Edible Wood Farm Journal: 2020 (12)
Poplar tree
Last Saturday a poplar tree was felled on the same property as the Edible Wood Farm in Gaanderen (east Netherlands). It had begun its life as a seed from a nearby poplar tree and after travelling a short distance with the wind, had settled down to grow some roots. Unfortunately it was in the wrong place and had to be removed. The tree was healthy and quite straight without having any side branches.
Diameter
No problem for the chainsaw. Once the tree was lying on the ground it was easy to cut into logs with a length of 1 meter. The diameters ranged from 10 cm to almost 30 cm. Any tree log with a diameter bigger than 20 cm is uncomfortably heavy to carry and an unexpected fall on an unprotected foot should be avoided. A purple toenail is quite impressive but not very enjoyable (my own experience).
Alternative to firewood
For me this is a good example of why I work with Edible Wood. Under normal circumstances the wood of the poplar tree would have been turned into firewood. There is nothing wrong with firewood but in my opinion you should try and get the best out of a tree and the leftovers (and/or diseased or damaged wood) should only then be turned into firewood.
