Conservation Land Bank offers free surplus firewood by lottery

||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS |||

The San Juan County Conservation Land Bank is offering a limited amount of Douglas fir firewood to San Juan County residents. The Land Bank has been working on an eco-cultural restoration project at Mount Grant Preserve on San Juan Island for several years involving selectively thinning the forest, burning slash to produce biochar, and planting culturally important native plants onsite. This project has created a surplus of Douglas fir logs that are easily accessible from the roadway.

Approximately eight half-cords of dead and downed wood are available for general use. The wood will be given away by lottery. Each lottery winner will be allowed one truckload (see sample image below) per household and must be available to pick up the wood on February 8th or 9th.

This wood is intended to be used by San Juan County residents for home heating and not for resale. All logs are cut at about 4’ in length with diameters between 4-10”. The logs were felled and stacked in December 2023. The wood must be retrieved and removed from the site before it can be bucked into smaller pieces. No chain saw work may occur at the site. Users selected to receive this wood will need to load by hand into their truck; wood is given away as is. Vehicles must have four-wheel drive to access the site.

To sign up for the firewood lottery (one entry per household per physical address) please email the following information to tanjaw@sjclandbank.org * beginning Monday, January 20th through Friday, January 31st:

• In the subject line of your email include the words “Mount Grant Firewood Lottery”
• In the body of your email include:
  • Your First and Last Name
  • Physical Address
  • Mailing Address
  • Phone Number
• Wait for the Land Bank to contact you with further instructions.

A random lottery will be conducted on Monday, February 3rd from the email entries received by Friday, January 31st at 4pm. The first eight to ten names (equal to the number of truckloads available) will be drawn randomly and notified by email no later than Tuesday, February 4th that they have been selected. Winners who don’t respond by Friday, February 7th will be removed, and the next user on the list will be notified. Only those participants who are selected will be contacted. Participants who did not win will not be notified. Winners must arrange to collect their wood, on  Saturday, February 8th and Sunday, February 9th. Written authorization along with exact location and directions will be provided to the lottery winners upon selection. *If you do not have email, please call Williamson at (360) 370-7655 by the deadline. 

Note: Readers may find ongoing information about the eco-cultural restoration project by visiting the webpage at https://sjclandbank.org/supporting-local-garry-oak-restoration-efforts/.

About San Juan County’s Land Bank    

San Juan County’s Land Bank, funded by a 1% real estate excise tax paid by purchasers of property at closing, acquires and preserves areas in the county that have environmental, agricultural, aesthetic, cultural, scientific, historic, scenic, or low-intensity recreational value. Their offices are located at 328 Caines Street, Friday Harbor, WA 98250. For more information about San Juan County’s Land Bank, visit www.sjclandbank.org.