I cherry picked the dump this week for Aspen and Ash. A few random pieces of Lodgepole and Elm. I always hear about how low the btu is on Aspen but I think the charts are wrong. If you dry green Aspen split and stacked, I've found it to weigh similar to a Maple or Lodgepole. I'll go back for more this weekend and hit the bigger logs.
Yup. Good wood. Maybe a bit more ash. That’s all there was to burn where I grew up in the prairies. Needs two summers to dry
Ash has been hard to come by. I take every bit I can including the crotches and just cut it if I have to.
I cut on what I think may have been Aspen, many years ago… had a very distinctive smell. Just like paper Birch & tulip Poplar (I know lots don’t believe it’s an actual Poplar, I say tomato/ tomahto), if seasoned properly, dry wood burns fine. CSS and after the appropriate time, burn with good results.
I have grown to like Poplar for ease of lighting. If there’s a few coals I can toss in a piece of Poplar with oak or hickory and it will fire things up in no time. If it’s got a few strings hanging off I can light those and it will start burning. I have way more Poplar available than Red Maple. Up with Poplar! I need to start giving away bags of Poplar with my loads of firewood sold because newb burners struggle with getting oak lit.
We have Quaking Aspens here. They aren't worth the fuel. 16" round will weigh about 3lbs when dry, if you can get it to dry instead of rot. They are a constant pain it seems, falling across my trails and offering me no real firewood. This is of course my wood snob opinion, being blessed with lots of better species to go after.
I burn plenty of both quaking and bigtooth aspen. I won’t go out of my way to seek it out but if its convenient I’ll take it in modest amounts. I wouldn’t want several cords on hand taking up real estate though. It does dry extremely fast and burns hot, and can be used to burn down a deep hardwood coal bed.
It’s not whether you “believe” a Tulip tree is a poplar or not. It’s actually a member of the magnolia family. I’ll agree with you Eric that ultimately for firewood purposes it doesn’t make much difference. But from a plant healthcare/arborist point of view there is a world of difference. Either are actually decent shoulder season firewood. Well they would be if winter was actually winter. I heated my house on the equivalent of poplar for all but one week this season. It’s been my experience that most poplar, including cottonwood, is a close equivalent to a soft maple like a silver or boxelder for firewood.
From my experience here in Wyoming, the Aspen is heavy when wet but much more dense than your Pennsylvania poplar and denser than Cottonwood. Next year, I'll have to do a density comparison between Aspen, Lodgepole, Ash, and Cottonwood. I think the key is finding it green and drying it. Any dead stuff I've found is already punky and starting to rot.
I see quaking aspen sit on the side of the road until it rots. Nobody wants it around here. If it were oak it would gone in no time. The wood I brought up to the house is a mix of oak, hickory and cherry I cut 5 years ago. I’ve noticed if there aren’t a lot of coals it can be difficult to get a good hot fire going quickly. I like loading a few pieces of tulip poplar in the front of the stove to catch and oak and hickory in the back. Best of both worlds.
Heck yeah, bro. I burn a ton of Aspen. It’s super easy to find here in Colorado. But it’s also dam good firewood. Burns very clean and HOT. It’s not my first choice for an overnight burn, but it keeps the glass clean on my stove and keeps the house nice and toasty. I probably have 8 cord of Aspen split and stacked. I’m actually burning an Aspen and Ponderosa Pine mix as we speak. I take all I can get.
Agree. I have burnt dead quaking aspen out west and find it OK and easy to split. My limited experience with big tooth aspen in PA is it an SOB to split, but does dry quick and burns just as quick.
Maybe there's a difference with aspen that grows at altitude and aspen that grows at sea level. I don't think much of the big tooth aspen that grows here. I'd rather burn pine.
There is absolutely a difference in trees that have grown at higher altitudes than trees that may have had it easier at lower elevations. A shorter harder growing season is going to produce rings that are closer together which will produce a more dense wood. Different regional variations in the same species are quite common and one of the reasons you see so much variation in experience from one hoarder to the next on here.
I'm not sure if aspen and poplar are the same thing, but as others mentioned above, if cut green, split at least once, and left to dry, it burns great. Not the best for overnight but much better than popular opinion would have one believe. I've also said previously that there must be a difference in density in the colder/shorter grow season environments. Another thing I found with poplar is that it gives up the goods really easy, so raging the stove will just blow all that heat up the stack.
