Although I do agree with backyard burning causing huge amounts of smoke being banned, what about small backyard fires? Will you then ban all campfires?
Fresh Air Cowichan Team claims that older stoves are just as efficient if not better than a new high efficiency woodstove! What kind of nonsense is that? Totally false information. A lot of people do not have enough seasoned wood to last a full burn season, so they end up burning unseasoned wood, in turn putting a lot more smoke into our air. High efficiency stoves are meant to burn seasoned firewood and not mill ends.
Let’s talk about true seasoned firewood. True seasoned firewood should be bucked, split, and stacked in a woodshed with a roof and fairly open sides to allow air to flow through the wood and dry it for a year in advance to burning it. If you follow this your wood should get to around 18-20 per cent moisture content. (Not 100 per cent like Fresh Air Cowichan Team suggests; 100 per cent moisture content in wood would not burn, ever.) Keeping wood under a tarp is also not the answer as this just traps moisture and allows no air movement.
Coming from someone in the business I believe EPA approved stoves, educating people on proper wood burning practices, and enforcement is the answer to this issue. My own EPA approved stove emits very little smoke when it is being run at optimum temperature.
John West
Duncan