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Go to your local forest service or state land management office. Here in Idaho, that's Department of Lands. You will need a permit typically and they can explain rules and such.
Look for dead standing or deadfall, or snapped off 'green' trees that will be dead soon anyway (let this sit til next year when you get it home).
Let's talk saws and felling, I used to work innawoods:
1. BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR DAMN CHAINSAW NIGGER
2. Wear saw chaps, no really, spend the $55 and GET SAW CHAPS DONT be dumb
3. Learn to file that chain, watch some videos.
4. Make test cuts in downed sections to see if you're wasting time on rotted wood. But, some rotted trees will have a good section others have skipped, so don't be hasty.
5. Be CAREFUL about birch or cedar trees if you are even allowed to cut them. These fuckers can be paper-fragile rotten inside and look fine outside. The second you start cutting they can sometimes snap off up top, or come down like Building 7 and bomb your ass. My father in law almost died once like this. Which brings us to the next point...
6. ALWAYS be glancing up while cutting. Never just look down the whole time. You don't want that fucker to pile drive you.
When you have survived this adventure and not been retarded, you will have a few pieces of wood in your pickup. Go home. Split it. Stick it somewhere dry.
Don't do what I did my first couple years at my new house and just stick it under shit Harbor Freight tarps. These will ultimately leak and be a pain in the ass, and then when your 40mph winter arctic blasts rage through in January you will lose three of them down the hillside not to be seen until May. Build a woodshed. Stack it nice.
On stoves:
Rocket stoves will probably be the new gold standard eventually and they really are awesome. I burned one in my house for two years, but for various reasons it just didn't work out, so now I'm back to a catalytic wood stove. These are fine too until rockets are better.
