Aspen is kind of a junk tree here where I live. Last summer I cut one down that was in the way of working and bucked it and split it. I am currently loving it for its ease of starting a fire every day when I just need some heat in the morning. Lights up with just the household waste cardboard to start it.
I like it a lot myself. Great shoulder season wood that dries fast and burns hot like pine, but without the sappy mess to deal with. I’ll take more aspen if the opportunity comes up again.
It dries quickly, and doesn't coal up really. I like it for shoulder season wood and for burning coals from hardwoods down.
Heck yeah! I burn a crap ton of Aspen. What I like most, is that it cleans the glass on my stove better than Windex. It burns extremely clean.
I think "aspen" out there is what we call poplar. I was super confused when I first joined here, I guess there are 2 different kind of Aspens.
Im also from Wyoming and haven't heard Poplar as a name for Aspen. I just call it Aspen here but I think it's basically Poplar.
There's several aspens/ poplars in north America . All are the same genus. Cottonwood is also in the same genus: Populus.
I've burned bigtooth aspen. ( also called large tooth/ bigtooth poplar, poplar or popple) I even let it sit for two years thinking it wasn't seasoned yet. I wasn't impressed, and I burn a lot of white pine. There's a few different kind of poplars growing around here. One grows along highways asa pioneer species and doesn't get very tall and another has brown bark and gets quite tall and big. Quite similar to what they call cottonwood in Washington state - just the flowers aren't quite as big. I can identify big tooth aspen by the uniqueness of the bark, the other poplars, not so much. I cut one down one year thinking it was dead, but it had just been 100% defoliated by a caterpillar (no tents). OOps. At the time I was spending weekends cutting dead standing red oak trying to have enough firewood to keep three stoves going and well, "Have a hammer everything looks like a nail" mode.
I don't know if what I was burning was Aspen, but I love Poplar. I have used it to get a hot fire going on days when nothing seemed to want to take off. I would gladly take more if it became available.
I've burned popple off and on for years. It does dry fast and burns fast but doesn't coal like most wood. It is okay but not something I'd ever go look for when needing firewood.
On the east coast and midwest Aspen is something slightly different. (I think Big Tooth aspen?) In the Rockies and southwest it’s Quaking Aspen people refer to when they say “aspen”. Quaking Aspen Big tooth aspen (or white poplar) Another reference 9 Differences between the two
I gather what we call the white bark Quaking Aspen in the Rockies is less common out east they've call it what I grew up with being named Poplar trees, like the ones in neighborhoods and parks - I'm from NoCo and don't know WY that well except for SE where I am.
I cut it if I am clearing a fence line or something. I had a fair amount a few years ago and it got used mainly for the fire pit. My good friend calls it gopher wood. Put some on and gopher more.
