BDN quotes Kanoti in article on wet weather affecting firewood supply
Keith Kanoti, forest manager for the University of Maine School of Forest Resources, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for the article, “Wet weather dampens this season’s firewood supply.” For firewood, wetness presents a problem from the start, according to the article. In addition to waterlogging the stock once it is stacked, rain compromises the logging conditions themselves, the article states. Saturated soils are extra vulnerable to rutting, whereby heavy logging equipment cuts deep grooves in the forest floor that change the hydrology, physiology and productivity of the site, according to Kanoti. “Soil loses strength when wet,” Kanoti said. “We generally try to harvest timber when it’s frozen or soils are dry.” Kanoti added there always is variability in the weather from one year to another, but he also has taken stock of the wet conditions. “Certainly that would affect people’s ability to get in the woods and harvest timber,” he said. “When it’s wet, you do a lot of damage, and we don’t want to do that.”