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"Paulina Hunter"
Contact Us: For questions, comments or suggestions please
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Free Fire Wood for South Dakota Reservations
Please forward this to
anyone on the rez's in South Dakota that may benefit!
Please do not modify or change
this information, keep in its entirety upon forwarding.
begin**
Hello everyone,
I wanted to get this info out to you all. Winter is
now upon us again, its hard to imagine its here already! We have already gotten
our first light snow fall a couple days ago here in South Dakota. From what I am
hearing we couple be in for a very harsh cold winter here, its definitely over
due.
There are people on the reservations here in South
Dakota that can really benefit from this, so please help spread the word
to tribal members and councils. Forest Service is offering a couple different
programs this year for free fire wood, all you have to do it go pick it up.
There are designated areas within Forest Services lands that have already cut
down trees to use. You must haul the wood yourself, prepare to bring a saw
or chainsaw to cut with. There are two permits available one free and
one paid, which is $20.00. Each permits allows a total of 4 cords of
wood. You can get both permits, which allows each person 8 cords
of wood. To apply for these permits, just go into your local Forest
Service office and ask for the free and charge fire wood permit. You must bring
a form of id with you and the person doing the cutting and hauling needs to be
the one on the permit, you can have more than one person on the permit. Each
permit allows cutting in specific areas, they will provide you with maps for
both areas. For the Black Hills area, the free use map includes a total of 8
areas to choose from, the paid permit has 11 areas to choose from,
which are different areas from the free use locations. These maps will tell you
the exact locations and what kind of wood is available there.
I got both permits yesterday and am planning on
going out scouting today and starting hauling this weekend! Make a fun weekend
out of it.
The Forest Service tried a program last year for
this, there were some challenges, so this year they have started a new pilot
program to work with tribes for this fire wood. A letter must
be written from a representative of the tribal office, the amount of wood
requested needs to be in the letter. I was told that they are already in the
process of working with Alex WhitePlume at Pine Ridge. For this particular
program, there is no wood limit amount. This permit is called
"Administrative Free Use Permit." The letter goes to the Forest
Supervisor, here is the info:
Forest Service
Attn: Craig Bobzien
1019 N 5th Street
Custer, SD 57730
605-673-9200
I will also be getting this info up on my website as
well at
www.NDNnews.com within the next few
days, it will be under the heating assistance programs section along with the
info below.
For those of you that can
not use fire wood and need propane assistance, please contact:
Utility and Heating Assistance Program - Link Center Foundation For the Lakota Sioux Elders, the Disabled or the Sick who Live On the Reservations of South Dakota
I would like to encourage you to help with
your donations. Link Center Foundation is a respected, well known and
PROVEN organization. You entire donation
will go to exactly what it is stated for and nothing else.
When making donations to organizations for
this type of help, it is critical to make sure that your donations are going to
help the people, not going towards admin or salaries, unfortunately, this
happens more often than not!
To help make a donation
towards the propane assistance program:
All applicants screened and documented Payments made directly to utility, propane, wood, or heat equipment companies Donations carefully tracked and accountable
Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. Please consult your tax advisor.
Please mark your check: "Utility and Heating Fund" Otherwise, all donations will be placed in the General Operating Fund which supports all projects of the organization.
Please send donations to: Link Center Foundation P.O. Box 2253 ~ Longmont, CO 80502-2253
I hope this info helps keep your families warm this season! Happy cutting!
In peace & solidarity, Tamra
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