This might be common knowledge in Michigan, but it showed up in my g feed. How to get a winter’s worth of firewood from Michigan state forests for $20
Wayne national forest does this in Ohio and some of the state forests do as well. Each permit will authorize collection of dead and down trees only. No standing trees may be cut, regardless of condition. Firewood must be removed for PERSONAL use only. Wood can only be moved in 3 foot lengths, no motorized equipment allowed. A map is provided with the areas you can cut after purchasing a 20 dollar permit. Permit holders can take up to 5 cord of wood. Some of the restrictions make it not worth it for most. I drove down a couple of the roads in my way home from work. If i could find a big enough tree that was dead and down by the road it would be worth it to get a few truck loads. I would not go too far from my truck one of the roads looked like it had some unsavory characters up to no good. There isn't much draw to the permits, I think they only sell a few hundred a year.
I cut on those permits many years ago. Lots of restrictions, very limited access with a truck or utv, can only cut within 50' of the road or trail. Downed trees only, most trails are closed to motorized vehicles now, foot, bicycle, or some horse trails. There are 10's of thousands of cord just rotting to waste due to the restrictions. I can collect more wood in a couple hours on private property than all day on State land. Not worth it for me for sure.
I used to get permits (back then you only needed a permit but no charge for it) years ago. Once I lucked out as the guy knew where I lived and knew I'd gotten permits before. He asked if I was interested in clearing an area that was pretty much all maple. I would have to do all the felling, etc. He asked so I countered asking the bear question. lol It was great and less than a mile from us. Today, amateur cutter is right. In most cases it is not worth it.
Used to be able to cut with permits here in the state forest (they used to have lotteries for the permits) , but not enough people followed the rules and policing the animals got too expensive so they stopped it all. I hope the western part of the state is different. Also the tree-huggers want all the dead wood to rot as part of the natural process.
