BETHEL — Less than a mile down Route 26 from the Bethel Food Pantry, retired Greenwood resident Kevin Dunn has been thinking about his neighbors and friends who are struggling financially.

“The numbers are getting worse,” he said. “People will have to start making difficult decisions. Do I eat less? Do I heat less?”

Once operational, Dunn’s wood bank in Bethel will offer firewood to residents facing fuel insecurity.

“The customers that Dave Bean has down at the food bank are going to be my customers and vice versa,” he said.

Dunn’s fiscal sponsor is the nonprofit Maine Wood Bank Network, whose “wood-bank-in-a-box” framework provides operational and business support — from work procedures and document templates to grant coaching. He pays a maximum of $500 a year to their parent organization.

Maine Wood Bank was created to address the need for firewood in inland communities like Bethel. Most of Maine’s wood banks are along the coast — Dunn’s setup is fifth in the network and the first in Oxford County.

A wood bank is in development in Franklin County.

Dunn noted that grants are scarcer and more competitive this year, with less funding available.

According to the Maine Wood Bank website, Maine is the most forested state in the country, and more than 182,000 Mainers rely on wood as their primary heat source. Additionally, over 146,000 Mainers lived in poverty in 2023.

Volunteers will help with firewood tasks and eventually help with wood delivery. Offering tools or safety gear is another way to contribute, said Dunn, who was grateful when someone recently offered to build his website.

A new legislative resolve directs the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to promote firewood banks by raising awareness, developing informational resources and maintaining a list of active sites. The department will also help support and sustain new banks.

That support can’t come soon enough, as federal funding sources tighten. Dunn said the U.S. Department of Agriculture pulled back on a $10,000 grant once offered to new firewood banks. “That has changed with the new administration,” he said.

When the government reopens, he hopes Bethel’s location — the closest wood bank to the White Mountain National Forest — will help foster collaborations to source timber.

The Chadbourne family of Bethel offered the use of a former wood yard at 343 Walkers Mills Road, and Hancock Lumber delivered the first donation — about 13 cords.

All wood will be tested with moisture meters to ensure quality. Anything above 20% moisture content won’t be distributed. The south-facing yard, open to prevailing winds, is ideal for drying.

“Significant commitments from Mahoosuc Land Trust and Hancock Lumber as well as harvests from Maine State Lands, White Mountain National Forest and other private landowners,” Dunn said, “will provide 100 + cords of firewood to address annual demand for heating seasons to come.”

As a longtime Greenwood weekender, Dunn said he and wife, Pam, are in Greenwood full time now and are eager to deepen local ties. He hopes to build a small staff of about seven people — so far, his wife and neighbor are on board.

He said the first nine to 12 months of any wood bank is about accumulating money, wood and volunteers. Dunn said upcoming goals are to give people an understanding of the wood bank and how it operates. He hopes people will be patient as he develops his communication sites.

In the upcoming months, before winter hits too hard, he’ll host volunteer events to cut, split and stack wood.

He said some of the older local loggers have told him, “I’ll work right through the winter, don’t worry about me.”

Anyone who wants to donate wood or volunteer their time, can reach Kevin Dunn at [email protected] or 207-371-0110.