BajaNomad - Bringing firewood to baja?

Bringing firewood to baja?

byoungquist - 12-23-2011 at 12:43 PM

Am I going to have any trouble bringing pine firewood (recently cut down live, i.e., not beetle kill) crossing into Baja at TJ?

Thanks,

Bob

bkbend - 12-23-2011 at 12:46 PM

I have in the past, it was never discovered by anyone official so I don't know what kind of trouble it may have caused.

Ateo - 12-23-2011 at 12:47 PM

I've never had any problems bringing any type of wood.

DENNIS - 12-23-2011 at 12:48 PM

Lots of trouble. They probably won't allow it. I have friends who have been turned back for that reason and one time it was construction site scrap..
By the way....it's not an import issue. The stuff just isn't allowed.

BajaBlanca - 12-23-2011 at 12:49 PM

newish law says NO wood at all. we had trouble the last time we came thru since we didnt know. it was a small amount of wood and eventually the guy just waved us thru in TJ .....

Ateo - 12-23-2011 at 01:08 PM

Wow, this is news to me. Guess I'll start hiding my firewood behind camping gear. Did you know you can't bring dog food back into the US?

DENNIS - 12-23-2011 at 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ateo
Did you know you can't bring dog food back into the US?

Ohhh yeah....we beat the hell out of that one a few times, but like everything else here, the info feed is cyclical.
Thanks for the reminder.

TMW - 12-23-2011 at 02:01 PM

I had some juniper firewood in the bed of my truck in March and the lady inspector at TJ gave me crap and said the next time I would be turned around and sent back. Now I hide all firwood best I can.

DavidE - 12-23-2011 at 03:20 PM

This isn't quite on-topic but in Mulege firewood can be found west on ice-house road about three miles. Mesquite excellent for barbecues.

Presto Logs would be nice.....

mcfez - 12-23-2011 at 04:51 PM

But the firewood is a hell of a lot better!

This restriction has been debated here at the BN numerous times... you want find additional info by using the search engine ...located at the top left of this page.

We always take firewood. We do "hide" it. Just act stupid if they say something. The issue with buying firewood in Baja is that most of it is not tree wood.

dizzyspots - 12-23-2011 at 05:02 PM

We had zero problem coming across, but were sent to secondary inspection and given the "you did not declare" lecture and a warning because I didnt declare the single, wrapped, marked bundle that I bought in Yuma, AZ before we crossed...

Why Not Purchase Frewood When You Are South of the Border?

Gypsy Jan - 12-23-2011 at 05:34 PM

You can avoid all anxiety about committing an infraction of the law.

We get our firewood from a guy who has a license to harvest from dead fall from the forest in San Pedro Martir. He has been coming to our home on a regular basis for many years and I think my husband has his cell phone number.

I do know that he would be very happy to meet you anywhere you wish and, if you do this, you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you are supporting a local family business enterprise.

DENNIS - 12-23-2011 at 05:46 PM

It's a thriving industry, gathering deadwood from the Sierra. I've seen numerous pickups being loaded up there and a lot of them going through the camps selling it, but one thing I've never seen them use is a chainsaw. Either they arn't permitted to or it's cost prohibitive.

frontara's

captkw - 12-23-2011 at 06:38 PM

crossing the border, is a lot like running in to a EX..you never know what to expect.!! :lol:

K&T

acadist - 12-23-2011 at 08:29 PM

A few weeks ago mine didn't even make it to the border, CA took it!

bacquito - 12-23-2011 at 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by byoungquist
Am I going to have any trouble bringing pine firewood (recently cut down live, i.e., not beetle kill) crossing into Baja at TJ?

Thanks,

Bob

Really you are not supposed to bring wood from the USA to Mexico with out the proper paper work. many times it means evidence of heat treatment , fumigation, etc., dependent on origen and kind of wood. I doubt many inspectors know of the requirements for importing wood. They are more interested in other things-T.Vs, refrig. things electrical.
Also, we should not let dirt (mud) into the USA from Mexico but look at the vehicles fom the Baja 1000 coming across and cars in general. I have crossed many times with Mexican mud and nothing was said.

DENNIS - 12-23-2011 at 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by acadist
A few weeks ago mine didn't even make it to the border, CA took it!

For...why?

Ateo - 12-23-2011 at 09:30 PM

I have to say, never found a good Baja source of firewood but the desert plants, and that ain't good.

woody with a view - 12-24-2011 at 06:55 AM

i bring a layer of 15-18" 4x6's under everything. usually about 15 pieces total. bust out the hatchet and splintered firewood at the ready. the charcoal fluid does double duty.

zoesterone - 12-24-2011 at 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by captkw
crossing the border, is a lot like running in to a EX..you never know what to expect.!! :lol:

K&T

They stop at our house in the Puerto Nuevo every 3 weeks or so and the wood burns like crazy. A large trailer load, which they will stack for you, is a bargain as far as I am concerned at only about $40 USD and I mean a LONG trailer load. Helps the economy, too. Happy holidays.

captkw - 12-24-2011 at 07:37 AM

I guess the day's of iron wood and misqete are over? great lanya..

bigzaggin - 12-24-2011 at 11:31 AM

Personally brought down firewood - lots of it - countless times with no issue. Whatever wood you can readily buy in N/Central Baja is usually kind of crappy (esp if you wanna cook over it) and this is one place where I have no ethical qualms about just doing it. There is a guy who sells wood off the 1 about 20mins S of Maneadero, but it's mostly scrap and glorified twigs.

mcfez - 12-24-2011 at 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bigzaggin
glorified twigs.

DENNIS - 12-24-2011 at 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bigzaggin
Whatever wood you can readily buy in N/Central Baja is usually kind of crappy (esp if you wanna cook over it) and this is one place where I have no ethical qualms about just doing it. There is a guy who sells wood off the 1 about 20mins S of Maneadero, but it's mostly scrap and glorified twigs.

I would imagine any area near the Sierras, and that's almost everywhere in BCN, with an expat population to cater to, would have wood cutters that are getting good Oak from the hills.
Another source, at least around Ensenada, are the Olive Groves. There's a lot of Olive wood available here maybe because when Ensenada had a thriving fish canning industry, some of it was packed in Olive Oil.
Another reason is, ten or fifteen years back, an Olive Tree blight hit the area and all Olive Groves were ordered destroyed. Well....some did and some didn't, orders being what they are in Mexico.
Anyway....there's still a lot of Olive Wood available.

That's the end of that story.

TMW - 12-24-2011 at 12:25 PM

A dead Agave plant makes a decent fire. Either cut or pull the leaves off to burn. Add some dry cow pies to extend the burn time. A word of caution, roasting a marshmallow or cooking a hot dog over a cow pie is not too appealing.

mcfez - 12-24-2011 at 05:01 PM

DENNIS...that Olive wood have a fruity aroma from the smoke? If you know that is. It sounds like a good BBQ fuel for fish, perhaps. Hey...Merry Xmas Dennis.

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS

Quote:

Spot X

woody with a view - 12-24-2011 at 05:37 PM

a little bit of charcoal fluid and look out for the scorpions and spiders.... :light:

woody with a view - 12-24-2011 at 05:48 PM

p.s. i'm using irfan view with windows7 and i can't, for the life of me, resize a foto without it shrinking too this size. i used to be able to use windows resizer with XP and had no problem setting the output image size to 45kb. i set irfanview to output at 35kb and the above is the result.

HELP.

[Edited on 12-25-2011 by woody with a view]

DENNIS - 12-24-2011 at 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mcfez
DENNIS...that Olive wood have a fruity aroma from the smoke? If you know that is. It sounds like a good BBQ fuel for fish, perhaps. Hey...Merry Xmas Dennis.

I can't tell, Deno. It does seem to have a lot of oil and makes a bunch of noise when it burns. Some people don't care for it, but it's a good second choice after Oak if you can't find it.

Thanks, Deno. Merry Christmas to you and the family.