Botanical Glossary - Home

Beehive Burner - one of the few remaining Beehive Burners still in operation in British Columbia.

Beehive Burner is A wood waste burner, known as a teepee burner or wigwam burner in the United States and a beehive burner in Canada, is a freestanding conical steel structure ranging from 30 to 60 feet in height. They are named for their resemblance to beehives, teepees or wigwams. A sawdust burner is cylindrical. They have an opening at the top that is covered with a steel grill or mesh.

Teepee or beehive burners are used to dispose of waste wood in logging yards and sawdust from sawmills by burning. As a result they produce a large quantity of smoke and ash which is vented directly into the atmosphere without any sort of scrubbing or cleaning, contributing to poor air conditions wherever they were used. The burners are considered to be a major source of air pollution and are being phased out in most areas.

Teepee burners went out of general use in the Northwestern United States in the early 1970s, and are prohibited from operation in Oregon. The wood waste is now used as a component in various forest products.

A health study conducted by the BC government revealed that beehive burners and other sources of particulate matter are causing increased deaths, hospitalizations, emergency room visits and the loss of work and school days by people with respiratory ailments. The health costs, annually, are estimated at over $70 million. Beehive burners were closed down in the United States over 30 years ago.

In late 1995, the NDP government introduced a new regulation that required all polluting beehive burners near B.C. communities to shut down by December 31, 1997.

Since that date the government has given repeated extensions to the companies operating beehive burners, most recently with an amendment to the regulation made in July 2000 that permits 22 burners to keep polluting (Also, the Tax Shift Pilot Project announced on July 17, although ostensibly aimed at a complete phase-out of burners, in effect gives the polluters anther 4 years to get rid of them.!)

This backtracking not only creates prolonged risk of the increased number of premature deaths in B.C., it also puts the responsible timber companies who shut their burners down at a competitive disadvantage against their rivals who have dragged their heels in failing to comply with the old law, while lobbying successfully to have the law changed