Outdoor wood boilers burning trash wood, trash and construction debris are already serious environmental problem here in Maine. Some towns are trying to ban them and state DEP is wrestling with it - wrestling because their charter is to help businesses, eg sell more boilers.

Maine's large forest areas are already spoken for. Woods get chipped for pulp and electricity. They have been heavily cut. Smaller private landholdings provide a substantial amount of firewood; whether or not that gets reported or estimated I don't know. There are certainly not large amounts of woods waiting to become firewood.

One of the things about heating with wood not mentioned is zoning. I've got my 1500 sq ft solar home but really only heat about half of it to maybe 60 during cold dark stretches of weather. I'm cutting that down this winter to just the living room and kitchen - about 500 square feet - and I'll be beefing up the insulation between that area and the rest of the home and adding external shutters.

Even though I only have two acres, my wood pile is growing for now because I have to fell trees that shadow my garden. That's not going to be true long term.

cfm in Gray, ME