I started out in business in the firewood business. It was a great starter business, which gave me the freedom to pursue other businesses. I still sell some firewood when I have excess. That mostly happens because I am thinning out trees on my forest land and end up with too much wood. Just about everything I ever do on my land results in wood.
Wholesale Firewood
I can produce wholesale firewood in bundles, boxes, or in bulk from my forest land. But I am probably not going to because most people want wholesale firewood to be cheap. If you want to pay me a lot for it, I can make it happen one way or another.
Firewood Business
Firewood can be a tricky business because of the high amount of physical labor involved. Expectations from buyers in this area is for it to be available cheap. In most cases, in my area, buyers want firewood at prices that are too low for reputable businesses to make a profit. Then they wonder why they can’t find a reliable firewood source.
My firewood species include:
- Pacific Madrone (madrona)
- Douglas Fir
- Ponderosa Pine
- California Black Oak
- Oregon White Oak
- Tanoak
- Manzanita
- Sugar Pine
- Incense Cedar
Madrone Firewood
Madrone, sometimes spelled madrona, is considered by many to be the best firewood there is to burn. Whether or not it is the best, is a matter of opinion. There is no doubt, madrone makes excellent firewood. Well seasoned madrone burns long and hot. With it’s smooth bark, this hardwood is much less messy than other types of wood. It also produces little ash, compared to oaks and many other hardwoods.
Madrone firewood is great for both home heating and decorative use. Besides being an excellent burning wood, madrone is also a wood with a unique looking bark that makes it ideal for use as decorative firewood. I also have access to other types of firewood for sale including manzanita, tanoak, white oak, black oak, Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, sugar pine and incense cedar.
Silly Stuff About Firewood
Below is some silly nonsense about firewood. I put it here because I am transferring one thing to another thing. It will be here until I change, edit or likely replace it. Nobody will likely read it anyway. That’s a lot of text to read to get down this far.
There has been a lot of capital and resources put into developing technologies for using forest and agricultural biomass as a source of energy. After all the political battles over money to be spent on research and development of this area there still hasn’t been much headway in these efforts that have brought a competitive forest biofuel to the market.
While this effort continues much of the public doesn’t realize that there is already an economically viable forest biofuel that has been traded on the free market for centuries or longer without a need for expensive research or government subsidies. People have been using firewood as a source of enerergy since prehistoric times.
Firewood is a renewable carbon neutral source of energy that can be used to heat homes and businesses. Unlike other biofuel products firewood doesn’t need processing other than being cut into small enough pieces for the consumer. This makes firewood much more efficient than other biofuels because very little energy is consumed in its production.
There hasn’t been a need for technology to develop this fuel but there has been technology put into firewood heating units to make them more efficient and to reduce emissions.
Firewood can be produced from low grade forest material and waste material from the manufacture of other forest products. The sale of firewood generated from thinning forests can help subsidize forest enhancement projects that contribute to the health, longevity and increased productivity of forests. If you think burning firewood is harming or contributing to deforestation that’s not usually the case and is often the exact opposite.
Burning firewood is obviously not for everyone but it is an underutilized source of energy that many people should consider if they have an interest in using biomass as a source of energy.
With most forest harvest or enhancement operations, there is almost always an excess of low grade wood that is removed from the stand. Much of this wood is too small, too crooked, the knots are too big or it may be an undesirable species for other products. Often times the things that make wood unsuitable for building products, makes it ideal for firewood.