Buncombe County Prevents Fire, Promotes Safety, and Warms Homes

Jazz Maltz stands with cut logs ready for processing

The Full Circle Forestry Collective (FCFC), formerly known as Barnardsville Firewood Alliance, was formed in 2025 as a mutual aid model start-up that offers firewood to rural Buncombe County communities in North Carolina. Hurricane Helene, brought severe flash flooding and tornadoes to southern Appalachian communities in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee in late September 2024, and exposed how quickly natural disasters fracture our energy and electric infrastructure. The critical need for community-led services for food, shelter, and energy assistance, and the call to action post-flood, was heard loudly. 

Water levels rose over 10 ft. and streams and rivers were completely rerouted through developed areas and wooded ground. Full-size trees and dead and down logs were transported miles downstream and accumulated along the riverbank in quantities still noticeable today, over one year later. What exactly to do with the wood fell on locals with a vision for the resource. With electricity jeopardized in multiple locations impacted by the storm, access to heat was also compromised. 

Firewood banks formed in response to the amount of wood available and the increase in the number of people without heat. FCFC was made possible by Jazz Maltz, firewood bank founder, a parcel of land in Barnardsville donated for use, and equipment donations ranging from a small storage shed to a hydraulic firewood splitter. It didn’t take much to have everything needed to supply a small town with the heating fuel they desperately needed. 

The town has a listserv with over 400 members, reaching the majority of its community. This is how FCFC announces its wood availability once it is split and seasoned to a moisture level of under 20%. Most of the wood washed up from the storm was dry when it came down in the flood, shortening the time required for seasoning. The lot they currently use is small and located on the banks of the same river that caused so much damage in Barnardsville; however, its location is central to town at a three-way junction, which showcases the firewood resource and captures the community support demonstrated by the people of Western North Carolina. They used 2024-2025 Alliance for Green Heat funding to buy a metal carport, used to store and protect split firewood from the elements. They offer mostly red oak and poplar wood, with Red Oak serving as their firewood bank’s mascot, and occasionally offer unusable milled lumber from a local sawmill. 

Milled boards for future wood shed projects or heating fuel.

FCFC received their latest award from the Alliance for Green Heat’s Firewood Bank Assistance Program after a partnership with the North Carolina Arboretum was formed, located within the Bent Creek Experimental Forest and managed by the USDA Forest Service. They would like to strengthen this relationship with federal land managers and serve as a main firewood supplier for multiple sister firewood banks that serve surrounding towns near Buncombe County. Although the forest is a great resource, it’s located about 40 miles away from their firewood lot. Transportation of logs can be a major logistical challenge, so networking with nearby firewood banks to share the cost can help keep the wood affordable and accessible. 

FCFC operations are achieved by  a handful of local volunteers, and many community members come out to help process wood on weekend processing days scheduled as needed throughout the year. 

Their core leadership crew of volunteers, Jazz, Woad, and Paul, helped plan and deliver a community safety fair to the town of Barnardsville in early February. As the second participating community to utilize AGH’s FEMA sponsored program they partnered with Barnardsville Fire Department and Barnardsville Area Resiliency Network (BARN) to offer wood stove safety tools at no cost to the community. 

Held in conjunction with a monthly free breakfast with the Fire Chief, community aid providers and educators from the county and town came out to talk with the community about woodstove safety and community resilience. Buncombe County Air Quality Department, Southern Blue Ridge Prescribed Burn Association,FCFC, Mountain Valley’s Resource Conservation and Development Council, and North Carolina Energy Savers Network also attended the safety and education fair. All but 12 metal ash buckets, chimney sweeps, stove thermometers, and combination smoke alarms were distributed to residents of Buncombe County who heat with wood. 

We look forward to watching the firewood bank network of North Carolina grow. The influx of hazardous fuels post-flood has federal and state land managers eager to create solutions for the wood that can otherwise create fire risk. Thank you, Full Circle Forestry Collective, for the extra work engaging your community of firewood users. The Alliance for Green Heat is sure to come back!