Morning Folks,

I have two multi fuel stoves in the house and its getting time to stock up on wood/coal etc.

Just wondering what the policy/legal position is of cut/felled wood in forests etc?

Fair game or stealing?

There is a mixture of council/natural trust owned forests around me that have plenty going spare…….

Just a thought at this stage….

I dont own the wood. I struggle to even get wood.

Isn't there a legal limit to how much you can scavenge? Something like 1 cubic metre or something.

Of course if it is private woodland (such as National Trust) you would need permission from the land owner I would assume.

I've got wood

Depends on who owns the land. If its privately owned it'll be stealing, if its council owned it's likely to have rules.

Find out who owns the land. You may be able to agree a windfall contract.

The land owner owns the wood. You cannot take it without permission.

And what exactly is giving you that wood, SFB? You're thinking about puffins again arent you, you scamp?

You're thinking about puffins again arent you, you scamp?

they're not the only endangered species:

To me that’s a bit like asking who owns the cows in a field, it's a (potentially) valuable commodity and owned by the land owner.

Find out who owns the land and ask them if you can have some of the wood (already cut / fallen), they may tell you where to go but you might get luck and they may let you take it -either way you've nowt to loose by asking.

Too blurry to tell what's going on there, but it does add to the terror.

Too blurry to tell what's going on there,

this is not the forum for explicit ovine porn is it ?

Cool,

Cheers peeps.

Just for clarity not looking to steal.

Off to speak to the council then. 🙄

If it's cut and stacked it's either owned by someone, often left to season for a year prior to collection.

In some area it's left to rot down and provide habitat for invertebrate which in turn provide food for birds and other wildlife.

Cutting down trees is just wrong.

In short it's stealing if the woods aren't yours, the council owned woods are probably harvested by marking and selling off to local log sellers who fells and stacks it himself.

NT trust woods are more likely to provide habitat than profit from them.

Bizarely the right of everyman to collect windfallen wood as enshrined by Magna Carta was abandoned recently, so yeah- you'll have to ask.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3264458/Forestry-Commission-scraps-Magna-Carta-right-to-collect-woods-from-forests.html

Local NT allow you to collect wood if you do some volunteer work for them.

Interesting, Practical Matt, I was just about to quote the ancient right to collect windfall, but I now stand corrected. Oh and I would have thought it was obvious that felled wood would be owned by whoever had commissioned the felling.

Its theft, and not worth a criminal record.

A friend got caught taking some wood from a Forrest (that he believed was windfall), and the Police cautioned him for it.

If the are any loggers clear cutting local ask them if you can take the offcuts they dont want.

it's mine, hands off

seriously though, ask the owner/contractor, crews working on roads are also well known for relying on wood fairies as they are known in the trade. we hang onto ours as it all has a use, whether we sell it or makes up our % that we leave for wooodland schemes / ukwas / fsc accreditation and habitat

a local private estate has been successfully prosecuting recently