Letter: Consider your neighbors when you burn wood

I wish my neighbors would burn less wood. I am writing now because, although this is a perennial problem, at least one of my neighbors has been burning a lot of wood this season, and the air around my house is just too often unacceptably polluted — like it was a couple of years ago when wildfires on the Kenai and near McHugh made us all miserable. I want to say to all that I know that burning wood is legal and that people just like to do it. I also believe that if someone has access to cheap wood delivered cheaply to the house, it might be cheaper than clean-burning natural gas. That is why I am not asking anyone to stop burning wood entirely. But please consider your neighbors. Maybe you might burn wood less often. Maybe try to find ways to burn wood with less pollution. Maybe do not burn wood when there is no wind or the air is inverted. Thanks to those who try to minimize their impacts on their neighbors.

— Matt Zukowski, Anchorage

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