Like many others, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to help the environment, choose sustainable products, and improve our local and global community. In fact, it was out of a desire to find a responsible use for the wood generated by tree trimming and removals that our owner, Amy Heath, started Burn This Firewood! Buying local is one of the easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint, and saving usable materials from landfills is a cornerstone of a sustainable lifestyle. We are glad to be able to offer responsibly-sourced firewood to DFW and make it easier for our community to be a part of a sustainable supply chain.
All of our firewood is sourced from tree service companies throughout the Greater Dallas area, such as our primary partner, Texas Tree Surgeons. After trimming or removing a tree, crews are able to deliver usable wood logs to our firewood yard in Garland, Texas. While most “green” landfills charge up to $200 per visit to dump wood waste, we charge no fees, to help incentivize recycling.
Much of the pre-packaged firewood sold at grocery and convenience stores, and even some of the bulk firewood available during the fall and winter, comes from timber farms. Unlike locally-sourced firewood, wood from industrial timber farms can come from anywhere in the world! Even if the trees are responsibly-grown, the machinery and vehicles involved in the harvest, processing, and transportation of mass-produced firewood create massive amounts of waste. Packaging, too, can cause otherwise responsible firewood to create more pollution than we realize. Every piece of shrinkwrap or plastic netting used to package mass-market firewood bears its own cost, and can only be recycled with effort, if it can be recycled at all.
At Burn This Firewood, all of our wood comes from trees that make up our North Texas urban forest. Even many “local” firewood companies bring wood in from East Texas by truckload to dump in their “wood yards.” These sales lots show none of the signs of a local operation, such as machinery or unsplit logs. At our facility in Garland, you can see the process at all stages as logs are dropped off, cut and split to size, and stacked for seasoning. Processing wood is a messy business, and you should never trust a firewood salesman without sawdust on his clothes!
The transportation of firewood across state and national borders not only increases the cost and carbon footprint of the firewood industry, but is a leading contributor to the spread of invasive pests and diseases that affect trees. Both the oak wilt disease and the emerald ash borer beetle spread through the transportation of firewood, leading to multiple firewood import bans and quarantine zones. Industrial tree farms and firewood distribution is not only not a sustainable practice, but can lead to the dieback of forests across the world. While it seems contradictory, only burning wood from local trees is one of the best things you can do to save our urban forest!
While most of the firewood we sell is simply stacked in a customer’s car or delivered directly to their home, we do put some wood, such as our elephant wood kindling, in burlap packaging. Burlap is made of a natural fiber that is light, strong, and when left untreated (like our burlap) can be used as a great fire starter. Think of those “burn-in-bag logs” but better!
Because our wood is local, it is limited to the species of trees that we have in the North Texas area. While national firewood distributors can import pinon, hickory, and fruit woods, we rarely have those on offer. Still, our oak and pecan are as good for smoking as hickory, and we often have cedar chunks to add fragrance to your fire. After using our locally-sourced firewood for a season, you won’t miss imported wood one bit.
At Burn This Firewood, we are proud to bring our community premium, responsibly-sourced firewood. Whether you are burning wood to keep warm, cooking over an open flame, or just enjoying a cozy bonfire, we’ve got the firewood you need. Because we are local and process our firewood in Garland, Texas, we can accommodate special needs and bulk orders. We partner with local organizations, such as Turn Compost and the Dallas Zoo to save tree waste from landfills, so that there is No Wood Left Behind!