Demand For Firewood Surging in Rural Minnesota

AKELEY (AP) - Firewood is in high demand in rural Minnesota, where people who remember last year's long, cold winter are stocking up on anything to keep their homes warm.

Dean and Duane White, loggers who work in the woods north of Akeley, are focusing on supplying individual customers with wood for their home instead of local lumber mills. The brothers say they've been busy trying to fulfill orders, which have doubled this year, before the cold hits.

Duane White says the volatility of propane prices in the past has prodded some users toward firewood. Minnesota residents living in rural parts of the state don't have many options for heating since natural gas isn't available past city limits.

White says he's had to increase the cost of wood by $5 a cord.