I live in one of the great carbon fixing and storage areas of the world, the Pacific Northwest Coastal Temperate Rainforest Biome, which is a wordy way to say conifer trees grow really well here. And we are well outside any urban areas and on the coast, so have no indoor fire restrictions, unlike California, or even Puget Sound. So yes, much firewood is being cut up right now. We have not completely burned the firewood that resulted from storms in December 2007; there is rather a lot of downed wood around this area. Part of the problem is that the commonest tree around homes here is Pinus contorta var. contorta, AKA beach or shore pine. It's a well known thug tree elsewhere in the world, grows fast, starts reproducing when young, has brittle wood, and has a short life. Put a brittle aging pine in a 90 mph wind, and it's going to break apart or pull out of the ground. The 50-80 year old pines are coming down all over, rather like humans. Kathleen