What Happens to Trees Cut Down or Felled by Storm Winds?

Last week, we reported that gusty winds felled many trees in Bolesławiec and Bolesławiec County. At the time, a reader wrote on our forum:

There is somehow no information anywhere about what happens to the wood obtained. Is it put up for tender? After all, this amounts to hundreds of thousands of złotys. Or perhaps some fireplaces will burn the wood well?

“If a tree is felled by the wind and does not pose a danger, we do not move it,” mł. bryg. istotne.pl told the service Piotr Pilarczyk, press spokesperson for the County Headquarters of the State Fire Service in Bolesławiec. “If, on the other hand, it falls onto a road or pavement and obstructs traffic, it should generally be removed by the road manager or owner.”

Most often, however, it is firefighters who clear roads and pavements. But they do not take the tree away. “That remains the owner’s responsibility,” P. Pilarczyk explains.

And what if a tree is cut down on land belonging to the City of Bolesławiec? The company carrying out the felling—as Kazimierz Łomotowski, head of the Municipal Housing Management Facility in Bolesławiec, explained to us—has the right to take it away, but must pay the local government for it. The wood obtained by MZGM itself, meanwhile, goes mainly to residents of the social housing estate on Kościuszki Street. “Above all, we try to give it to people in need,” adds K. Łomotowski.