03/01/06 Wood shortage a burning problem (By Caitlyn Kelleher)

LUNENBURG -- Dick Moeckel said he knows the importance of stocking up on wood early in the season.

By ordering his wood this summer, Moeckel has avoided the plight of other homeowners who burn wood for heat: Local firewood suppliers say they only have unseasoned or green wood left to sell this winter.

The 70-year-old Lunenburg residents heats his White Street house from October to April primarily with his wood stove. The house -- which had a warm, cozy feeling on Thursday -- is heated with less than 100 gallons of oil a winter and a 20-year-old wood stove in the basement, according to Moeckel.

A number of local companies that provide firewood to area residents said they are already sold out of seasoned wood, which is considered to be the best for burning.

"We imported some pallet fuel from eastern Canada because we heard people were having a hard time getting it," said Paul Jaudreau, owner of Toasty Home in Fitchburg. "Consumers haven't been able to get it, because there has been a such a demand for it because of our oil crisis."

Jaudreau said he cuts up old pallets, and sells the recycled wood to people for burning. However, the pallet wood burns faster because there is more surface area, according to Jaudreau. He said he sells a cord of cut-up pallets for $90 to $100.

The price of pallets at his company has not increased significantly over last year. But Jaudreau said he has spent more to buy firewood near his home in the northern suburbs of Boston. A cord was about $180 last year and this year it costs $350, he said.

Derek Drury, the owner of Big Beaver Stump Grinding in Fitchburg, said the cost of firewood seems to keep pace with oil.

"I've been told the rule of thumb is, if oil is $2 a gallon, (firewood) is $200 a cord," Drury said. "It stays equal with the oil that way."

Drury, who started his business two years ago, still has some firewood, which he collected over the years from other jobs. He is also working to keep the cost below the market price.

Drury said he sold a new customer two cords of partially-seasoned wooded for $175 a cord on Thursday.

A serious wood burner will go through about one cord a month, according to Drury.

"It seems like a lot of people buy as they burn," he said.

This method could provide to be difficult this year, however, as more and more companies sell out of the wood.

A message on the answering machine at All Seasons Firewood, a company based in Townsend, said they firm is sold out of seasoned firewood but has have semi-seasoned firewood for $220 a cord.

Semi-seasoned firewood burns more quickly than seasoned wood, so consumers go through the product faster and it produces less heat, said Drury.

Griffin Logging & Land Clearing in Lunenburg has a similar message on its answering machine but they are selling green wood, which is freshly cut, for $150 a cord.

Moeckel said the wood he bought at the beginning of the season should last him until April, but if it does not he will buy more. The problems, Jaudreau said, are for those who only bought a small amount of wood to start with because so many companies are already sold out.

"We're about a third of the way into our heating season," Jaudreau said.

The state Department of Energy Resources does not track wood sales or costs like they do oil sales and prices, according to a spokesperson.

Glenn Freden of Royalston, who has cut lumber in Massachusetts since 1977, said the price he gets for a stump of wood has not changed dramatically over the last 30 years.

"It is a really tough way to make a living," Freden, a member of the Massachusetts Association of Professional Foresters, said.

The higher retail price of wood this year can be attributed to many of the same factors other fuel sources have risen in price, such added labor and insurance costs, he said.

"And to some extent, it is what the market will bear," he said. "The demand for firewood has been pretty good for the last few years."

Moeckel's wife, Sally, said they only use about 100 gallons of oil a season, which saves them money over all. They buy a giant log and he cuts it into narrow, 30-inch long pieces -- just small enough to fit into their stove.

She says her husband's desire to chop the wood himself means they save additional money.

"If you have to pay for it to be cut and sized, it costs more," she said.

Burning wood is mostly a seasonal practice for the Moeckels. They may light a small fire on a cool night in the summer, but don't really start throwing on the logs until the end of September or early October. They keep a fire going in the stove from then until April.

Sally Moeckel also says that wood-burning saves money because she doesn't have to use a dryer for the couple's clothes. She instead drapes the garments on a line in the basement near the wood stove to dry them.

"It's like hanging them outside," she said. "I wash in the morning and they are done and put away by mid-afternoon. So it saves all around."