AT: Unsustainable Firewood Harvesting

Unsustainable firewood harvesting, while however obscure, is a serious problem in the United State, and most particularly in the Pacific North-West and Australia. As economic societies have developed and companies have emerged which manufacture goods and render services, one such good is firewood. Today firewood is a highly valued commodity when bought at a store due to its convenience and panacetic aspect for those without access to obtain their own wood. Yet, while all this is well and good the fact of the matter that it has reached a point where the environment can no support this. With more and more people “splurging” when they buy their house and opting to get the fireplace, the demand for industrial firewood is greater than ever before and there is no means for replenishment.

Today, logging companies harvest more than they plant and do not always follow the policy of coppicing, or to rotate the areas where they harvest firewood. While governments both in the U.S. and Australia do not condone the negligence shown by the logging companies the agencies that are in charge of regulating them (such as the Forestry service and the Australian equivalent) are too weak to properly enforce such policies. There are no monetary fines for companies that do not follow this policy or even for over harvesting in a particular season and exceeding their maximum tonnage by huge amounts. For this negligence and disobedience of policy and protocol the environment in the U.S. and Australia has had too bear the brunt of it. Agencies concerned with the preservation and furthering of environmental protection in such countries are faced with a terrible problem as the market for industrially produced firewood expands, and in both countries, government contracts thusly further weakening the already dilapidated agencies charged with preventing this. Although perhaps a long-term problem, it may lead to other issues in the near future regarding the strategic forest and lumber supply in both nations.

One proposed solution to the ever-growing problem of unsustainable firewood harvesting lie in the desire to make fireplaces “green”, meaning that they would run on something other than firewood. While firewood is more environmentally friendly than say electricity, it is still causing harm to the environment in other ways. In other respects many are also pointing to the root of the problem itself- the logging companies and their harvesting policies. Many argue that the government should simply step up with regard to enforcing the coppicing policies that are in place and prevent this from becoming a larger problem than it already is. While not the most publicized issue, unsustainable firewood harvesting does indeed pose a great threat to our environment.