Oregon has been woodcutting country for as long as people have been calling it Oregon. The giant trees which once blanketed much of the land here are prominent on the state seal, and the symbolic Oregon Pioneer standing on top of the state Capitol is holding a logging axe. No wonder, then, that people around here have a special fondness, even more than elsewhere in the U.S., for wood stoves as a source of heat.
That’s a problem, though.
As quaint, charming, and cozy as your little wood stove is, every house in the Willamette Valley with a wood-burning stove is sending volumes of carbon dioxide into the air. If the stove is old, poorly-designed, or badly-maintained, it’s producing great clouds of soot as well. And particles of soot are filling the limited airspace of the Valley, which has the potential for the same atmospheric inversion as Los Angeles, leaving us from time to time falling under a pall which reminds us why Kalapuyas’ neighbors referred to our home grimly as “the Valley of Sickness.”
The State of Oregon urges every homeowner to consult with the Environmental Protection Agency to find the best wood-burner for the home you live in or have planned. The wrong stove can lead to all sorts of bad results, ranging from smoke in your own home making your family sick to contributing to global warming.
Many people are attracted to the idea of installing antique wood-burning stoves or stoves of a “classic” design, not realizing how inefficient and harmful obsolescent stove designs can be.
Having an efficient wood stove that produces more heat for less wood burned and puts out smoke that’s more white than black means more than just saving money and having a more pleasant looking sky over Corvallis: the soot produced by inefficient wood burning is the second-worst driver of global warming after carbon dioxide – and burning wood releases immense amounts of CO2. That’s why replacing old stoves with new ones is so important.
Although Washington and Klamath counties are running programs offering rebates to encourage people to replace aging wood stoves with modern ones, Benton County does not yet have such a program.
By John M. Burt
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