i) Is your firewood someone’s home? by Maria Taylor

Whether it’s from your block or a wood merchant, the removal of old standing dead and downed trees for firewood, or just cleaning up the block, destroys wildlife habitat. Dead standing timber is habitat for nesting birds, while logs on the ground provide homes for other wildlife such as echidnas, which may keep your ant populations in check.
Commercial firewood is often sourced from areas of diminishing habitat in western NSW, as the preference for aged box hardwood as firewood continues, despite the availability of alternatives such as pine.
Unfortunately, many slow-combustion stove retailers still say the standard burning timber recommended is box and ironbark species, so wood merchants have been importing 35,000–40,000 tonnes of firewood annually from the box and ironbark woodlands of central-western NSW for areas such as Canberra — much of it the habitat of the vulnerable Superb Parrot.