FREDONIA — The North Kaibab Ranger District of the Kaibab National Forest will issue free, personal-use fuelwood permits within a designated 175-acre unit along Forest Service Roads 248, 248A and 247 beginning May 2.

Permits will be available at the North Kaibab Ranger Station in Fredonia. A maximum of four cords per household will be available until treatment of the unit is complete. Consequently, permits will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies within the unit last.

The free-use permits are valid through Nov. 30, 2016, and will include a specific designated free-use area. Fuelwood in this designated free-use unit may be collected from the horizontally-stacked piles, but the unit may be subject to temporary closure if active wildfire activity poses a safety hazard within the unit.

“Removing these piles within this designated unit will help improve wildlife habitat and forest health by increasing the presence of forbs, grasses and shrubs in the forest understory, reducing excess fuel loads on the forest floor, and decreasing the risk of excessive tree mortality losses from insects, disease and/or future stand-replacing wildfires,” said North Kaibab District Ranger Randall Walker.

For more information about free-use and paid-personal-use fuelwood permits, please contact the North Kaibab Ranger District office at (928) 643-7395 or visit the Kaibab National Forest fuelwood webpage at www.fs.usda.gov/goto/kaibab/fuelwood.