New personal-use firewood areas opened in Mat-Su

Southcentral residents looking for firewood to heat their homes now have a few more options.

The Alaska Division of Forestry’s Mat-Su/Southwest Area office has recently opened three new personal-use firewood areas to help meet demand for fuelwood. Two of the new sites are located on Buffalo Mine Road in the Matanuska Valley near Sutton, and the other site is in the Willer-Kash Road system in the Susitna Valley in Willow.

Both birch and spruce can be harvested from the new firewood sites in Willer-Kash and Buffalo Mine Road, while the second Buffalo Mine Road site is open to harvesting dead, beetle-killed spruce only.

Maps and permits for the new sites, and other firewood areas, are available through the Division of Forestry’s online firewood permit system. Permits are required and limited to no more than 10 cords of firewood per household per year. Cost is $10 per cord.

Live spruce harvested during the summer should be cut into stove length pieces, split, and stacked to speed the drying process and minimize attractiveness to spruce beetle. Properly cured firewood burns better and reduces impacts on local air quality. More detailed information about spruce beetles and firewood can be found here at http://forestry.alaska.gov/insects/sprucebeetle and https://www.alaskasprucebeetle.org/.

Information courtesy of the Division of Forestry.