Fuel costs drive Alaskans to cut their own firewood

ANCHORAGE – Cutting your own firewood is once again fashionable in Interior Alaska, where residents are firing up their chain saws in hopes of slashing home heating bills this winter.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources this fall expanded its cut-your-own firewood program to open up more state land in the Interior for people willing to work for $5 a cord.

Now, residents who don’t mind putting in some sweat equity to heat their homes have more than 200 miles of roads in the Interior – where winter temperatures can plunge to 50 below and stay there for days – to access state land where firewood can be had practically for free.

“Alaskans have a tradition of relying on firewood as a heating fuel of last resort, and with the current high prices of fuel oil we want to help make fire-killed wood from our Interior forests available for firewood,” said Dean Brown, acting director of the state Division of Forestry.

Juneau Empire