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Every three years the MPCA, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and US Forest Service conduct a survey on the use of wood in Minnesota homes for heating as well as recreational backyard fires. The results of the most recent survey are available on the MPCA’s wood smoke webpage. The MPCA uses this survey to report air emissions from residential wood combustion to the National Emissions Inventory, which in turn is used to inform air quality policies and decision-making.
We estimate that residential wood burning accounted for 51 percent of Minnesota’s direct fine particle (PM
2.5) pollution. While releases from many other air pollution sources are going down, the survey shows us that:
Since 2003, residential wood burning appears to be increasing.
Roughly 1,170,000 households, about 53 percent of all Minnesota households, burned wood during the survey year of May 2020 to April 2021. This is a 7 percent increase over the 2018 survey.
Statewide, the greatest volume of wood burned was for heating, but burning for pleasure was the most common reason a household burned wood.
The survey was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Minnesota’s Emergency Stay-at-Home order was in effect during the survey period. Results may reflect unique differences compared to other surveys, especially responses about outdoor recreational equipment and burning for pleasure.
The survey report also includes the results of the residential firepit study conducted by the US Forest Service Fire Lab in Missoula, Montana. Fine particle emissions from low-smoke firepits were measured. Study results indicate that low-smoke firepits may result in lower fine particle emissions than simple firepits, but more testing is needed to confirm results.
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