About Us

The U.S. Forest Service, an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, manages the public lands of forests and grasslands in the U.S., in total 193 million acres of land. They are the agency responsible for overseeing the $8 million in federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law money for the firewood bank program. The $8 million is for a 5-year program and the Alliance for Green Heat was selected to administer and distribute grant funds.

Burn Wise promotes the importance of burning the right wood, the right way, in the right appliance. They have developed extensive resources for consumers which can be found here, new educational videos here and tips for building a firewood shed here.  They support this program and will collaborate with the USDA and AGH to make the Firewood Bank Program a success.

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CSIA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education, training, and certification of chimney and venting industry-related professionals. Additionally, we strive to advance public awareness about the dangers of chimney fires and other problems related to the maintenance and performance of chimney and venting systems through consumer education. See here for extensive homeowner resources.

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Wood for Life works to connect biomass from forest restoration treatments with Tribal communities in need of fuelwood for heating, cooking, and traditional uses. Working with the Forest Service, Tribal governments and communities, and nonprofits like Ancestral Lands conservation corps, we conduct restoration treatments and work with Tribal partners who process the wood and provide it to elders and other community members.

The National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition (NEUAC) is a broad-based non-profit coalition of diverse member organizations and individuals dedicated to heightening awareness of the energy needs of low-income energy consumers, fostering public-private partnerships and engaging in other activities to help address these needs.

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Dr. Clarisse Hart is the director of outreach and education at Harvard Forest, a research and education hub for ecology and conservation. In 2016, she launched a project to study firewood banks and their support of fuel-poor households in the U.S., and produced a map of wood banks in the U.S. Her research has been a valuable resource for the implementation of this program, and part of a network of wood bank leaders and ensure equitable and effective distribution of the grants.

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Sean Mahoney is the Director of Wood Utilization for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and has a Masters in Forestry from Yale University. He also heads up the Massachusetts Community Wood Bank Program that enables rural communities to recycle surplus trees into firewood to address energy insecurity. 13,000 rural households in Massachusetts experience energy insecurity. Communities with abundant roadside hazard trees and working woodlands have the potential to meet this critical public health need with firewood produced by local organizations.

Dr. Jessica Leahy is a Professor of Human Dimensions to Natural Resources at the University of Maine. Her research specializations include the social relations to forests, forestry, and other natural resource management topics. Along with Sabrina Vivian, in 2015 she wrote a guide to starting and running a wood bank, with information and lessons from existing wood banks. She also received a grant from the US Forest Service for $62,000 to host a national wood bank virtual summit and create a yearlong educational webinar series for wood banks around the country that provides expert information about wood banks, from managing forests for firewood goals, to firewood processing, to the management of wood bank volunteers, to wood burning safety and woodstove considerations. 

Dr. Richard (Rick) Harper is an Extension Associate Professor of Urban & Community Forestry at the University of Massachusetts.  He co-authored the 2016 article Food, Medicine, or Heat? How Firewood Banks Leverage Local Natural Resources to Support Fuel-Poor Households. He is helping facilitate the creation of a peer network of wood bank leaders to advise and inform the implementation of this firewood bank grant program.

Harry has been the host of a series of seven National Firewood Workshops that offered a networking and education forum for the split firewood industry for business owners and managers, equipment vendors and industry supporters. The workshops were funded by the US Forest Service and were the foundation for many startups in the split firewood industry. 

Leigh Greenwood is the Forest Health Program Director for the North America Region of The Nature Conservancy. She has worked on the issue of firewood as a major pathway for the transport of forest pests and pathogens for over ten years, including her management of the Don’t Move Firewood partnership and outreach campaign. Leigh will be bringing her expertise on firewood transport rules, regulations, and best practices to the firewood bank grant program to aid participants in providing firewood safely from the forest pest perspective.