Firewood.. what do you do?

We always ask when checking in where we can locate some firewood. Camp Fires is a must have thing where-ever we camp at...

No firewood available then we will most definitely move on...

Roy Ken

I do not carry firewood, just because Texas has been hit hard by oak wilt and other blights.

Instead, I find a local mill, buy scrap pieces of -untreated- lumber, preferably 4x4s, and have them cut to 15 inch lengths. Since the wood pieces are cured, there are no bugs present that would hitch a ride to new areas. They also burn quite well.

Since all of Michigan's lower peninsula is now in the emerald ash borer quarantine area, movement between our house and state parks is not much of a problem. If I leave the state or go to the upper peninsula I leave the firewood behind and buy locally.

It seems that if there is a popular campground around, there is always somebody willing to sell firewood.

Every state or federal campground we have gone to either had firewood for sale or it was available near the park. The only time we had problem was when in Michigan they sold some wood that wasnt dried and didnt burn well but we suffered through it.

We don't do many fires but when we do we use the bundled stuff available at either the campground, grocery stores, or wherever. I still see people bringing in a pickup load of wood from who knows where.

Hey ericsmith32 I'm also from the KC area. I know exactly what your saying about the firewood. It seems like different campgrounds have different policy's. We camped with friends a couple weeks ago at a local campground and there policy is you have to purchase the firewood through them in order to have a campfire. We won't go into my opinion on that rule. We also camp at a state campground over in KS. and they only say the firewood must be purchased in the state of KS. Now do they police those policy's? It's anybody's guess.

I just schlep along half a dozen pieces of scrap lumber. If I run low, I'll dumpster dive at a construction site. Easy to stack and store, as there is not much space in a B for firewood.

Just hope you don't cook anything on that cured wood! Good idea otherwise. The emerald borer has already hit most of this area ( I think). I also ought to mention we don't have a toad so once we're in the campground we're there for the duration.

dspencer send me a message on the campground name. That sounds a bit crooked to me. Yeah that would be interesting on how they police it. Technically could tell them anything, granted it would be 30 miles from KS border little difference that would overall.

when we camp in the woods around here, we bring a chin saw ans the boys go out and get a big load of fallen trees, cut them up and don't worry to much about splitting the wood, they burn fine like they are. most fallen wood is lodge pine and is about 4 to 6 inches in diameter and is dry enough to make a real nice fire. if not we use our little propane fire pit.

I'm always amazed that in our area state parks say buy wood on site, don't bring any. Then I saw a tractor trailer bring in wood to the campground. It was harvested 300 miles east of the campground in far eastern oregon and we were at a campground on the oregon coast. But the don't want me bringing wood from 50 miles away from the same forest the CG is in. Go figure.

I started asking at campgrounds WHERE does your wood come from. Seldom is it anywhere nearby, usually from central or southern part of the state, 200-300 miles away.

I have about 3 cords of wood from a locally cut red cedar that has been well dried. Bring it on any camping trips in Oregon. Going out of state I have a few cords of cut up cedar decking from a deck removal project. I bring that.

And then in FS campgrounds, we usually can harvest a decent amount of wood locally.