is it ok to take empty camp site fire wood

Those are my thoughts also.

 

Of course it is fine to take it.

 

someone leaving it behind at an Illinois state park might be leaving it for no one as a lot of the parks I stay at might not have someone on it for another month. by that time it could be wasted. I have stayed a whole week after several weekends and almost always see someone walking around gathering empty site firewood. usually someone who looks retired and staying a long time. I feel this is what it really is for and I think they are doing us at the parks a service. a lot of the time they also pick up the large charcoal that is left behind. so we in Illinois end up with nice clean campsites. not saying they always pick up, but quite often they do and it looks good when they do.

 

When DW comes along she is out scrounging for wood at all unoccupied campsites about five minutes after we back into a site. She needs the first five minutes for a cigarette. She scrounges while I set up.

 

It looks like we are starting the arguments all over again. Remember the movie "Ground Day" ?
It's going to be a long winter

 

I too leave leftover firewood and claim abandoned wood (key word here being abandoned). I think its just "common camping courtesy" which is like common courtesy, holding a door open for someone, telling a motorist they have a tire with low air pressure, "excuse me sir but you dropped this" etc. I don't expect it but I hope people would do the same for me.

2 other examples of camping courtesy I have run into several times;

Walking sticks (several) left by the trail head (the natural kind not the store bought broomstick variety)

Leveling blocks of lumber at a site that is not level but if you use the blocks left there, your camper is magically level


Now if I could just get someone to leave their unused beer on ice.................

 

I always look for firewood left behind. I traveled Alaska a while back. Did the rainforest from Skagway south to Ketchikan. Never had a good fire. Then came across a pile of 2x4 and 2x6 wood someone left behind...it was the best fire ever. If I am leaving a site and going home I always leave what wood i have not burnt, hoping it will bring warmth and some joy to the person(s) that uses it.

 

I'm picking up the wood, and I'm leaving what I don't use for whoever gets it first.

 

I say if it is a EMPTY site then go for it !! Now if it looks like there out for a day trip or the week ,, no do not touch!!

 

Let's look at it from the perspective of the person who left it? I didn't want it enough to take the time to load it up...... Help yourself

 

When we had our teardrop, we had to take it up north for some warranty work. We got a late start and stayed at Rocky Arbor State Park. We didn't plan on having a fire, so we didn't take any wood along to burn. So we scrounged around and found enough wood at sites to have a fire that evening. One site had wood still burning, even though the site was unoccupied since they had just left. We took it anyway, carefully. We always look for wood at empty sites.

 

I would have reported that incident of campers leaving a fire burning to the management of the park. They probably have a record of who was in that site and could send them a ticket. Leaving a fire burning is a dangerous, stupid and irresponsible thing to do.

 

UT not sure about Wisconson, but in Illinois our campsites have a lot of mowed grass around them, so leaving a chunk of maple or oak smoldering in a camp fire pit is not really bad. smoldering is burning. and it doesn't pop like cedar or pine and some other varieties. wouldn't think twice if the weather was low to no winds and I knew it would be out soon. out in Wash. I wouldn't, cause the type and fire danger areas are more pronounced. not like the Midwest. we have only had one year in the summer that had a high fire danger in the last 10 years.

 

We are very sensitive to fire danger out here in the West. Just think back to what happened the last few summers.

However, I still think the idiot who left that fire going deserves a big ticket. I'd give it to him on general principle, even if the campsite was on small desert island in the middle of a huge lake.

 

X2 UT. Any smoke, ember, coal heater needs to be out.

 

We don't have much of a brush fire hazzard around here and I don't even know if there is such a thing as getting a ticket for leaving a smoldering fire unattended.
Having said that, it certanly is not a smart thing to do. I would not even think of doing it. Can't say I have ever seen anyone else do it either.

 

DW has found a few smoldering, smoking fires on her scrounging runs over the years. When that happened I doused it with a water can.

Hey! We've just hit upon another reason why campers should scrounge empty campsites for wood: fire safety!

 

A quick story/example about fire.
We went for a long walk in the forest, the previous two days we had lightning storms. Today was a beautiful day until one of our walking sticks penetrated six inches into the composting ground. Enough oxygen was let into the ground to ignite. The flames appeared in the blink of an eye. This was a lightning strike spot that was smoldering for over a day under ground.
Everything turned out ok. Don't underestimate fire.

 

I wouldn't do it out west or anyplace else but home parks. like I said, mowed grass city park like campsites. never grown up. usually like your back yard or mine. LOL LOL

 

If you need it, and not just to have a bigger fire, and will use it. I see it as being just fine!!