Firewood in Golden Valley, NV

Golden Valley is one of the smallest places on our list, about 1,100 residents on the high ground of the North Valleys at roughly 5,100 feet. Its heating numbers read differently from its neighbor Lemmon Valley's: more bottled gas, a little less wood, and almost every home owner-occupied.

At a glance

• About 7.6% of households heat mainly with wood
• About 34.8% use bottled gas as their main fuel
• At about 5,097 feet, higher than most of the North Valleys
• About 47 minutes from our Carson City yard without traffic

Two fuels share the job

In the Census count for Golden Valley, about 7.6% of households heat mainly with wood and about 34.8% with bottled gas, which puts the two fuels together at about 42% of the community (ACS 2020-2024, table B25040). The American Community Survey asks about main heating fuel only. It does not count the wood stove a bottled-gas household keeps for a cold snap or a power outage, so firewood demand here is probably wider than 7.6% suggests.

With only 419 households, the margin on these figures is large. Treat them as a sketch, not an inventory.

Almost everyone owns

About 98.1% of Golden Valley homes are owner-occupied, with a median build year of 1980 and about half built before that. The questions in the next section are the ones to bring when you call.

What to ask the office

• What firewood is available this week?
• How is it sold, and in what amounts?
• Is it ready to burn or does it need drying time?
• Can it be moved to my address, and on what terms?
• What does it cost for the amount I want?

The office at 775.232.8243 answers each one. Prices, species and delivery terms are not published online.

Elevation and the first cold nights

Golden Valley sits at about 5,097 feet. The Stead station, 3.1 miles away at 5,101 feet, records a 1991-2020 mean temperature of 51.0 F and about 10.1 inches of precipitation a year at the Reno 5.3 N gauge (NOAA). Because the elevations match almost exactly, those readings are a fair guide to what a Golden Valley woodpile sees through the season. Wood bought in September has months to dry in a dry-climate stack; wood bought after the first hard freeze does not.

Burn code and woodpile placement

Golden Valley is in Washoe County, so the Northern Nevada Public Health burn code applies from November 1 to the end of February. About 65% of the buildings in Golden Valley sit directly exposed to burnable vegetation in the Forest Service's mapping, one of the higher shares on our list, so where you stack matters. University of Nevada, Reno Extension asks that Zone 0, the first 5 feet around a building, be free of woodpiles.