There’s something incredibly gratifying and beautiful about watching an area of forest transform from from a dense stand of trees into a series of long wall-like stacks of firewood. The process really is a work of art. Over the past two months Land’s Sake has been hard at work harvesting trees from a small section of the Highland St. Forest (Near Wildflower Ln.) If you’ve taken a walk in the surrounding woods (which I highly recommend) you may have heard the distant echos of chainsaws cutting and mauls splitting. Although the work can be exhausting at times, that rewarding feeling of looking back at the newly cut forest to see trees replaced by stacks and stacks of fresh firewood, makes it all worth the effort.
When Land’s Sake harvests trees from Weston’s forests we do it with Mother Nature’s best interest in mind. Far from the clear cutting methods that leave other forests completely decimated, Land’s Sake’s operation is sustainable and each tree that we fell is carefully selected. The idea is to leave the healthiest and straightest trees in place and remove competition from nearby trees, which are often unhealthy and crooked. By using this method we do little damage to the forest and provide an abundant supply of local firewood for the Weston community. The forest is quick to recover and within a few years it is often hard to notice that any trees were cut at all.
In fact, Land’s Sake has been cutting firewood out of the Highland St. Forest for over 20 years and in most areas it is very hard to notice that the forest has ever been cut. But if you look closely you may see some signs.
-Dave Quinn (Conservation Land Manager)
