Monday was the start back to school here in Pennsylvania, and the date seemed to bring with it the first signs of fall. Only the week before, the temperature and the humidity was high enough conditioning and shorts. Today I am dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans and had to close the windows because our heat-adapted bodies aren’t used to temperatures in the low 70s.
The temperatures remind me that it won’t be long now before we will be firing up the wood burning fireplace. We’ll have to split and put up some wood for the winter to ensure that it is dry enough to burn. So, I started thinking about responsible firewood. Here are my tips.
Make sure that your firewood is dry and seasoned. Green or wet wood produces more smoke and carbon dioxide than does well-seasoned wood. Plus, if you are buying the wood buy the pound, you’ll wind up paying more for all of that moisture. Give the wood a good thump. You want a light “toc” kind of noise as opposed to a dull “bump.”
Know where your wood is coming from. A wood lot where the trees are grown specifically for firewood is a good choice. Farmers or other individuals who cut down mature trees specifically to make money off of them when times are tight can upset natural ecosystems and cause soil erosion.
You can gather your own firewood of course. This is what we do. Our yard came with a number of dead stranding trees, as well as a few fallen ones. As we have been clearing the dead trees, we cut them into firewood (with the exception of pine). We also gather some deadfall. With this, we are conscious that even dead trees are beneficial to the environment. Standing trees with hallows can provide shelter for oils, for example, and deadfall can enrich the soils as well as provide a habitat for some animals and beneficial insects.
There are other ways that you can be environmentally responsible when it comes to firewood. Would you like to learn more?
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