In my opinion as Chief of the Bureau of Private Land Services for NYSDEC, the key point to emphasize - which the Buffalo News article totally misses - is the shortage of seasoned firewood is totally related to the increase in demand, and totally unrelated to our green firewood regulation adopted just 5 months ago.
As I see it, a couple of factors come into play that were not mentioned in the article. Probably most important is the ballooning price of fuel oil and natural gas, which has prompted a lot of people to look for alternative means to heat their homes. They're either going back to wood heat, expanding their use of wood heat, or looking to buy a wood stove and start heating with wood. In any event, these new customers have not planned ahead and set aside green firewood (which is a widely available commodity in our woods), 12-18 months ago, to air dry for this heating season. They now need to find a dealer who has "extra" seasoned wood on hand, beyond that needed to supply their "regular customers". This is the "Demand" side of the equation.
Secondly, producers of firewood had to anticipate, 12-18 months ago, how much seasoned firewood they'd be able to sell this fall and winter. Their best-guesses, combined with their resources, dictated how much money they wanted to invest in cutting and setting aside wood to air dry for 2008, back in 2007. Firewood is somewhat of a "perishable commodity". It costs money to produce. That money - your "investment" - isn't available to you until the product is sold. And, the product needs to be sold and used within a relatively short period of time, or it starts losing value. No one expected the large increase in demand for seasoned firewood this fall created by the run up in oil prices and the worldwide economic crisis. Consequently, the supply of seasoned firewood is less than the demand in some places. Simple economics (supply and demand) dictates the price for seasoned firewood will then go up in response. Unfortunately, since it takes 12-18 months for firewood to air-dry, the market can't respond immediately by producing more firewood to meet the demand (again, simple economics: price goes up, supply increases as producers find it profitable to make the product in demand). This is the "Supply" side of the equation.
Think of it like a baker making donuts for tomorrow. It costs money to make donuts. If you have $100, and think you can sell $100 worth of donuts before they go bad, at a profit, then you put your money into donut dough. If you thought you could sell a thousand dollars worth of donuts (at a profit), and had $1,000 available to invest, you'd make that many. But, if you either didn't have $1,000, or you didn't think you could sell that many donuts, you wouldn't risk making them and losing your investment. Also, you might have thought you'd make even more money baking $100 worth of donuts and putting the other $900 into the stock market, or buying some attractive real estate with a sub-prime mortgage!
Now, with donuts, bakers can quickly make more to meet demand (say, doctors determine eating 2 donuts a day can fight cancer, and the price of a dozen skyrockets to $20!). And more bakeries will start making donuts and more donut shops will spring up. (Remember Krispy Kreme??) The firewood business can't respond that fast.
So, it's not the Emergency regulation that's limiting the supply of seasoned firewood, or running up the price. It's mostly the increased, unanticipated demand for dried, ready-to-burn-this-winter, firewood from consumers. The same is true for wood pellets, which we don't regulate at all. Supplies are short and prices are increasing because producers did not foresee and anticipate the sudden spike in demand for this alternative heating source. For the same reasons, it's probably harder and more expensive to even find a wood pellet stove to buy.
Ideally, we should see more local producers putting up firewood for next season. The 50-mile "local" limit encompasses over 5 million acres of land. With 62 % of NY State in forest, that's still a lot of potential supply, no matter where you're located, as long as you plan ahead. But, you can't just flip the switch and have wood heat come on.
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