Free Firewood, how common is this?

We have been in several NP, NF and BLM tent campgrounds where the ranger or host has told us where we can pick up free wood. Has to be split but the price is right.

We were USFS hosts for several years. They would supply propane and all the firewood we asked for. Usually a pickup load would last us all summer. We weren't that big into campfires ourselves. We'd loan a bundle or two to elderly or handicapped campers if it looked like they needed it or said that they would enjoy having some. We never charged for what we loaned out. It's against the rules to charge for it and I think it's against the rules to give it away because if you give it to one you have to be ready to supply it to everyone.

What we had left at the end of the summer we carefully stacked under the picnic table at our host site and covered it with a tarp to keep it over the winter even though the camp ground was open longer than our stay. We actually expected it to be there when we came back the next year. LOL~! Talk about being wrong.

Paris Mountain State Park in Greenville, SC offers free firewood. They do have a donation box to help cover costs. I've never encountered this in any other campground or state park before.

-Michael

stevekk wrote:
I stayed at a small USFS campground. Only 23 spots.
Had pit toilets/ water. All paved/ roads/ trails/ etc.
Real nice facility, next to a lake.
$15/ 7.50 per night with Gov. senior pass.
The Host had free firewood.
How common is this free firewood?

Since it was free, I'm betting it came from the Forest Service with instructions that it can't be charged (extra) for. I think it makes a lot of sense- better to let paying campers burn it up in controlled pits than to leave it out there to fuel a wildfire!

I've encountered this in more than one location where thinning is being done, usually for disease control, or of course after danger-tree removal.

I have had a few trips where the camp host had a pile of fire on a trailer and pulled around the camp sites offering it for free.. I'm sure it came from cleaning up some areas...

I took a few pieces from his trailer and he was seeing I was trying not to hog it all so he jumps in there and fills up my corner big time haha... Said he had plenty back at the host site to get rid of... This was camp COSBY in the Smoky Natl Park area.

I like the honor system at Westmoreland State Park near here. Each camp site area has a nice fresh cut stack of firewood available on the honor system. Apparently the park volunteers cut this off the park area and keep the stacks up. It is $.50 a log... I first thought that was highway robbery but $20 of firewood goes a long way for our usual three day stay....

Roy Ken

There was free firewood in Canada at Yoho. But there was a catch -- you had to sign up for a campfire and pay $8.80 per night in order to have a campfire!! Even if you brought your own wood! They told us that the fee paid for cleaning out the ashes.

It sounds like nickel and diming, but we did not mind -- the campgrounds in Canada were very well maintained.

This firewood was pest free.
Lodgepole pine. Some in rounds, some split
The CG Host had a wheelbarrow to haul it to your campsite.

It's uncommon - and a lucky catch. We've encountered free firewood in various parks, including state parks, on occasion after they've done some tree cutting. It's easier/less expensive for them to cut it up and leave it for campers than pay to have it removed.

Free firewood in private parks is usually an attempt to keep people from moving wood and introducing pests (see the third pots in this thread for an example of someone moving firewood.)

Croatan FS campground near me definitely does have hosts.

Only free firewood I've ever seen was in Newfoundland last summer, private campgrounds.

Our closest -- and favorite, but now closed due to the sequester -- USFS campground had both a host and free firewood last year, courtesy of wind damage that left a number of trees down every where around for many miles a year earlier. The trees that came down in the campground and across the access roads became that free firewood.

I went for a hike through the now-closed campground a month or so ago, and there are still piles of said free firewood scattered about. Unless the USFS budget changes, they'll probably rot there.