Firewood shortage in New England?

[trguitar]

Saw this in today's Globe:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...-scrambling/1zEQCE1TFFIlK4zIhrAdqO/story.html

This is why I get all my wood in the spring....

 

[tomc585]

Plenty here on Long Island. It seems so many tree trimmers have more than they know what to do with and they hold out to get a premium price and it ends up rotting.

 

[begreen]

Not worried about the supply, but I like to have the shed stocked up by March regardless. And I like to have the following years wood all stacked by no later than early summer. It may stay stacked for an extra year if it's madrona.

 

[Dieselhead]

No problems at my house!

 

[valuman]

There's plenty of cordwood available here, but I wonder if there might be a developing shortage of people who are willing to do the hard work of selling delivered cordwood.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

Odd article, guess the key is "seasoned firewood" The lady in Gilford NH is a half hour from me and I can get green wood from at least 4 sources today at about 225/cord (+/- $25).

 

[trguitar]

Agreed. I think they mean there is a "seasoned" shortage.

I don't see any issues with getting green wood myself either.

 

[peakbagger]

I don't think the folks at the globe understand seasoned firewood versus unseasoned. I think their readership tends to the folks who buy wood when they run out and expect the new load to be seasoned.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

I think more and more people are getting "new" stoves and are figuring out that wet wood doesn't work so great too. The old timer I get most of my wood from was asking why I wanted to be a full + year ahead when he sells "seasoned" wood. He usually cuts in the winter, splits and stacks in the spring, and delivers end of summer. It's not bad stuff, but I'd rather have it a bit drier so I explained it all to him.
He lives 1/2 mile up the road, I drove by the other day and noticed about 10 cord (all he does for the year, he's 77 and delivers with a Toyota Tacoma) all cut, split and stacked and top covered, behind his barn in the sun, for next years sales. I think the firewood guys who have to space to adapt to this market have the real potential to make some money in the future.

 

[begreen]

Stove purchases appear to have gone up driven by last years arctic winter conditions. And we keep telling folks here to buy dry wood, so perhaps the message is getting around. If so, the continuing message is: Get your next year's wood now and stack it with a cover on top.

 

[gyrfalcon]

There's plenty of cordwood available here, but I wonder if there might be a developing shortage of people who are willing to do the hard work of selling delivered cordwood.

There were any number of articles in local VT, NH and Maine papers about the shortage this fall. It's the result of a number of factors-- last winter's brutal winter, in which many people ran out and ordered more this year to avoid doing that again, plus around here, greatly increased demand for pellets, plus the fact that the number of people willing to do the hard work of logging and cutting is dwindling. This doesn't affect the guy down the road or in the next town who cuts a few extra cord from his woodlot on weekends to sell to local people. But it does very much affect larger operations.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I don't think the folks at the globe understand seasoned firewood versus unseasoned. I think their readership tends to the folks who buy wood when they run out and expect the new load to be seasoned.

I don't think this reporter understands much at all. My two favorite bits from the article:

Kiln-dried wood "burns faster and less noisily than seasoned wood, which has earned it both fans and detractors; some customers prefer their fires to crackle more and burn slowly."

And "Outside of Eastern Massachusetts, where many homes use fire-burning ovens as their primary or secondary source of heat."

Ahahahahaha! D'you suppose he's referring to woodstoves? We burn fire in ovens for heat, right?

 

[kennyp2339]

I called in a log truck load last fall 2013, it was $350.00 for the load, I've recommended this company to a bunch of my friends over the past year, my one buddy got a load last October and was charged $400, another friend just called for a February delivery and was told that there's a waiting list 20 people deep and the loads now cost $450.00, it's still a decent deal but people are stocking up. This is for green log lengths yeld is 6-7 cords

 

[Pellet_Pete]

And "Outside of Eastern Massachusetts, where many homes use fire-burning ovens as their primary or secondary source of heat."

Geez Louise, and you wonder why folks in western Mass. feel like nobody on Beacon Hill understands us.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Geez Louise, and you wonder why folks in western Mass. feel like nobody on Beacon Hill understands us.

I wonder why journalism schools don't require a basic mastery of the English language for graduation. Bad enough the reporter wrote "fire-burning," but then both an editor and a copy editor passed it.

I keep imagining this reporter talking to firewood suppliers who are struggling to make him understand what they're talking about and realizing they're not getting anywhere. Hey, stove, oven-- same thing, right? That's what his mother has, anyway, an oven, a stove.

 

[Flamestead]

Sounds like this shortage is on the kiln-dried end of the business. My wife reports no big jump in what the loggers are getting for firewood ($125/cord, same as earlier in the Fall). The past few weeks of freezing temps have helped them out a lot, and there is minimal snow to deal with.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Sounds like this shortage is on the kiln-dried end of the business. My wife reports no big jump in what the loggers are getting for firewood ($125/cord, same as earlier in the Fall). The past few weeks of freezing temps have helped them out a lot, and there is minimal snow to deal with.

Perhaps in Windsor County. Maybe you don't have pellet plants there. We have at least one new one here, and the demand for pellets is very strong. The guys who do serious logging are selling their logs to the pellet people, which is causing a shortage for suppliers of all kinds, kiln-dried and just general.

I'm not making this up, btw. I actually know some of these guys.

 

[Flamestead]

Perhaps in Windsor County. Maybe you don't have pellet plants there. We have at least one new one here, and the demand for pellets is very strong. The guys who do serious logging are selling their logs to the pellet people, which is causing a shortage for suppliers of all kinds, kiln-dried and just general.

I'm not making this up, btw. I actually know some of these guys.

No, there isn't a serious pellet market down here. Log-length firewood supply was short and demand high going into the Fall, but it has not become any worse as the season has progressed. My wife works for a multi-crew outfit, so I get pretty current info on the demand and prices in this region. The kiln-dried customers were calling daily in the Fall for loads, but now it is just the normal, steady demand.

 

[gyrfalcon]

No, there isn't a serious pellet market down here. Log-length firewood supply was short and demand high going into the Fall, but it has not become any worse as the season has progressed. My wife works for a multi-crew outfit, so I get pretty current info on the demand and prices in this region. The kiln-dried customers were calling daily in the Fall for loads, but now it is just the normal, steady demand.

Wow. Never occurred to me you were talking about mid-winter firewood orders. Are there a lot of people who do that? Seems a little nuts.

 

[Flamestead]

Wow. Never occurred to me you were talking about mid-winter firewood orders. Are there a lot of people who do that? Seems a little nuts.

Wife isn't very responsive to my questions (she is watching The Bachelor. bleck.). Most of their wood is going to middlemen, not homeowners, and demand is steady.

I took a look at a kiln-dried site in NH and see they offer custom-cut lengths on their green wood from January to July, so assume they are usually in off-peak mode by now. The OP's article seems to indicate an ongoing shortage, now.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Wife isn't very responsive to my questions (she is watching The Bachelor. bleck.). Most of their wood is going to middlemen, not homeowners, and demand is steady.

I took a look at a kiln-dried site in NH and see they offer custom-cut lengths on their green wood from January to July, so assume they are usually in off-peak mode by now. The OP's article seems to indicate an ongoing shortage, now.

Well, that's Eastern Mass, so who knows. But I do remember back when I first started burning and had no firewood, I spent some time in November and December calling large and small suppliers who'd advertised in the paper or on local general store bulletin boards, and at least 6 or 8 that I called never even called me back.

I know some folks here with old smoke dragons who only cut one tree at a time from their woodlots, and when that runs out, go out and cut another tree and process it, right through the heating season. (They think I'm nuts for insisting on dry wood, of course.) But I'm really surprised that people who have to rely on somebody else to c/s/d their firewood wouldn't get in the supply they need in the fall, at least.

 

[weatherguy]

Someone else brought this up at the beginning of the season, I think it depends on your location in New England. I can get all I want here, I used to pay $150 but those guys went up to $160. If I wanted to pay $180 a cord I'd have a large list to choose from. I see prices vary quite a bit in the area, surprised New Hampshire is as expensive as it is since its mostly forest.

 

[Flamestead]

I know some folks here with old smoke dragons who only cut one tree at a time from their woodlots, and when that runs out, go out and cut another tree and process it, right through the heating season.

The previous owner of our house was known for that. Quite literally on a tree-by-tree as-needed basis. And I'm told there was a number of chimney fires, too. When we had the liner installed we removed a tractor bucket worth of creosote from that one flue (a 3' wide flue, but a lot of fuel in there). Amazing the house survived all these years.

I don't know how much wood gets to Eastern MA from here, but 10+ years ago there was an article about a kiln operation in the Killington area (Colton?) that was shipping truckloads to that area at top dollar. With a truck and operator doing a 4-hr round trip it would need to be a large load and there would have to be quite a mark-up to make it work.

 

[rideau]

Wood runs 125 a face cord here.

 

[jimdrea]

I;m near the city and it's true price is up because the demand is high. I still have 2 cords left and I also bought some fir logs at Lowes over the weekend to mix in.