Montana church’s wood bank ministry warms rural, low-income households

Every Saturday between October and April, volunteer sawyers from the wood bank ministry at St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church in Eureka, Montana, cut, split, stack and distribute firewood for low-income households throughout the Tobacco Valley region. Photo: St. Michael & All Angels Wood Bank Ministry/Facebook

[Episcopal News Service] In rural Eureka, a small town nine miles south of the U.S.-Canada border in northwest Montana’s Tobacco Valley region, St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church’s wood bank ministry helps keep families warm every winter.

“In the very beginning, we didn’t know what was ahead at all. …St. Michael is a tiny church,” the Rev. Pattiann Bennett, the church’s retired rector who still leads the wood bank ministry, told Episcopal News Service. “But as it unfolded, community involvement has grown all these years, and some of the original volunteers still show up every Saturday.”

The seasonal wood bank at St. Michael, a designated Jubilee Ministry of The Episcopal Church, formally launched in 2011. Bennett said she was inspired to start the ministry at St. Michael after learning about Beaverhead Community Wood Bank, Inc., a former ministry of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Dillon that’s now an independent nonprofit, at the Diocese of Montana’s diocesan convention in 2010. 

Every Saturday between October and April, volunteer sawyers spend three hours at a cattle ranch a few miles south of Eureka cutting, splitting and stacking firewood for low-income households communitywide. They begin distributing the wood in November after Bennett advertises availability in the local newspaper and on Facebook.

On average, volunteers process 250 pickup truckloads of wood annually, all purchased from a nearby logging company. They’ve so far this season processed 150 loads, which includes using best practices to ensure the wood is properly seasoned – dried out – for burning. Last winter, the ministry donated firewood to more than 80 families, about three truckloads of wood per household. The ministry tries to reserve some logs for the following year in case of a shortage.

St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church in Eureka, Montana, formally launched its seasonal wood bank ministry in 2011. On average, volunteers process 250 pickup truckloads of wood annually between October and April. Photo: St. Michael & All Angels Wood Bank Ministry/Facebook

Bennett said most people who’ve received firewood from St. Michael use it as a secondary heating source. Even though most households in the continental United States are heated by electricity or natural gas, about 1.9% nationwide use wood as a primary heating source; that percentage is much higher in rural and Indigenous communities – about 22% and 30%, respectively.

“Being in a rural area, having this kind of resource readily available is great once winter arrives. Most of our roads that are out in the forested areas are not plowed, so it’s not easy to get wood once winter shows up,” Pat Flanary, a former U.S. Forestry Service employee who’s been a wood bank ministry volunteer for 12 years, told ENS. “The wood bank helps people who can’t afford the right vehicle to go out and get wood on their own.”

St. Michael is one of three Episcopal-affiliated members of the Alliance for Green Heat, a nonprofit that promotes renewable heating through wood and pellet heating systems. The Beaverhead Community Wood Bank and the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Bat Cave, North Carolina, are also members. As of 2024, at least 153 known firewood banks exist in the United States, though the number could be higher, according to the Alliance for Green Heat.

Last year, St. Michael received $35,000 in grants to buy 10 truckloads of logs, a wood splitter, safety gear and other equipment. Local nonprofits, churches, individuals and other partners also donate money and equipment to the wood bank every year.

Bennett and Flanary both said they’ve been trying to encourage young adults to volunteer at the wood bank to help sustain the ministry, because most regular volunteers now are septuagenarians. Bennett used some grant money last year to hire two young sawyers for the season.

Flanary said, “We have the interest, but it’s hard to get younger people to commit sometimes because many of them have busy or inconsistent schedules.”

People from the Eureka area will periodically volunteer when able. A few weeks ago, a couple of dozen people showed up to serve, half of whom are regular volunteers. For the regular and casual volunteers, Bennett said, the wood bank is “a good place for people to come and be healed for a few hours and be safe and happy, joyful – working out physically.” Most important, she said, they’re assisting their community in an unconventional yet necessary way.

“The wood bank ministry is an inclusive, tangible way to serve our neighbors. It’s good stewardship in a way that is catering to our geography,” Bennett said. “This ministry gives everyone involved great happiness.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.