UT’s Institute of Agriculture is working to keep people warm and safe during the cold months by giving away free firewood. UTIA’s School of Natural Resources, UT Extension and AgResearch created a firewood bank to get some people through the winter.
The firewood bank made one of its deliveries in Oliver Springs to Roy Russell. Russell has been a logger himself, but at age 80, it’s difficult to do that work now.
When winter comes to this mountaintop, he and his wife rely on what they can burn as their primary source of heat.
“I do appreciate it, more than I can ever tell you and I mean that, buddy. I really do, cause if you hadn’t done it, I don’t know if I’d had any firewood or not. I know I can’t do it,” Russell said.
“We forget that firewood was the way that most of human history and much of current human society heats itself and cooks its food,” Adam Taylor, firewood bank organizer and Extension forestry specialist, said.
Taylor teamed up with Anderson County Community Action, taking recipients from their food bank system and offering them free firewood.
“For people who heat with wood, they need that, and it is expensive, potentially, or physically challenging to get yourself. So, some people need a little assistance with that just like they need some assistance getting some food,” Taylor said.
The firewood bank got its start several months ago. Some wood is donated, but it’s also coming from UT AgResearch land and its Oak Ridge Arboretum. Taylor and his son spent time cutting wood and stockpiling it for future deliveries in the summer. Taylor says the bank clients are getting high quality firewood.
“This part of the country has an excellent firewood resource naturally. Just the species that grow here are relatively dense, and once you dry them – like all firewood needs to be dry – once it’s dry, provides a good, dense source of heat,” Taylor said.
Another goal is to learn what it takes to create and maintain a firewood bank and use that information to serve more people in other counties.
This effort is supported by “The Alliance for Green Heat,” an organization partnering with the USDA Forest Service to promote firewood banks. A number of volunteers, including students at the UT Herbert College of Agriculture, are delivering the firewood.
