Crews prepare firewood for giveaway
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State legislators Rep. William Botzow (left) and Sen. Robert Hartwell joined local students and a work crew from the Vermont Department of Corrections in preparing wood for the state’s Wood Warms program in Bennington on Monday. The program supplies wood to Vermonters who need help with heating their homes. Patrick Mcardle / Rutland Herald |
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By PATRICK McARDLE STAFF WRITER - Published: February 2, 2010
BENNINGTON – Dozens of people, including students from the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center, a work crew from the Vermont Department of Corrections and state legislators, gathered at the Vermont Agency of Transportation's Bennington garage on Monday to help prepare cords of wood for distribution through the Wood Warms program.
Jason Gibbs, commissioner of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources' Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, said the Wood Warms program was an initiative created by the administration of Gov. James Douglas to respond to the rising cost of fuel.
In 2009, the state distributed more than 1,400 cords of wood to homes around Vermont, but Gibbs said there was a challenge in Bennington County.
"So much of the public land in the county is federal land so our ability to deliver logs to this landing was really limited by the fact that we don't have a lot of state forest land out here. … What we've had to do is to reach out to a whole host of partners to get the wood so we've been pulling wood off of not only state forests and state park lands, to the degree that we have it available to us out here, but also transportation rights of way, the town of Bennington just brought in a very significant amount of wood off an (Army) Corps of Engineers project," he said.
David Dense, the forestry and heavy equipment instructor at the Career Development Center in Bennington, said he had brought levels of his forestry program classes to the site on Monday to help chop the wood down to cords for burning in people's homes.
But the classes had also been out last week, cutting the raw trees down to manageable pieces.
"This is what these kids trained to do for two years. They learned forest management. They learned all the proper and safe techniques for (using) chainsaws. So when we were asked to come out here and help out, this is what all these kids were trained for. It sort of worked out perfect," Dense said.
According to Dense, Agency of Transportation employees used the excavators on site to spread out the logs so the students could spread out and work safely. Dense said that was an example of the cooperation that made the effort successful.
Career Development Center seniors Sara Andrew of Bennington and Brandon Mattison of Shaftsbury were among the students splitting and sorting wood.
"It's nice doing it knowing it's going to help someone out," Andrew said.
Mattison said the "hands-on" aspect definitely helped students get more out of the lessons learned at the Career Development Center.
State Sen. Robert Hartwell, D-Bennington, joined state Rep. William Botzow, D-Pownal, in stacking wood at the garage on Bowen Road as it was cut into the final pieces of usable size before being given away to Vermonters in need.
Hartwell said he had come out because he believed in the program and the way it helped people who needed assistance with heat, but also employed the management of Vermont's renewable resources.
Gibbs said the overall cost of the Wood Warms program was low because volunteers cut and delivered the wood and because most of the wood was donated by government or private sources.
"It's a very good example of how state government when it is focused and disciplined can do more things with less money," he said.
According to Gibbs, Vermonters can sign up to receive wood by contacting local community activist agencies like BROC – Community Action in Southwestern Vermont or by calling Vermont's 2-1-1 phone line.
patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com
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