Our Brimson property has an easement for power and telephone right-of-way. The telephone line is underground with relay or junction boxes every few hundred feet. The power lines are on poles.
To be sure that the power lines are accessible, the power co-operative has all the brush cut every few years. We thought it was every eight to nine years in the non-winter months. In the intervening times we've taken out a few ten-foot birch and replanted them elsewhere on the property.
We were surprised when the brush was cut this winter. And it was the messiest that we ever saw. Hacked, splintered stumps of alder and other shrubs and trees all over. It looked more like a battlefield than a right-of-way.
We generally don't drive by the east half because we come from the west. Saturday we took a walk on the road along the east half. We noticed that several good-sized trees had been knocked down: a ten-inch birch, a few smaller birches, and a few 6-8 inch aspen.
Well, we can't let those go to waste. We might as well harvest them for firewood rather than cut down other trees.
The first job was to make a path to them through all the splintered brush stumps. That was lots of fun considering how uneven and rocky the terrain is. More fun yet because the wheeled trimmer cuts too high because of the unevenness and then is difficult to get over the little stumps. Heave, grunt, groan, heave, back off and try again.
The second job was clearing a safe workplace around the downed trees. Almost everyone fell into the brush outside the easement. That took long-handled nippers and a lot of bending.
I won't describe the delimbing process and which part of which of the three criss-crossed trees I did in which order. Eventually we had enough for two small loads of bolts or rounds in our SUV. I don't remember if we took all the usable firewood from that spot or left some.
I do know one of my first tasks next weekend is to cut up and split the wood we took back to our cabin. Then I'll go back to harvest some of the other trees. Without cutting down a single tree, we'll be well on our way to having some nice, dry wood for the 2011-2012 heating season.
It is sad, though, to think of all the trees on other easements that are just going to be left in an unsightly jumble to rot.
Next time you feel good about all your recycling or other efforts "to save a tree", consider that when you flip a light switch, you may be taking down a tree.
