Free firewood at Donkey Sanctuary

The Donkey Sanctuary, Sidmouth has teamed up with local woodland co-operative AxeWoods to offer local people the chance to collect free firewood for a limited period this month.

Recent coppicing operations at one of The Donkey Sanctuary’s farms in Sidmouth have produced a large volume of willow that the charity is offering to local people to collect for firewood on key dates at the end of January.

Events and Wildlife Manager for The Donkey Sanctuary, James Chubb, explains: “After coppicing an area of our willow beds we’ve now got a great stack of wood that we’d like to share and are hopeful that this offer of free fuel will be met with a great deal of enthusiasm locally.

“We’ll be cutting the willow poles to short, manageable lengths, but people will need to do some trimming to fit them neatly into their car boot or trailer. As a charity, we’d very much appreciate a donation, no matter how small, towards the wood, but we are not charging for the material, just inviting people to take what they need.”

AxeWoods member Alan Dyer will be assisting with the wood fuel sessions. “Willow is not renowned for its burning quality however, when properly seasoned it produces a big heat and burns very well. If people have somewhere covered to store this wood for a year, it will provide a very valuable addition to their wood fuel mix next winter.”

People are invited to attend one of the following dates to collect wood – 23 January; 24 January; 30 January; 31 January any time between 10am and 3pm, with the location clearly signed from The Donkey Sanctuary’s main visitor entrance.

For more information, please call the events team on 01395 573156.