Inyo National Forest Opens Up Firewood Season

Are you a mountain man with a closet full of flannels, a beard down to your knees, and an axe in the garage that's damn-tired of collecting dust? Do you, well, want to be? For either the true outdoors-person or the prospective one, there's no activity to get that blood rushing quite like heading into the forest and getting yourself some firewood. And folks, it's chopping season.

On May 1st, Inyo National Forest opened up their fuelwood season for 2015. The season's scheduled to run through October 31.

This means prospective choppers can head over to one of four ranger stations -- for specific locations and hours, read this -- buy a permit for $15 per cord of wood (with a two-cord minimum purchase, and a six-cord maximum), obtain the map showing which areas are open to cutting, and have at it.

There are, of course, quite a few rules when it comes to cutting your fuelwood. For instance, you can only collect down or dead wood and you can only cut between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. If you're using a chainsaw (yes, that's allowed), it must be equipped with a spark arrester. Also, if you are a chainsaw-wielder, be prepared to put that away and use your trusty axe on "shut down days," when fire danger is high.

Read this page for the other rules you'll also need to follow.