It is not legal to burn driftwood in our state parks. If it was, trees and other natural resources could be saved while reducing pollution at the same time.

Probably the most popular version of firewood for camping comes in the plastic shrink-wrapped bundles. Where do they come from?

A big smokey truck drives into the hills to cut trees, at day’s end the truck returns to the firewood bundle processing facility where the wood is cut, split and wrapped in plastic by employees that each drove their own vehicle to the factory that morning. The next day a big truck takes the wood bundles to the big grocery store warehouse facility where the bundles are offloaded by forklift. The forklift is powered by highly toxic rechargeable lead/acid batteries. The next day a big truck comes to take the wood bundles to a local grocery store. The bundles are offloaded by forklift. The next day we are on our way to go camping and stop to buy fire wood. We load up the wood in our own vehicle, gas up, and head to the park.

The restriction on burning driftwood may have to do with preserving the natural beauty of the beach. Much of the wood on the beach is not natural, it consists of milled pieces, scraps and logs that may have gotten away from commercial operations. At some point these scraps may even become a nuisance to boaters, etc.

Driftwood is a renewable resource.