There are not enough people working for the Forest Service anymore to cover much ground. Out here, the rules for firewood are very complicated. So complicated it would be easy to just get mad and start cutting away. You may thank the Northwest Forest Plan AKA The Clinton Forest Plan for that.
Permits run about $5 a cord here. If you find a down tree to cut, you need to phone in and see if it is in an area OK to cut in. Then, a FS employee (sometimes yours truly) will come out with some yellow paint and mark it if it is in an OK area.
Winter is the best time to cut firewood here. We'll put out a long list of roads--some you can cut down wood within 100 feet, others only what falls in the road from windstorms. It is a good way to keep the roads open and woodpiles full for the next year.
We are overrun with illegal cutters. I don't write tickets, but I'll check permits if you don't look too scary. Mind you, I'm alone, don't have a weapon, and only had a month of karate so I don't want to take on any mass murderer types.
It is this time of year that I'm out "driving around" checking to see that I have NO FIREWOOD CUTTING signs posted on all the log decks. They get butchered during hunting season. A logger said he didn't mind so much if people would work on only one log at a time. Unfortunately, most wood thieves whack away at several logs and mess up the lengths, leaving the deck worthless as far as logs go.
Every once in a while, the law guys will bust somebody. They confiscate the wood and we will put it up for bidding as soon as it is no longer needed for evidence. It is usually really good quality and often is a PNW old growth Doug-fir. Our wood thieves are usually pretty good with a saw and know how to fall.
They usually get turned in by somebody who saw something suspicious.
Some forests have done away with firewood cutting. But here, that would be hard on a lot of people. It is the main source of heat for a lot of folks. This isn't a very prosperous area. I don't see any stopping of the program here, and it, along with mushrooms, brush and huckleberries, brings in a lot of money for the treasury.
