Picking up dropped firewood

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mari

Member
Jan 5, 2018
52
New Mexico
I live on the edge of a NF and the main town is 30 miles away so there are a lot of wood haulers driving back and forth and there's alway stove-ready firewood on the side of the road that falls off their truck. There are no homes along the two lane highway, only ranches between the forest and town. Is it okay to pick it up or should I assume the haulers are coming back to pick up their wood? TIA
 
I’ve stopped to pick up singe splits of firewood a few times on the rural roads I drive on and I’ve wandered if it’s really worth it but it’d bug me if I didn’t stop and get the wood then at least I can sleep without worrying that someone else will get the find....
 
Love it! So glad I asked -- I was feeling guilty. Catholic upbringing is hell sometimes.
 
I just posted on my towns local facebook page because I keep seeing wood everywhere. Well I was bombarded with addresses and phone numbers and people practically begging me to take the stuff. I posted because like you I didn't want to take something that belonged to someone else and they wanted. Turns out if someone really wants the wood they will get it asap or in my town they put up a huge sign that says DO NOT TAKE. I think you are safe in picking up the wood from the side of a rural road.
 
Love it! So glad I asked -- I was feeling guilty. Catholic upbringing is hell sometimes.
If you ever find a chainsaw on the side of the road, please do try to find and return it to the owner :) Firewood I wouldn't worry about at all. Also Catholic.
 
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My wife thinks I'm nuts for stopping and grabbing gas cans on the side of the road. I figure no name it's fair game. Still waiting to find one full of gas, that would quite the score. For firewood I have stopped and asked if homes are close otherwise I figure fair game. Also got a cooler or 2 that way, if people don't take the time to strap something down good enough they don't really care if they loose it. I have had it happen and someone has gotten 1 garbage can richer. It happens and you're paid back in different ways.
 
I live on the edge of a NF and the main town is 30 miles away so there are a lot of wood haulers driving back and forth and there's alway stove-ready firewood on the side of the road that falls off their truck. There are no homes along the two lane highway, only ranches between the forest and town. Is it okay to pick it up or should I assume the haulers are coming back to pick up their wood? TIA

If it fell off the truck it is now free game.....but you said it is stove ready, and that I highly doubt, get that wood, stack it ad next year it will be stove ready.
 
My wife thinks I'm nuts for stopping and grabbing gas cans on the side of the road. I figure no name it's fair game. Still waiting to find one full of gas, that would quite the score. For firewood I have stopped and asked if homes are close otherwise I figure fair game. Also got a cooler or 2 that way, if people don't take the time to strap something down good enough they don't really care if they loose it. I have had it happen and someone has gotten 1 garbage can richer. It happens and you're paid back in different ways.

I am totally with you. If it’s on the side of the road, it’s free grabs. Actually I follow the rule of 51%; if it’s mostly on the road, it’s mine. Over the years I have collected a fair amount of fire wood as well as building lumber and various other materials, more garbage and recycling containers than I can count, lawn and power equipment, utility trailers, as well as several automobiles over the years. The roadside pickups my wife and I have procured over the years have supplemented our income nicely. We move frequently so it seems there is always fertile pickings on the horizon. Not sure what being Catholic has to do with anything. The misses and I are radical Islamist and have no guilt or shame. As my nahnuh used to say,”if it’s free, I’ll take three”. Happy pickins.
 
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If it fell off the truck it is now free game.....but you said it is stove ready, and that I highly doubt, get that wood, stack it ad next year it will be stove ready.

It's almost all aspen, pinion, and cedar. They're cut in the spring and ready to burn by fall.
 
Found Big Round of Cedar last year laying on the side of the road. It back lots of FW. Darn near hurt me it was so big. Glad was with me. Along the road it's yours.
 
I almost got hit by a big log that fell off one of those trucks, the guys was driving pretty fast down a bumpy road and I saw them bouncing around so I kept my distance, I didn't pick it up, it was a tree so without my chainsaw I wasn't going to get it
 
Found Big Round of Cedar last year laying on the side of the road. It back lots of FW. Darn near hurt me it was so big. Glad was with me. Along the road it's yours.

I found a cedar round smack in the middle of the road last year, almost couldn't get it onto my truck. My neighbor split it for me and I gave him half. It heated the cabin for quite a while!
 
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