Derecho Creates Firewood Bonanza in the Mid-Atlantic Region

On the 29th and 30th of June, violent thunderstorms known as a “derecho” slammed a 700-mile-long corridor from Indiana to the southern mid-Atlantic coast. The storm resulted in extensive straight-line wind damage and millions of power outages, but also created a bonanza of free firewood in a part of the country more accustomed to treating firewood as waste than as a valuable, low-carbon fuel.

In the Washington DC area tons of wood from fallen trees will be sent to local dumps, where haulers and tree trimmers pay $32-46 per ton to dispose of it.

Firewood from the derecho can provide almost free, carbon neutral heat for thousands of homes, but here is the rub: there is barely enough time to split, stack and dry the wood before this coming winter arrives. Hopefully, many homeowners will be putting it away for the 2013/14 heating season, 18 months from now.

Wet wood produces little heat, and excessive smoke, not to mention creosote. So if people are going to keep firewood from the storm, it needs to be split now, stacked and covered.

Approximately 60% of stoves in the Washington area are not EPA certified. While these old stoves may be one person’s energy solution, they could also be their neighbors’ health hazard, especially if unseasoned wood is used.

In New England, downed trees are far more likely to end up as firewood. And, county and city tree crews sometimes provide wood from storms to low-income residents who may have had to otherwise take public heating assistance. Many churches also have “firewood ministries” where the church parking lot becomes a drop off point for tree trimmers and the wood is distributed to needy families in the community.

It is now a month after the derecho and there is still an abundance of not only downed trees, but also piles of firewood left in yards, ready for someone to ask if they can haul it away. The Alliance for Green Heat would like to see more jurisdictions deposit the wood in a yard and let anyone with an EPA certified stove come get it for free.

Ten years from now, rising fossil fuel prices may make wood from such storms much more valuable, even to households with natural gas lines. For now, we suspect that a very, very small percentage of that wood will go to reducing fossil fuel heating in the DC area. In rural parts of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia the storm produced a windfall for many homeowners and may create a much smaller demand for commercially sold firewood this fall.

Support Your Economy, Buy Local Firewood!

From retail shops to farmer’s markets, stickers and posters with the slogan “Buy Local” can be seen plastered just about everywhere these days. They're there to remind shoppers that purchasing goods and services locally supports small community businesses, protects the environment and keeps the local flavor of an area alive. 

Based on the disproportionate amount of coverage it receives, you might think that purchasing locally only applies to food. And while it may be the case that locally grown fruits and vegetables are often fresher and more wholesome – not to mention more sustainably harvested – than what is sold in the chain supermarkets,  food is certainly not the only product you should be buying locally: wood stove owners who purchase their firewood from local dealers are also doing their part to finance their communities, sustain jobs and secure their nation's energy independence.  

It has previously been demonstrated that local purchasing – whether food, hardware, or firewood – makes a lot of fiscal sense. The more local shoppers purchase goods and services from small community vendors instead of large chains, the more self-reliant and resilient the economies of these areas become, experts say. According to a study by the independent British think tank New Economics Foundation, twice the money stayed in the community when consumers bought goods from a local market rather than a chain store. Such evidence echoes what local purchasing advocates have been saying for some time. 

"If you're buying local and not at a chain or branch store, chances are that store is not making a huge profit," says David Morris, Vice President of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit economic research and development organization based in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. "That means more goes into input costs—supplies and upkeep, printing, advertising, paying employees—which puts that money right back in the community."

Moreover, buying local helps keep money circulating in the community by increases the “velocity of money” – the term economists use to describe the rate at which the currency changes hands.  Most experts tend to agree that the greater the velocity of money in an area, the better it will be for the local economy. As David Boyle, researcher for the New Economics Foundation explains, “Money is like blood. It needs to keep moving around to keep the economy going."

So whether you’re in the market for food or fuel, it really is better to buy local.  By purchasing firewood from your local dealer, you can be assured you are doing your part to help your neighbors and, if you are American, wean the U.S. off of expensive foreign oil.