to bury the wood, as you note.... but that is a lot of cost and work and more carbon release in the equipment operation.

If it decays it produces methane, a much worse "greenhouse gas" than the CO2 produced by burning it. Harvest it and "sequester" in the form of buildings. Or use for firewood and displace CO2 produced from fossil fuels.

[oldafretired]

The first spring and summer after I had my house built, I went around the area near my house and dragged out all the fallen dead trees and undergrowth and put them into two huge piles. It sure was a lot of work. I should have bought my tractor before doing this work instead of after. LOL The piles were mostly logs with branches and other debris on top. The piles were so big I hired a local arborist company to burn them. The piles burned for days. Anyway I don't think there was too much smoke produced but it was crazy hot. I had to get new glasses since the heat melted the coating on the lenses.

I'm glad I did it though to reduce the chance of fire reaching the house.







The second pile:

[xPlorer48]

Were those logs decent for firewood?

[Clark Fork Fantast]

When we had our meadow cleared, our tree guy promised to take care of the slash pile the following fall. He dug a pit and dumped all the stumps and branches into it, and on the first day of snow he set fire to it. Well, it only burned half way, so he had to do it again. The result wasn't much better. Now we have a pit right in our view of the meadow with blackened stumps sticking out of it. There has got to be a better solution! Hopefully we can get the mess hauled away next summer and fill in the pit.

[Boone1791]

Originally Posted by oldafretired

The first spring and summer after I had my house built, I went around the area near my house and dragged out all the fallen dead trees and undergrowth and put them into two huge piles. It sure was a lot of work.....

No kidding! Those are some good-sized piles!

[nm9stheham]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

When we had our meadow cleared, our tree guy promised to take care of the slash pile the following fall. He dug a pit and dumped all the stumps and branches into it, and on the first day of snow he set fire to it. Well, it only burned half way, so he had to do it again. The result wasn't much better. Now we have a pit right in our view of the meadow with blackened stumps sticking out of it. There has got to be a better solution! Hopefully we can get the mess hauled away next summer and fill in the pit.

Stumps typically don't burn much at all on their own; the only way is to generate a hot charcoal fire and slowly reduce them. Grinding and burying are the only fast solutions.

You can find some good YouTube videos of reducing stumps by burning; it ain't easy. Or, maybe you can find someone with an erosion problem and haul the stumps there for dumping to help stop the erosion.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

Stumps typically don't burn much at all on their own; the only way is to generate a hot charcoal fire and slowly reduce them. Grinding and burying are the only fast solutions.

You can find some good YouTube videos of reducing stumps by burning; it ain't easy. Or, maybe you can find someone with an erosion problem and haul the stumps there for dumping to help stop the erosion.

Thanks for the advice! Our tree guy should have known that. I think what we may have to do next summer is grind up and bury. At least the stumps are in a pit already!