Firewood

With winter rapidly approaching, and home heating oil prices fluctuating more than usual because of the Middle East crisis, many Bucks County residents are turning to a reliable old friend for warmth: firewood. Nothing could be cozier than gathering around the fireplace when temperatures dip - assuming, of course, that there is a supply of wood to burn. But while the demand for firewood has increased with the surge in new- home construction in recent years, the woodlands that supply the wood are being swept aside to make room for development.

Murray used to leave small bundles of firewood in my yard. They were made up of fallen tree branches or old wood scraps he had gathered from his garage or attic. The bundles were always neatly tied with twine and cut to a perfect size for my fireplace. His timing was uncanny; every time I ran out of firewood, a bundle would be waiting for me in the yard. Murray DiGioia was in his mid-eighties when I moved next door to him in Lafayette Hill, but he seemed 20 years younger. I told him about my passion for American history, and he fascinated me with his vivid memories of the Doughboys who returned from World War I and paraded up Broad Street.

SITTING IN HIS TRUCK, Charles Patton surveys the scene at the Northeast Recycling Center, where he supervises the distribution of free firewood. Firewood will be available from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday through January at the center, at Krewstown Road and Pennypack Creek. Some of the wood is already cut, but residents can bring their own saws.

"Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough! In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now. " - George Pope Morris Morris, who penned those words in 1830, would get little sympathy from William Colville, Steve Domsky or Lawrence Homan. They sell firewood. To sell firewood, they must chop down trees. According to all three, business is booming these days. "If I had more wood, I would have been able to sell it, no problem," said Colville, a Warminster resident who works for the Asplundh Tree Expert Co. and sells firewood on his own. "The demand has been there all along.

An incurable disease found in a black walnut tree in Plumstead Township, Bucks County, has prompted measures to safeguard Pennsylvania's $25 billion hardwoods industry. Thousand cankers disease, the result of tunneling by fungus-carrying walnut twig beetles, causes trees to slowly starve to death. Since the beetles are the size of a poppy seed, they are tough to detect. Under a quarantine declared Friday by the state, no hardwood firewood or walnut materials, living or dead, can leave the county, except for nuts, processed lumber and finished wood products without bark.

Beverly City Council is expected to take steps toward improving the city's appearance on April 22 when it holds a public hearing and brings up for a second and final reading three ordinances that proponents intend to improve the maintenance of private homes. The first ordinance would forbid the parking of automobiles in front yards or in areas abutting a public street unless the vehicles are parked upon driveways that are either paved or laid with stone. The ordinance would impose a $1,000 fine for violations.

A GRAND TREE TOPPLED, workers hasten to clear the trunk, limbs and branches from the 6900 block of North Broad Street in the Oak Lane section. With an eye toward recycling, the diseased London plane, 70 to 80 years old, was cut down yesterday by Family Tree, a firm under contract with the Fairmount Park Commission. Much of it will become firewood, available to the public free at the recycling center at Ford Road and Chamounix Drive.

To Paul Harnish, his mountains of firewood are like mounds of money. To Vernon Horn, who owns the land where the acres of wooden Alps sit, they represent a modest monthly rental income. To Bucks County residents, the 30-foot pyramids, in a row just off Route 611, south of Doylestown Borough, are a landmark. But to Doylestown Township officials, the huge woodpiles violate a land development plan. They would like to see the wood go up in smoke. Harnish, a retired high school science teacher, co-owns what is believed to be the biggest woodpile in the Philadelphia area.

"Gather ye firewood while ye may, old Time is still a-flying. " - with apologies to poet Robert Herrick. Paul Harnish knows something about old Time (and Old Man Winter), and he knows a lot about gathering firewood. The Bucks County man has one of the biggest woodpiles in the Philadelphia area. About 2,000 cords of split hardwood are piled in 20-foot-high pyramids at his Route 611 lot, just south of Doylestown Borough. Harnish, with dozens of smaller sellers in the region, has spent his summer stacking wood, readying his business for the time when fireplace owners smell that first tinge of autumn in the air and come looking to buy seasoned firewood.

The image is crystal clear: White snow wafts down outside a frosty window while inside a warm, crackling fire scented with seasoned oak gently warms a dimly lighted room. But the image can shatter quickly, unless the woodpile is stacked high. If it is not, it could be too late. Firewood dealers in the Northeast and surrounding areas said the amount of wood available was dwindling. The firewood business is waning, with fewer companies willing to sell wood, they said. Dealers said the business was not an easy one to be in. "Cutting wood is hard work," said Steve Domsky of Ridgewood Tree Co. in Huntingdon Valley.

An incurable disease found in a black walnut tree in Plumstead Township, Bucks County, has prompted measures to safeguard the state's $25 billion hardwoods industry. Thousand-cankers disease, the result of tunneling by fungus-carrying walnut twig beetles, causes trees to slowly starve. Since the beetles are the size of a poppy seed, they are tough to detect. Under a quarantine declared Friday by the state, no hardwood firewood, or walnut materials, living or dead, can leave the county except for nuts, processed lumber, and finished wood products without bark.

Murray used to leave small bundles of firewood in my yard. They were made up of fallen tree branches or old wood scraps he had gathered from his garage or attic. The bundles were always neatly tied with twine and cut to a perfect size for my fireplace. His timing was uncanny; every time I ran out of firewood, a bundle would be waiting for me in the yard. Murray DiGioia was in his mid-eighties when I moved next door to him in Lafayette Hill, but he seemed 20 years younger. I told him about my passion for American history, and he fascinated me with his vivid memories of the Doughboys who returned from World War I and paraded up Broad Street.

Shoppers (and opening-day gawkers) who headed to the new Whole Foods mega-market off Germantown Pike in Plymouth Meeting last week found themselves confronted by competing realities before they even got in the door. To one side were winter-beaters - firewood of every description. You had your composite Enviro-Logs and Java-Logs, and your stacks of "basic firewood" (which comes straight from the tree), but also, for the more elegantly inclined, neatly split birch. There were jugs of Orchard Valley cider in an icy trough.

Blend soft elements with soothing ones and create the perfect setting for a cozy interlude. A modern update to the rocking chair takes form in the Monte Luca Glider ($895) and ottoman ($385). Available at Gene's, 122 E. Lancaster Ave. in Wayne, and www.shopgenes.com . Missoni's bright Fernando throws ($265 each) and cushions ($100 each) refresh the classic winter plaid. Available at Kellijane, 1721 Spruce St., 215-790-0233. Tummy ache? Drafty rooms? Cuddle up with this luxe hot-water bottle by Armand Diradourian ($150)

Lucy Zahnle received the best Mother's Day present of all yesterday. Her 11-year-old son, Wolf, made it back from a weekend camping trip. "It was the only thing I wanted," Lucy said. "It could have been a lot worse; they could have found him dead or injured. " Dozens of police, volunteers and rescue teams fanned out across the Wharton State Forest on Saturday night after Wolf Zahnle, of Mount Holly, got lost in the woods while searching for firewood during a Boy Scout camping trip.

A stockpile of firewood from trees cut by township crews once sat in a garage at Haverford's public-works yard. Residents were invited to take freely from the mound of oak and maple logs, but few did. Among those few were three Haverford commissioners and the head of the township Republican Party, who received wood delivered to their homes by township employees, according to three sources who have worked for the township. The practice apparently stopped in late 1994, when township police - and, later, Delaware County detectives - began investigating allegations that township materials and crews were being used to perform private contracting work.

An immense tree that rises about four stories high stands in the backyard next door to my house. The trunk is easily 2 feet in diameter, and a fair number of the tree's limbs stretch across my yard and somewhat beyond. It's the kind of tree Tarzan might swing about in while playing tag with Jane and Cheetah. It's home to a family of squirrels and, lately, a woodpecker, with visits now and then by a few ornery crows (or perhaps ravens; my ornithological knowledge is a little shaky.

All along Logavina Street makeshift aluminum stoves are devouring people's lives. Desa Stanic is burning her summer sandals, the slipcover of an armchair, the outgrown clothing and schoolbooks of her teenage children. Sead Vranic is burning a beloved cherry tree from his garden - and resisting his son's pleas to tear up the parquet floors of the family's imposing Austro-Hungarian mansion. Zijo and Jela Dzino are among the few still burning firewood. Their son Nermin, a Bosnian soldier, carried it home from the front lines.