Yes, but that sounds more like private property and I stay away from that. I’m referring to forest service territory—public land. I’ve paid money and have a permit.
There has been quite a bit of logging activity locally over the Winter. I took a ride up to check it out but they didn’t leave much for the firewood cutters. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
You go up to the counter at the Ranger station at the beginning of the season and pony up your cash or check or credit card. Where I am at it’s five dollars per cord, $20 minimum. Which is usually what I get —about four cords —so I stick with the $20. The forest next to us you can get 10 cords for your $20. Honor system with random/sporadic checks. I’ve been checked only twice. As long as you follow the rules and aren’t abusing the system all goes well. Pretty simple. It’s nice because the forest service likes us out there. It saves them work and makes the forest a little less fire-prone by reducing fuel wood. Just got mine today for the forest next to me. Can’t beat $2 a cord! I’ll get another permit for my forest district when they go on sale first week of May.
What if you're cutting your own wood from your own property (or wherever) too and it's mixed in. How can you/they keep track?
In the Gifford Pinchot National Forest you can get a permit for 6 cords personal use for free per household. You can purchase a map and the Forester will mark areas that have logs decked for cutting. If you find a downed tree or trees many times the forester will drive out with you and give you approval to cut or not. I have found all the Federal foresters that I have met to be really decent folks. As I recall, you get 6 one cord permits. You tear off a perforated tag and staple it visibly to the back of your load. The Foresters keep a pretty good eye on things but there is no rigid, regulated enforcement. My problem is that it is an hour and a half one way to get into the cutting areas. With a trailer that holds just under a cord without sideboards, it is just not an economical way to get firewood. Especially when there is so much residential cutting close in!
You don’t need a forest service permit to cut on your own property. And why would you take your own wood out into the forest? I don’t understand this question.
Ours have been free since covid. They said it was to help people through the pandemic. I have a feeling the reason they've kept em free is to encourage road clearing. There's been A LOT of trees down on the roads the last couple of years. Whatever the reason, I like it. Pre-covid, permits were $20 and good for 2 cords. The load tickets have gone away with the fee too.
What I was wondering was when you have your wood all CSS up at home, how do they know where the wood came from if you're cutting in multiple places. I assumed they would come to your residence and check the cordage you had cut.
No. They don’t come to check your house. Ever. That would be out of their jurisdiction. They might occasionally check you when you are out in the forest cutting and they just happen to come along. This doesn’t happen very often. It’s just when their path crosses yours when you are out there cutting. Mostly it’s the honor system. The two times I’ve been checked they just ask me if I have my permit and that was good enough. One time he asked what color were the tags this year (they are different colors each year). That way I didn’t have to go dig it out of my glove box and I would only know the correct color if I really bought a permit. They are not super stringent about things and looking for an excuse to bust people that they want out there—At least that has been my experience.
