Having trouble finding firewood for this winter?

The Coos District of the Oregon Department of Forestry may have a solution, but you’ll have to move quickly. The district offers a limited number of free firewood cutting permits on the Elliott State Forest.

The permits are not for cutting down trees, but there still is plenty of wood for people to cut up and haul away. Permits give people two weeks to gather two cords of wood from logging site slash piles.

Norma Kline, the district timber unit forester, said the best time to get a permit is in the fall after fire season lifts. Some wood may be available in the winter as well.

“They are free and in high demand,” Kline said. “People are calling every day.”

The available wood is the by-product of logging operations and  is on the site for a month or two before the landings are burned.  Kline said the wood available typically is the limbs and tops of harvested trees not taken by loggers. She said there is no other way of recycling the excess wood and what is not cut up for firewood is burned on site. The areas are open for a few weeks before the piles are burned, but people need to call to find out when permits are available. Kline said the district issues about 150 to 300 permits each year.

For more information, call the department’s firewood information line at 267-1774.