CHENANGO COUNTY – With the high cost of fuel oil this winter, more and more households are turning to a more traditional method to heat their homes.
“With this energy crunch, people tend to show more of an interest in firewood,” said Rich Taber, who heads the Forestry Initiative Program at the Chenango County office of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Taber said this creates a “golden opportunity” to introduce proper forest management techniques to local landowners. The correct method, he said, is to thin a forest by removing the lower quality wood. Part of his role is to assist property owners in making those decisions.
But not everyone interested in heating their homes in this fashion have the ability or desire to cut their own firewood. Taber has words of caution for people in that situation.
“Be careful where the firewood comes from,” he cautioned, explaining that buying wood from sources outside of the immediate area can be a risk to local forests.
The reason? Invasive species of insects and fungus that attack local trees.
“In recent years, there have been a lot of new pests coming in from overseas,” reported Taber.
Among those that could potentially impact Chenango County are the Asian longhorn beetle, which targets maple trees, and the oat wilt fungus. At the moment, neither of these invasive species are the area’s most pressing concern, according to Taber.
“The biggest threat is from the emerald ash bore,” he explained. The insect has devastated forests in Ohio, Michigan and Northwestern Pennsylvania, said Taber, all areas with forests similar to our own.
On their own, these insects slowly move from one area to the next in pursuit of their primary food source which, as their name implies, is the ash tree.
The transportation of firewood, particularly during the summer camping season, speeds up the process exponentially.
“Firewood becomes a vector for the spread of insects and disease,” said Taber.
In response to the threat, New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation instituted a ban earlier this year, prohibiting the sale and/or transport of firewood more than 50 miles from where it is cut.
Usually firewood is not cut in severely affected areas, said Taber. Instead it is chipped and burned for biomass fuel.
According to Taber, firewood for home heating use is less of a threat than camp wood because its bulk makes it less likely to be transported long distances. But he said it’s not a bad idea to ask where the wood is from before you buy.
“Most people in this area do purchase their firewood locally,” agreed Rebecca Hargrave, the local Natural Resource Educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chenango County. Then it becomes a matter of proper storage, about which Hargrave said they get a lot of calls.
“As a general rule, we recommend people store wood outdoors,” she said, adding that wood should not be stacked against the foundation of a home or garage.
“Depending on the insect’s life cycle, they could get out during a nice warm day,” she explained.
Hargrave also recommends that people “only bring in what they are going to burn in the next day or two,” because insects can start to move once those logs heat up.
“Most are harmless,” she said, but there have been reports of termites and other destructive species being introduced into a home through firewood.
For more information on invasive species, firewood or forest management, contact Cornell Cooperative Extension at 334-5841.