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Firewood banks offer hope

Bennet Goldstein Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk
Jan 20, 2026
Jan 20, 2026

1 of 4

Denny Blodgett, founder of a firewood-bank project through Interfaith Caregivers of Burnett County in Wisconsin, poses Oct. 3, 2025, in Danbury, Wis.

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch

The Interfaith Caregivers firewood bank in Danbury, Wis., is one of about 250 banks across the country.

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch

The Interfaith Caregivers firewood bank, seen Oct. 3, 2025, in Danbury, Wis., assists about 125 families a year with home heating.

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch

Denny Blodgett, founder of Interfaith Caregivers’ Heat-a-Home project, surveys Oct. 3, 2025, a firewood bank he helps run in Danbury, Wis.

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch

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Bennet Goldstein Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk

DANBURY, Wis. – When Denny Blodgett learned his northwest-Wisconsin county intended to burn wood harvested during a road-widening project near his home, he thought it would be unthinkable for that fuel to go to waste. He offered some of the harvested wood to an elderly man from his church, he said. Word soon spread around his community of Danbury that he had firewood to give.

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Bennet Goldstein is with Wisconsin Watch. This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.