advice on fires in the woodland

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Feb 25, 2013
3
0
bicester
Hello

I've have tried looking to find the answer but unable. I am completely new to this all. A little scenario say I went to my local woods for the day and I had a quick break so I pulled out a little gas cooker and made a coffee and fried some bacon for a sandwich. Would I get into trouble for that or is it ok to use them.

I have read that you need permission to make a fire when your visiting any woodland but does that include using a little gas cooker or would you still need permission for that as well.

Could any one recommend any good little cookers does not have to be just gas

Really appreciate your feed back on this one
 

spandit

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 6, 2011
5,594
308
East Sussex, UK
You could get into trouble but if you've gone to the precaution of setting it up away from anything flammable you should be able to talk your way out of it
 

jackcbr

Native
Sep 25, 2008
1,561
0
50
Gatwick, UK
www.pickleimages.co.uk
Take precautions so you don't set anything else alight. If your gas burner doesn't heat the ground you won't leave roots smouldering underground. Then ensure you leave no trace. If I found someone with a gas stove in my woodland, I'd be more annoyed they were trespassing than having a quick brew. So carry a spare mug and tea bag and offer a brew if you get caught.
 

woodspirits

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 24, 2009
4,209
903
West Midlands UK
www.facebook.com
hello CM and welcome to BCUK. :)

assuming you have the right to be where ever, it would be a stone faced custodian who denied you a brew on a gas ring! :D as for alternatives, they are as varied as the fuel they burn and only limited by your imagination. you wont get a definitive answer here, its common sense, trial and error and personal choice. :)

Steve
 
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Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Hello

I've have tried looking to find the answer but unable. I am completely new to this all. A little scenario say I went to my local woods for the day and I had a quick break so I pulled out a little gas cooker and made a coffee and fried some bacon for a sandwich. Would I get into trouble for that or is it ok to use them.

I have read that you need permission to make a fire when your visiting any woodland but does that include using a little gas cooker or would you still need permission for that as well.

Could any one recommend any good little cookers does not have to be just gas

Really appreciate your feed back on this one

I'd say move to Scotland, it seems a much friendlier place. When I was a forester I wouldn't've minded as long as you were carefull. (Forgot what it was like living down south).
Sorry don't know what the situation is down south these days.
CB.
 

ianpatt

Member
Feb 26, 2013
31
13
58
Essex
There is no problem making a brew on a cooker in the woods, all i would say is keep to the normal fire code in forests ie, clear any dead leaves away from a heat sorce and anything else that may catch alight and you will be fine. On the cooker front i have an MSR duel fuel cooker, packs down to nothing and you just fill it up with unleaded before you go out and lasts forever, if you are there overnight just make a small open fire and save you're fuel, as long as you are sensible about and leave you're camp area as you find it it would be fine, i have been doing it this way for years around Essex and never had a problem. Hope this helps.
 

treadlightly

Full Member
Jan 29, 2007
2,692
3
65
Powys
If you just want to boil water for a hot drink, my advice is to take a gas cartridge stove. Make sure the surface you put it on is flat and raised off the ground (a few smallish pieces of wood gathered from the ground and placed together should do the trick) and choose a spot that is quiet so you are not disturbed.
 

ged

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 16, 2009
4,976
13
In the woods if possible.
Hello

I've have tried looking to find the answer but unable. I am completely new to this all. A little scenario say I went to my local woods for the day and I had a quick break so I pulled out a little gas cooker and made a coffee and fried some bacon for a sandwich. Would I get into trouble for that or is it ok to use them.

I have read that you need permission to make a fire when your visiting any woodland but does that include using a little gas cooker or would you still need permission for that as well.


Welcome to BCUK!

First of all there's a rule on this forum that we don't encourage or condone anything illegal. So we have to be a bit cautious about some things.

In England and Wales, most of the time the law says that you need to have permission even to be present on private land. Common Sense isn't much in evidence in the Common Law.

There are public footpaths and the like of course, but they are a very small fraction of the land area, and in any case in many places which are accessible to the public (BWB assets like towpaths for example) fires are specifically forbidden by the owners' or local regulations.

As people have pointed out, things North of The Border are different. There are statutory rights of access to much of the countryside - but there are also restrictions and obligations which go together with those rights, and curiously enough they seem to be discussed a lot less.

It sounds like you're basically talking about trespassing, and while we've probably all done it, possibly even unwittingly, the rules of this forum frown on such things.

If you're trespassing, think long and hard about lighting anything at all. Having a fire get out of control would be bad enough even if you're there legally, and have permission for the fire.

The same thing haoppening while you're trespassing, while it might be just as bad for everything else, could be much more serious for you personally. Think liability for damage, loss of income, and even loss of lives. Down to you.

Could any one recommend any good little cookers does not have to be just gas

There are dozens of them to choose from and after about half a century of playing with the things I'm still trying them and buying them. Most of the time because of how I trave I prefer to use liquid fuels rather than gas or wood, but I do have a few gas stoves and I really enjoy using wood when I get the chance. I use wood a lot in my Ghillie kettle.

The cheapest way to start with stoves is probably to buy a stainless steel drainer from Aldi or Ikea and throw some twigs in it. Then you can get plans on the Internet to make things like the Nimblewill (wood) or Penny (meths) stoves and other increasingly complex and/or expensive designs. I wouldn't recommend making your own gas stove.

You can get cheap Chinese stoves online, and European-made things that cost three or four times as much but do more or less the same thing but the quality may be better. May be.

There are lots of threads here on BCUK which discuss stoves, cookers and such, both generally and specific models. Spend some qulaity time with your favourite search engine using the "site:bushcraftuk.com" thingy to restrict your searches to this site if you wish. Don't try using the site's own search, it's useless.

I'd recommend you start by deciding which fuel(s) you'd like to use. More or less in increasing order of cost per unit energy they are essentially:

Wood
Paraffin
Petrol
Alcohol
Gas

All these fuels are really fuel types. Wood for example can be twigs from the nearest hedgerow or recycled sawmill waste sold in Tesco's as kitty litter. People have different names for petrol and there are commercial products which are similar but designed for stoves rather than engines. All fuels have pros and cons, that's part of the fun.

When you've decided what you fancy, have a look around for a few alternatives, search this site for any discussions/reviews/opinions that you can find and maybe start a thread to discuss it if you need to know more.

Good luck on what will probably become a journey to find the ideal stove!
 
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wicca

Native
Oct 19, 2008
1,065
34
South Coast
" I'd say move to Scotland, it seems a much friendlier place."

Mmmm!....Betty's Bar outside Princes Dock on a Friday night never was...if you had an English accent..:lmao::lmao:
 

treetop57

Forager
Sep 1, 2012
124
0
dumfrieshire
I'd say move to Scotland, it seems a much friendlier place. When I was a forester I wouldn't've minded as long as you were carefull. (Forgot what it was like living down south).
Sorry don't know what the situation is down south these days.
CB.
here here get yourself up here
 

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