Jul 165 min read

Wood Banks and Fuel Poverty in Maine

Updated: Oct 21

NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HEATING AND EATING

By Hope Light

It’s easy to dismiss heating fuel poverty in July, especially as we are mere weeks removed from the heat dome that lingered overhead, resulting in sweltering temperatures across the country’s eastern half. But if you think back a bit further, you’ll likely recall two spring snow and ice storms that left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, many for several days, and you may remember just how important having a reliable heat source is in Maine. Winter can be brutal for many Mainers as fuel costs for heating their homes stretch their already thin budgets to a breaking point. Add in increasingly damaging weather patterns that cause property damage and knock out power, often resulting in food losses that only compound the financial strain that winter can bring.

According to a 2019 Maine Low-Income Home Energy Burden Study, low-income households in Maine have an average energy burden of 19%, much higher than the 6% average for all Maine households. Energy burden is the percentage of a household’s gross income spent on energy costs. To put it in perspective, a household with an energy burden of 6% or more is considered to have a high energy burden, which means a significant portion of their income goes towards heating their homes, leaving less for other necessities.

Some communities have come together to keep their neighbors warm by starting Wood Banks, volunteer-run community organizations focused on providing heating assistance in the form of firewood to individuals and families in need. Maine currently has eleven established wood banks, but rumors suggest that many less formal community initiatives don’t call themselves Wood Banks but serve the same purpose. These less formal operations are genuinely community-supported wood distributions on a small and intimate scale. Other wood banks are quite large, supported by the efforts of a dozen or more dedicated volunteers, and offer expansive assistance like Boothbay, which has offered additional services such as cleaned chimneys, financed wood stove installations, and provided support to folks applying for other heating fuel-related assistance programs.

Homeowners who have downed trees in storms and landscaping companies often donate wood. Still, some wood banks participate in the firewood market by hosting fundraisers with proceeds used to purchase wood from local loggers and companies that they then distribute to individuals in their communities. Many wood banks purchase tree length and process it themselves, distribute firewood to families, and sell any surplus to fund next year’s tree length purchase or other fuel assistance services they may provide.

Although the organizational structure of Wood Banks and the aid they offer differ as much as the communities they serve, some Wood Bank managers and volunteers in Maine are moving to form a Wood Bank Network. This network aims not only to increase public awareness of the existence of Wood Banks and fuel poverty in our state but also to create a “wood bank in a box” toolkit. This tool kit, with its step-by-step guides, best practices, and necessary resources, will make it easier for interested individuals or groups to establish a wood bank in their community. With the added benefit of being able to pool administrative tasks, knowledge, and equipment, the network can help facilitate the creation of more wood banks in the communities that need them most, offering a ray of hope in the fight against fuel poverty.

In 2022, the University of Maine was awarded $62,500 for the National Wood Bank project. Jessica Leahy, a forestry professor at UMaine with a research appointment in the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, leads the projects with collaborators at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension to create more wood banks and connect existing programs across Maine and the country. Leahy said that “(she) was spurred by a simple conversation with a coworker who knew about the wood bank in Keene, NH, and brought it up, and I thought, “Wow, that is such a cool idea.” At the same time, a UMaine student approached Leahy about her capstone project – this student was trying to find an intersection between renewable energy and fuel poverty. The timing was serendipitous.

Leahy said that she sees firewood as a resource but one with a cultural component, saying, “People feel good when they heat with wood, and they talk about wood heating feeling better versus other forms of heat and how when they’ve had a bad day, and they sit near a fire they feel better. When folks are struggling with the cost of living, wood banks give people a small luxury of wood heat.” She emphasized the importance of looking holistically at firewood as a primary heating source, considering the social and cultural elements, the human element, and not just the environmental considerations.

There is a need for wood banks across the state – existing wood banks often get requests from outside their immediate community. Communities with the most significant identified need for one often need help to get one started. Holly Stower – Boothbay – “thinks towns could be more accommodating,” a sentiment shared by many wood bank volunteers who say they have been met with skepticism by municipal governments who don’t always see the need for a wood bank in their community and have concerns about insurance and other operational details when approached by community members looking to start a new wood bank. However, existing wood banks typically don’t have the wood stores to support all requests, coupled with the guidance intended to prevent the spread of invasive pests and pathogens to not move firewood more than 50 miles from its source, significantly limiting individual wood banks’ reach. DownEast ran out of wood in April – with several other Wood Bank managers admitting that they are hesitant to advertise because they’re afraid they would be unable to meet the needs of their community if there was more awareness about their wood bank. To address this, three existing wood banks, Cumberland, Midcoast, and the newly formed Freeport location, have begun the process of creating a network that will help existing wood banks connect individuals in need to other wood banks in their communities when requests come in from outside a given wood bank coverage area and allow wood bank coordinators and volunteers to share resources.

Maine TREE is committed to donating a cord of firewood sustainably harvested and salvaged from the HOLT Research Forest in Arrowsic to the Midcoast Woodbank as part of its annual fundraising campaign. For every $250 raised, we will stack one piece of firewood; when stacked a cord, we will have met or exceeded the fundraising goal of $150,000. At the conclusion of the campaign, the wood will be transferred to the Woodbank to help keep local families warm this winter. To contribute to Maine TREE’s “Help Us Stack a Cord” fundraising appeal mainetree.org and click “donate” or send a check made out to Maine TREE to 535 Civic Center Drive, Augusta ME, 04330.

Ways to help

Volunteer, Donate money, Donate wood, purchase surplus firewood from a local wood bank, etc.

Start a wood bank in your community!

Resources to support the creation of new Wood Banks

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/sfr_studentpub/1/ has been downloaded 2000 times from individuals around the world.

UMaine: National Wood Bank Project

Grants available for the creation of new wood banks

https://www.firewoodbanks.org/applynow

List of Woodbanks in Maine

The Woodchucks – Boothbay

Castine Woodbank – Castine

C.H.I.P. Firewood Bank – Newcastle