NORWICH — Volunteers are needed to help split and stack wood during the annual Norwich Community Firewood Bee from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
For more than 15 years, a group of residents has been taking trees cut down by the town’s Public Works Department and splitting them into cords of firewood for residents of Norwich and surrounding communities. The endeavor was started by former town tree warden Jake Blum and others who “thought it was a shame for trees that were being felled along town roads … to go to waste and that there were people in the community either in Norwich or outside Norwich who could use firewood when they most needed it, which was usually in the middle of winter,” said David Hubbard, who coordinates the event and the distribution of firewood throughout the year. “Much of the wood goes to the same people, whether they’re in town or out of town.”
Last year, 16 to 18 cords were distributed to about a dozen households, Hubbard said. About a quarter of the wood cut on Saturday will be distributed within the next couple of weeks, while the rest will be doled out throughout the rest of the heating season. While some people who receive the wood come to pick it up from woodsheds on Beaver Meadow Road, volunteers — particularly those with large trucks — also are needed throughout the winter to deliver it.
“For most people, it is a supplement to whatever their current supply is when they’ve run out of wood in January or February,” Hubbard said. “If we’re successful, before we get to the end of the winter our sheds are empty.”
People usually get learn of the firewood supply by word of mouth, the town or through nonprofit organizations including the Upper Valley Haven. Those interested in volunteering or who need firewood should reach out to the Norwich town manager’s office to connect with Hubbard.
Not all of the wood distributed is prepared during the bee.
“This year the Upper Valley Land Trust donated a load of logs which was between 7 and 8 cords and they made the arrangement with a local business to come in and cut, split and stack it all,” Hubbard said. “They did this because they had a logging job on a parcel of land that they own in Norwich.”
It is not uncommon for recipients of the firewood to volunteer to help cut and stack it. Some also volunteer because their family members have been assisted by the nonprofit endeavor.
“We could always use another hand,” Hubbard said.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
