Whats the best Method for finding Free Firewood

Post an advertisement on Craigslist. You'll be surprised how many calls you get. My brother called a few tree services, asking if they ever have a hard time getting rid of the wood from trees they trim or cut down. He found a tree service that delivers wood to him all cut to length. He just needs to split it. Turns out that it's cheaper and easier to give it to my brother for free.

This is the hardest time of the year to find free wood. In a couple of months most woodburners will forget about firewood until next November and you'll be the only one looking. I am not saying you can't find some now, just don't get discouraged. Ask around. i have found lots of friends and neighbors who have fallen trees, trees they are having removed, etc.

I went threw the phone book and called tree services. I've now got 3 that call on a regular basis. They shut down around hear for the holidays and won't be back at it tell mid Jan. Pat

KatWill, I took a ride down the Sawmill River Pkwy today....tons of wood off to the side, especially down near Pleasantville area.....and room to pull off to the side.....was in the Wifes car, otherwise I would have grabbed some. Call your local Public Works Dept. to see if they are doing any cutting.

Ditto on watching Craigslist and calling tree services. Also, make sure your friends and family know- I've gotten tons of wood from friends of friends. Good luck!

S

I've got to let the secret out on getting free wood. Craigslist! But not checking once a day on the pc. I have a smartphone and use an app that's will let me use "keywords" to find something. Here's the kicker, it will notify me immediately as soon as a new post is made with the chosen keyword " free firewood" as an example. I have scored a lot of wood this way calling or email as soon as someone's post wood. Luckily for me I have it off since I scored 6 acres.of woods to clear out 3 miles from home.

Do a search on "Scrounging for dummies" to see a post I put in a few weeks ago.

I've had great luck on Craigslist, and just being observant. I've stopped at roadside to ask a road crew "What are you guys gonna do with these trees you're cutting?" and scored a cord of black locust just for asking.

I've only been scrounging for less than a year and am about three years ahead on wood.

Craigslist is OK, but sometimes you have to drive a ways and also cut down the tree.

The BEST way to get free firewood is to call your county road maintenance office- hands down.
Ask them where they are cutting, go out and load up.

They cut the wood to 18 to 20 inches most of the time. Sometimes the logs are 6 to 8 feet in length.

The crew cuts trees in the right of way which could damage power lines if they fall. They also are in charge of clearing the right of way in the county. Trees limbs are cut that if they would fall, they may land in the road way. Which poses a major pubic safety issue.

We own 70 ares of woods, I cut trees on a regular basis there to promote hardwood growth. But get the majority of my firewood from the county. Thank you very much.

Saves time, since the logs are mostly precut to the correct length.
Saves gas since I don't have to drive far.
Save time since instead of making many phone calls of limited success, I can make one call to the county office and always have success.

The road crew are always cutting, year around. Its a big county.

I also watch the free section of our local Craigs List and my home page has an RSS feed for the same purpose. We seem to have too many woodburners around here so normally I can't get much from tree service companies. I am on the list for a local town to call if they have to cut trees down. Just keep asking...knock on doors where you see damaged or down trees on their property...all they can say is NO and sometimes you get lucky!

Make sure every one you know is aware that your looking for fire wood. Thats where I get a majority of my firewood. My neighbors sister in law, Some police buddies, a church member, etc etc. Alot of it is dumb luck as well.

The city here takes down alot of trees (huge old oaks) and they get to cutting super early but if you can get there when the crew manager is there you have potential for a life long friend.

Do you have a facebook account? A friend had 3 cords - bucked that he needed to get rid of, he put it on facebook. He's building a new house. So my tip is watch facebook and don't be afraid to post on facebook too that you're looking. He has 150 friends on facebook, he had 2 responses, and the other person wasn't willing to help at all, so help and a case of beer got it for me.

Craigslist has worked well for us-just scored most of a 60' willow on Christmas eve. Funny part was it was a neighbor (we just moved in so we hadn't met them yet) and he helped lug it to our house. Perfect for shoulder season (lower BTU). We've also done well picking it up on the curb-ended up scoring 3 trees about 4' in diameter that way (asked about a few pieces and the homeowner happily showed us the rest of it behind the house). We're pretty much set for next year off of this year's scrounges, and we weren't looking hard for most of the year (just started on CL a few months ago after we actually closed on the place-before that it was just roadside finds we split and stacked since we had access to the Cottage prior to closing).