The poplar your guy may be referring to is tulip poplar aka yellow poplar. Which is decent shoulder season wood. Aspen (around here) is a different tree from this and is different out West. I think Timberdog cleared it up perfectly.
It is very stinky wood when fresh cut. But after splitting and stacking, it does not take long for the smell to go away.
I agree. But we’ve got 100+ year old aspens around here that are twice the diameter of those trees in question, and are still smooth white bark on 90% of the tree. The bottom 2 feet is the only part that starts to alligator. Whatever the trees are in woodwhore’s pics, I’ve never seen in my life. We don’t have them in Colorado. Colorado is known for its aspen trees.
