Stuck in the sticks - Village Magazine

56 — village July - August 2012

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Stuck

Sticks

in the

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HINGS are tough in the country. Winter

always maintains a presence including as

I write with the Irish summer again fail-

ing to load. So one of my obsessions is

ﬁrewood. Among the biggest pains for any inde-

pendent woman is the procuring and lugging of

wood. It pays to have a stash, neatly-arranged,

close to the back door - rather than a shed-full

across the yard. Especially when you arrive home

from work in your good clothes and heat is a pri-

ority. A man with a trailer full of logs who will

deliver and even stack at a reasonable price can

become unviably popular around

here, his phone number like illicit

contraband to be shared with your

girl friends only.

I hate to be sexist, but I’ve noticed

it’s generally men who have a trailer

full of logs. I imagine it relates to their

mysterious interest in the manners a

chainsaw (or whatever it is) can put

on a wild hedge. I for one have never

seen a woman manoeuvre a tractor

with a spinning ﬂail lunging at every

trunk and wayward branch while

little brown birds (LBBs) ﬂee. And

therein lies the dilemma for the inde-

pendent female stuck in the sticks.

How independent can she remain

when she (a) needs the wood and (b)

is not a chainsaw-wielder herself?

The austerity measures have created a rela-

tionship, never anticipated, between mature

hedgerows, dormant kit and the underemployed

man. Oh, and the unwarmed woman.

It doesn’t take long for a cutting-disk, a jib and

a tractor to eliminate a few kilometres of hedgelife.

The canopied hedges with whitethorn blossom,

heaving boughs of elm and ash, primroses and

mouse ears on shady banks, and the winter sil-

houettes of split trunks have been scythed down.

The large trunks and branches are cut into ﬁre-

wood neatly, to ﬁt a wood-burning stove, and the

scrubby bits and pieces burned like a pyre in the

ﬁeld. From green three-dimensional to black

and grey unwanted cinders, all in a few hours. Of

course this is surely done for money, a few extra

‘bob’ for the cash-strapped. A simple case of sup-

ply and demand.

This particular supply chain wrestles envi-

ronmental consciences. Eventually the hedge will

rejuvenate, the green shoots will sprout from the

stubby bases like badly-balanced party-gear and

thicken up over time. The LBB population on the

other hand will have taken a permanent hit as its

habitat is gone. Gone too perhaps the soprano pip-

istrelle bats that hunted the hedges for midges at

dusk and that badger sett that was stuck under the

scrub in the ﬁeld corner. The ﬁrewood is costing

more than its sale price.

Sustainable Energy Ireland recommends the

use of wood for fuel as it does not contribute to net

greenhouse gas emissions because trees remove

carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow.

It also notes that wood-fuel industries create long-

term jobs, many of which will be in the sort of

rural communities that are currently suﬀering

acute social and economic decline.

However, it has little advice on the

sourcing of such ﬁrewood, except to

note that it should be used sustain-

ably and that a new tree should be

planted for each tree used as fuel and

that the trees should be managed as

coppice. We the independent women

need to be more demanding. If the

man with the trailer of logs seems to

be too good to be true then it’s likely

that he simply is. It takes time sus-

tainably to grow, harvest and dry

ﬁrewood and this is duly reﬂected in

its price. If the wood is cheap then the

birds have also gone: cheep, cheep.

Ireland has adopted the Wood

Fuel Quality Standards (WFQs).

Although it is not a legal obligation

for fuel suppliers to apply this standard, it is

strongly recommended by the SEI that purchas-

ers look for fuels meeting the recommendations

provided in the WFQs. However, there appear to

be only four suppliers in Ireland who meet the

Standard (see www.wfqa.org). A perusal of the

National Workshop Agreement, which lists the

guidelines for the implementation of the WFQS

authorised by the National Standards Authority

of Ireland is a disappointingly unchallenging

aﬀair. Where the wood comes from and how it is

felled does not seem to be much of a concern. The

guidance states “The country of origin should be

declared so that the customer can have conﬁdence

that there is management of the supply chain” and

the retention of felling permits or similar records

recommended.

I want to break free from the man with the

trailer and the dirty phone number. The four sup-

pliers who currently meet the WFQs at least oﬀer

a place to start a new ﬁrewood ﬂirtation. I am

preparing to be impressed. Again.

Part one of a series on being stuck in the sticks

Keeping the home ﬁre burning at a social and

environmental cost

I hate to be

sexist, but I’ve

noticed it’s

generally men

who have a

trailer full of

logs