Google map view of firewood stacks

firecracker_77 · Jan 29, 2014

BrianK said: ↑

Check out their video at the end:

And its all gone:

Winter storms wipe out firewood supplies
For woodstove users, it's harder to keep home fires burning
By Jim Hook

[email protected] @JimHookPO on Twitter

Mike Jones of Gish Logging in Fort Loudon has just a few sticks of firewood in his warehouse. (Jim Hook — Public Opinion)

Gish Logging sends packaged firewood to Saudi Arabia. (Jim Hook — Public Opinion)
Fort Loudon >> Seasoned firewood is in short supply, just one month into what is turning out to be a harsh winter.

"We usually have 100,000 to 300,000 bundles to carryover in a mild winter," said Ernie Gish, co-owner of Gish Logging in Fort Loudon. "We've cleaned house. We don't have a stick."

Located five miles north of the wood-scented village of Fort Loudon, Gish Logging is not the typical chainsaw-pickup-truck operation. It's one of the nation's largest suppliers of packaged firewood, 1.2 million packages a year. Gish's kiln-dried Hotsticks are found in convenience, hardware and grocery stores.

The company is meeting its contracts, but extra supplies are limited, according to Gish. Air-dried firewood in bulk is all but gone. The company has some less seasoned wood available.

"Usually we would be the last company to run short because we inventory so much," he said. "I'm getting calls from all over the country wondering if we have anything to spare."

Using wood as the primary heat source for a home in the United States has grown nearly 40 percent since 2004, according to the Department of Energy.

Burning wood and wood pellets has become more and more popular in recent years as the prices of traditional heating fuels increase, according to Ron Bunting, owner of Bunting's Fireplace and Stove, Chambersburg.

"It's been a steady uptick," Bunting said. "I've seen the largest growth in pellet stoves in the past five years. It was phenomenal in 2013."

Wood pellet stoves are easy to install, and the fuel is abundant, he said.

About 6 percent of homes in Franklin County are heated mainly with wood, according to the most recent American Community Survey estimates by the Census Bureau. In Fulton County 22 percent are heated with wood. In the more populous counties of Cumberland and York, just 3 percent of homes are heated with wood.

More than 3,600 homes in Franklin County burn wood as their primary source of heat. That's more than twice the number who rely on bottled gas. About 45 percent in the county rely on electricity, 25 percent on fuel oil and 19 percent on utility natural gas.

Jeff Sheffler, left, and his son, Isaac, fill their outdoor woodstove Thursday in Waynesboro. (Markell DeLoatch — Public Opinion)
Wood-burning stoves are generally less efficient than other heat sources, according to the Department of Energy, but the fuel costs less.

Customers are burning more wood this season because of the colder temperatures and wind, according to smaller firewood operators.

"We have a little bit of seasoned," said third-year operator Sherri Jarrett of Willow Hill. "We're getting low too. It's hard to find. Loggers aren't going out. Vendors haul it to us and we split it."

Starting up frozen logging equipment on the mountain can take most of a short winter day. Late summer and fall are the prime seasons for firewood harvesting.

"Winter came early for us this year," Bunting said. "It drove people to think about winter early."

November had about 17 percent more heating days than a normal November, according to data from Hagerstown, Md., weather observer Greg Keefer. There were fewer than normal heating days in December, and so far, the number of heating days in January is about normal. But the number should soar with forecasted arctic temperatures to the end of the month.

"This would be the highest demand year we've seen," Gish said. "2010 was a very good year with those three back-to-back storms."

Gish Logging has been packaging firewood 15 years and selling loose firewood since 1984.

The company has found a niche in providing wood for what Gish calls "ambiance fires."

About 8 percent of U.S. homes supplement their primary heat source by burning wood, according to the Department of Energy.

Gish Logging has found its bagged firewood to be popular outside the U.S. Demand has increased from Saudi Arabia where the wood is used for cooking fires and warmth on cool desert nights, according to Gish.

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That's a lot of wood for sure.

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Google map view of firewood stacks

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