BUCKLAND — After receiving a $113,000 state grant, the town is poised to establish a wood bank with hopes of granting more residents warmer winters.
The Community One Stop for Growth grant, announced this week as part of a $143 million statewide round of funding for fiscal year 2023, was discussed by the Selectboard on Tuesday. Town Administrator Heather Butler said the money would be spent on equipment that would “provide a means of processing the trees that come down” due to inclement weather, utility projects and routine tree removal. The equipment, including a processor and splitter, would then be stationed at a cleared lot on Conway Road.
“Once we have established an internal process,” Butler explained, “we will look for ways to share that wood with those who heat with wood and have a financial need.”
According to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, a wood bank involves the harvesting and chopping-up of both public and private trees that have fallen. Local public works departments store and maintain a firewood log inventory at a processing yard before splitting and stacking the logs. Finally, a local social aid organization allocates the wood to residents in need of assistance heating their homes.
“The Selectboard will be involved in how that wood is eventually processed and how the processed wood is distributed,” Butler wrote in an email. “It’s important to note that wood that is felled in front of the homes of residents who can use the wood will still get ‘first dibs.’ We are simply looking for an efficient and cost-effective way to clean up wood that we would otherwise have to pay to remove.”
“Not only would the wood bank support the town’s most vulnerable population by providing free firewood to get through harsh hilltown winters, but it would give the town’s Highway Department an economically favorable means to remove felled trees from the roadside,” Selectboard Chair Barry Del Castilho wrote in a support letter for a subsequent grant. (The board voted Tuesday to apply for a grant through DCR’s Urban and Forestry Challenge Grant program to buy smaller equipment, such as chainsaws and chippers.)
Butler said the town anticipates buying the equipment next spring and setting up the wood bank immediately after Baltazar Contractors Inc. finishes clearing the “old stump dump” that has primarily been a site for removed snow in recent years. Four other wood banks are listed on DCR’s website, with existing locations in Athol, Goshen, Montague and Petersham.
“I’d hate to see the wood not utilized by the people who live here,” Butler said.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.