Local Fire

Buy Your Campfire Wood Where You Plan to Burn It

by Jennifer Much

Spending time around a crackling fire is a celebrated staple of summer, and whether you’re a camping enthusiast or a backyard boss, it’s important to buy wood where you plan to burn it.

Purchasing wood locally is essential in helping to prevent the spread of invasive species such as the emerald ash borer. This green-hued beetle originated in Asia and made its way to North America in 2002 in shipping crates and infested wood. To date, the beetles have damaged and killed millions of ash trees.

To combat invasions of unwanted pests that are unknowingly transported from their region of origin, and to protect our state’s forests, Wisconsin began regulating the movement of firewood. The recommendation is that wood should be sourced 10 miles or fewer from where it will be burned.

Maintaining area forests and parks, including harvesting firewood, is labor intensive. Egg Harbor residents Lance and Sue Olson know this firsthand. For 40 years they worked in Peninsula State Park as the wood concessionaire for the park’s 468 campsites before retiring last year.

Lance began working in the park in his late teens as a wood concessionaire, and he cut down hazardous trees around the park.

Sue, who has been a teacher at Gibraltar School for 32 years, has fond memories of working in the park alongside her husband.

“I would spend my weekends helping Lance pick up the wood that he dropped throughout the park,” she said. “We usually were done with the process in early May. Then the splitting began.”

Splitting the wood was no easy task – and it would take until October – but it yielded a generous stockpile of fresh firewood. Throughout the camping season, the Olsons would be at the wood yard selling firewood to campers. That quickly became a family affair as their two daughters, Cassie and Anissa, also helped at the park. “They would help pick up wood from the fallen trees and load racks as needed,” Sue said. “It was definitely a family business.”

Wood sold at the park is harvested on-site. The exception is if the supply is supplemented with certified wood, which carries a label from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection or the U.S. Department of Agriculture that means it has been processed and kiln dried. Heat-treating the wood in this way greatly reduces the risk that it’s carrying diseases and unwelcome pests.

Those looking to stock up on bundles for home use can shop locally from area roadside stands or visit Firewood Scout at firewoodscout.org. It allows users to search within a specific area and generates listings for nearby firewood businesses and private sellers.

As you prepare to enjoy a campfire this summer, remember to buy it where you plan to burn it!