Fuel committee offers free firewood
Firewood, the original source of winter-time heating energy, is always in short supply here this time of year. But low-income residents of Jackson County who are in need of energy assistance the Jackson County Fuel Committee can help them find some.
"We help people get firewood so they don't have to sacrifice other necessities to keep warm," said Ian Dooley, the wood benefit coordinator for JCFC, an organization that helps people who can't afford to pay their heating bills.
In exchange for volunteer labor of different sorts — either cutting or loading wood, or office work — JCFC will deliver wood to a client.
"It's a system of reciprocity," Dooley said.
Seasonally, they provide between 30 and 40 chords of wood to Jackson County residents. The wood comes from people who have an excess — sometimes it's a property owner in the city who took a dead tree down, and sometimes it's an owner of a large tract that is doing some thinning.
"Most of our wood comes from private donors," Randy Jones, JCFC operations manager, said. "When an arborist takes a tree down sometimes they call us to pick up the wood."
Although firewood has fallen out favor in some circles as of late because of newly enacted air quality restrictions, Jones said they are still consistently getting requests for the renewable resource. He said he has been getting about five requests a week for fuel.
Most of their clients, Jones said, are people who used to cut their own wood and no longer have either the land or the means to do so. "A lot of people have never bought wood before," Jones said, noting that many have burned plenty of it. "Most people who use it have no other options."
He added that there are less and less firewood dealers in the area every season, and that firewood is getting equally as expensive as other types of heating fuels are.
"Energy rates, natural gas or wood, has a direct relation to what we do," Dooley said. "It's definitely a key factor in why we do what we do."
In addition to providing firewood, JCFC also advocates for people who have their utilities shut off in the winter, as well as helping people weatherize their homes for the winter.
Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x. 226 or bplain@dailytidings.com
