Before I go on, I will share a video that combines some of the clips and images you will find below.

Part of sustainable wood cutting involves leaving behind some of the best wood to ensure future growth and sources of regeneration. You can see in this photo a maple stand with one stump and one tree left to grow. This process also leaves the woods looking as lovely as before if not better. With a bit more space between trees, each tree will grow that much better and bigger.

Believe it or not, this is a fairly clear path through the woods – Ken has marked the route with survey tape for me to clean up.

A part of being efficient is to be thoughtful about how you clear undergrowth and non-firewood trees to make room to fell the firewood-worthy trees, which in this area are generally maple and a handful of birch and oak. Ken tries to find natural paths and then simply enhances them by cutting out a bit of the under growth and often a few dead or fallen trees.

Similarly, by using one or two areas as staging zones, we can make a small space where we can leave machinery and tools while cutting.

In the next series of photos, I tackle a stand of maple. Note that we are careful to fell the trees onto the existing natural pathway which keeps us out of the brush and undergrowth.

One of these trees was angled awkwardly and became ‘hung up’ in the neighbouring fir trees – sometimes trees fall in unpredicted directions. With a bit of guidance from Ken, I was able to cut it down in sections starting at the bottom so that the tree basically slid down through the other tree’s canopy with each section falling on top of the last. When finished, I had a pile of lengths which were then very easy to cut and pile.

I was then left with one more lovely tree to cut down. One of the remaining three, as you will see, was the primary and to be left, one was leaning towards a big mess of brush and the third was angled out over a pile of dead trees, but still accessible.

The video shows me cutting down the last tree to be cut in this stand of maple, leaving two behind.

When the saws are down and the forest is quiet, it is a lovely place to marvel at the variety of life.

I have seen articles recently suggesting that firewood should not be burned in residential areas for fear of reducing air quality. This is a potential result of poor quality stoves, poor quality fire wood, and / or inexperience in using a wood burning stove. For example, if you see lots of smoke coming out of someone’s wood stove chimney, it means that their stove is not burning efficiently, or they are using it improperly. That smoke certainly contains particles and would not be nice to breathe. Please read these guidelines from the Government of Canada.

There may also be concerns about carbon emissions from burning wood. Essentially, given the carbon cycle with wood, burning wood is more or less carbon neutral. If you have walked through a forest lately, you will note that there is often as much dead and dying wood – emitting carbon – as there is living and growing wood – capturing carbon. This is evidence of the cycle. I encourage you to read this article by Zach Metcalfe in which he discusses the carbon capture potential of forests.

A clear benefit of being out in the woods is that I get lots of exercise and have lots of fun.

I would like to thank my neighbour Ken for his willingness to take me out and help me learn how to cut down all these trees in a safe and sustainable manner.