FIREWOOD SHORTAGE

Saw on the local news this morning that there is a shortage of firewood. It seems that a wood burning electric generating facility on nearby Fort Drum is using tons of wood chips for their fuel source. The loggers are paid by the ton for the chips and instead of selling the cull logs to the firewood processors they are running them through the chippers and shipping them to the generating plant. I heard that the power plant even supplies the chippers to the loggers.

Can't say I blame the logger. They are in the business to make money and if the chipping is more profitable then that is the way I would go.

Spokes person for the power company says they are not after the same wood but how do they know what the chips are made from?

I guess if one does not have his own wood lot he should consider another type of heating source.

(quoted from post at 07:57:36 10/01/14)

I guess if one does not have his own wood lot he should consider another type of heating source.

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Here firewood has been cheap for years. Seasonal workers often spent their winter months cutting wood to sell the next year. This year it seems there isn't much wood for sale. Guys either lost their places to cut or have gotten older and don't want to do it anymore. The young guys don't seem interested or don't have any place to cut.

Alternate heat source is most likely a good idea.
Rick

I think it would be fairly easy to identify what species of trees they are processing from the chips. Burn a piece that is black cherry, thats an easy one, grain pattern and similar, odor from smoke etc.

I don't know if its an era of plentiful wood or what the consumption rate of current times does to the supply, but if you look back in time, say 1952 around here, there were very little trees, mostly fields and fence lines and even some of the rougher terrain was still clear or sparsely populated, meaning it was in use for a long time, and not been unused all that long. Around here you would have to look at the mountainous terrain to find stands of trees back then, hard to say what it was like.

Since then, even with development, all those abandoned areas have grown forest, and the satellite images show the difference. Here for example, the fence lines were very sparse with trees, even the 12 acre wood lot was thin back then, people either used coal or oil, as there was nothing to cut, literally. It would have to be hauled in. Into the 70's we started cutting dead or storm damaged trees from the old fence lines, but not for long and it sat, fast forward to now and all those areas have provided lots of firewood, grown lots of trees, many new, others old and dying off or damaged. Old fence line across the lane dividing this old field has provided several years of firewood, that heats a 30'x80'(roughly) area, and is still today, I have 2 old and large black cherry trees to fell this year on that same line. I've been amazed at how much wood an old fence line could provide, and its not clear cut, lots of healthy trees left behind and some young ones coming up too.

I don't know if we have reached any peak with trees and available wood, firewood, lumber and it seems loggers have been busy over the years, knowing some and seeing them working. Everywhere I look, there is firewood, dead elm, storm damage, dead fall, as well as logs that could be taken from thinning. I also see ads in craigslist from suburban areas, people have gotten wise, they sell the firewood from trees taken down, usually very reasonable, and many ads state its free, always accessible piles from what I can see. Often times it makes me wish I was set up to go to these places, someone else is, as any desirable wood is gone. Few years back a neighbor had a 4' diameter willow, old one in a wet area, taken down, he spent the winter cutting it up and made piles for free, I loaded my F600 with a 14' body with a full load, it was well worth it, I should have taken all of it, but I had no room with piles of wood everywhere, storm clean up from '08 ice storm, I took that truck with me to the fields when I worked helping a farmer, cleaning up, many truck loads of logs, it lasted me for a few years, took up too much room, clearing snow was a real pain.

Wonder why they say there is a shortage, I don't see it here, even without the land we have, I could find it easily and keep busy with it for much of the year. I know of one person that has a firewood business most if not all of the wood is supplied by a tree service company.

I have plenty of wood. Had an ice storm last December and lost a lot of trees. About half is split; enough for this season.

Dallas area sucks up a lot of wood but it's expensive. Most newer houses have a fireplace. Takes a lot of work to get it to the customer properly, but the payback is worth the effort apparently for the suppliers. Usually plenty around if you pay the price.

Normally I go out looking at the source for mine. Take my trailer. Makes for a nice ride in the country. I enjoy the experience.

Mark

2underage,
I've been on here before complaining on the cost of firewood, in Rice Lake,Wi. the mill has their yard stacked so high it almost reaches the clouds.
If anybody remembers,which I doubt, Japan bought a whole loads of hard wood from the US buried the stuff,then when we ran short, guess who sold it back to us at a heavily increased profit.

The fastest growing trees in our area is poplar, which produces very little BTU per cord than anything,but they still make it in pellet form so the customer will come back for more and more pellets because of no heat. Up here in the north part of Wisconsin, hardwood ,oak,elm,maple etc is a choice of wood for heating.Last year people who had contracts for propane and NG got taken because of the so called shortage of heating gas, the company who supplied the contracts reneged on the contracts and sold the customers gas at exorbitant price increases and no lawsuits were filed.People just paid and kept their mouths shut and accepted the price increase of the increased prices.Glad we don't use any gas for heating.
We can get a wood permit from our local forestry office and cut wood for our needs.Right now we have 12 cords of hardwood under our deck from our woods and some from county forest and some from the neighbors who wanted their ground cleaned up for this year. The biggest one this year our 30 ton log splitter almost refused to split it, had to take small chunks off of the piece to get it split,still the log splitter grunted a little and almost quit, first time I have seen that happen. Below we have wood delivered for next year, so we don't have to find a logger who will sell it without a lot of BS excuses as to why it went up in price or is so hard to get that time of year.

Excuse the book length post.Pictures are what we have done for firewood and what we have below us for next year.
LOU

I saw the same news. Last her they came in and cut 50 acres right off of older woods and chipped the whole thing and took it to Drum. What a waste. Didn't take a log of any sort and some of it probably could've made veneer logs.

It might be a local shortage. I don't know where Fort Drum is. Out here on the treeless Minnesota plains there is very little logging and few people burn wood for heat unless it's in pellets. Most tree limbs are burned outdoors or chipped to make compost. Selling compost is more profitable than selling firewood.

fort drum, middle of ny state. Bill

I would assume that it's a similar situation where you are compared to here in eastern nova scotia... in that for a LONG time, firewood was simply a cast off product of the pulp business. Then the pulp mills built large plants to burn hog fuel, and now larger plants to burn chips to generate electricity and steam for their plants... and those plants are vacuuming up any amount of crap wood, hardwood and anything else that will burn to keep them going. Firewood had been so cheap for so long that nobody in their right mind would make a business of selling firewood because the pulp contractors were dumping small hardwood at cost to be rid of it. Times have changed. Now that the mill wants the 'biomass' they've enacted supply agreements on the contractors that state that they are obligated to sell all of their production to that one mill... or none... or take a reduced price for what they sell if they won't sign the agreement... so now everything goes to the mill. Now the firewood suppliers that lived for years on cheap wood have NO wood... and well.. you gonna go cold this year... or buy electricity. So in the short term I really see the price of firewood rising and then the few of us that are left who won't sign the supply agreement... might make some money selling firewood again.

Rod

Fort Drum is in northern NY between Watertown, Evans Mills and Carthage. A couple of years ago the people who were involed in the bio mass generation plant project on FT. Drum were around trying to persuade landowners to raise willow to supply the plant. For what they paid per ton for the harvested product, it was barely feasible with the goobermint subsidy and once the subsidy ran out, it didn't add up.

Yes, around the turn of the last century NY was only 38% woodland. Now it's approximately 77% woodland. Or at least that is the figures the State has been given us Hunter Ed. instructors, anyway.

I used to work for a Northern Wisconsin County that owned more than 200,000 acres of commercial forest land. In the late 2000's they noticed that the bids for the tops was nearing the bid for the actual logs. Some of it was biomass for fuel, some was to make pellets. Our forester was pushing the pencil to see what was best, sell the tops and brush, sell the tops and chip the brush, sell the tops and brush and buy fertilizer to replace the lost biomass. Some of the firewood shortage may be because of the Emerald Ash Boer, some of it might be the firewood producers are coping the successful business model of the propane industry (create a shortage- sell less & make more money).

Drums eastern most boundary is about 10 miles from my farm. I don't what "shortage" of firewood they are talking about. There are triaxle loads going by my house a couple times a week making local deliveries. The guy down the road with the big processor has a large stack waiting to cut and it never gets smaller. I think maybe the "shortage" might be more wishful thinking than real. I'm told Drum gets somewhere between 60 and 70 loads of chips a day. Now, those figures are from the same people that tell me that we have "wolves" here and that mountain lions are common. With that in mind, I'd take the number with a large grain of salt. At any rate, whole tree processing has been going on for years in northern NY. The days of a crew of loggers going out on foot with chainsaws? That pretty much ended about 15 years ago. I was all set to retire and go to work for the biggest logging outfit in the area wrenching on their saws. My plans fizzled when the insurance costs made having a man with a saw impossible. Everything is done with a hydro ax type skidder or forwarder and a grinder. No one sets foot on the ground anymore I'm told.

Anyway, I'm glad the loggers are getting steady work.

(quoted from post at 17:46:52 10/01/14)

Yes, around the turn of the last century NY was only 38% woodland. Now it's approximately 77% woodland. Or at least that is the figures the State has been given us Hunter Ed. instructors, anyway.

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You got to tell the rest of the story Don. NY might be 77% woodland, but a lot of that is State land and most of it will never see a human footprint again, much less be logged! That whole thing just doesn't set too good with me.

Oh yeah, and don't forget the real crazy stuff- In the Adirondack Park the State pays taxes on land it owns. That's right, the State taxes it's citizens to get the money to pay taxes on land the State owns. Gotta love NY.

In MN the shortage is blamed on last winter, it was a long deep snow winter, and with the price of propane skyrocketing people burned more wood. I am debating selling some more, I sold a couple of cords and could sell a few more, all nice and dry.

Same issue over in NH - very little firewood to be found, it's mostly all being chipped. We got a place up in ski country, and firewood is scarce. NH also has regs that prevent bringing firewood in from other states, including MA, with a few counties excepted. We got plenty of woodland down here, and we're in one of the excepted counties, but we've always just bought up north - when it was easier and cheaper than trucking it up there. Might be different this year though...

There are still piles of trees down here from Hurricane Sandy . . . can't give firewood away!

This is how they transport firewood in Alaska.
50 cord of wood

Sounds like a shortage of CHEAP firewood,up the price you pay you'll get plenty.I have plenty of the best firewood you can get Black Locust,Oak and
Hickory just a shortage of energy to get it worked up(LOL).Went around up in the mountain last week and tagged the standing dead trees to make them easy to spot after the leaves fall.

Here in north central Nebraska, I can't get people to come get it after I cut and split it. I am giving it away, to try to clean up some down wood. Ash, Elm, Black Locust.

A local saw mill sends their woods chips to someplace to be turned into wood bellets for stoves.

Guy delivered and ricked up four pickup loads for me last week. Nice, seasoned, oak. No dotty or bad places.

$160.00 for the four loads.

I can't be bothered to get my chain saw out for that kinda money. I probably have 75 acres of good timber, and 6 chain saws and a wood splitter, and here I am buying firewood.

Gene