I have heard from a person that I trust a lot that you can burn Utah juniper ( called cedar here locally) green cut! Anybody know this to be true? If that is not true what is the drying time you think would be adequate? Our summer days are near 100 daily and humidity is in the teens!
Anything will burn if the fire is hot enough. However, if you want it to burn better and cleaner and provide better heat, then it needs to dry. I'm just guessing that as a softwood its gonna be 8 -18 months
If you cut/split/stack it now, it should be ready to burn by the fall. Mother nature might argue the point that it'll burn right now. Sure is some gnarly stuff.. Good luck with the splitting. Generally grows along with Pinyon Pine in the Pinyon Juniper scrub lands that dot the intermountain west.. Land managers often want to get rid of it along with the sage brush to restore grasslands for grazing. Adds to the fuel load for wild fires. I think it'll burn fine in your stove, but that's just based on how I've seen it burn after being hit by lightning on a 100 degree day at 4% relative humidity and 40 knot winds. http://cpluhna.nau.edu/Biota/pinyon-juniper.htm
Fresh cut oak will burn too, but it burns a let easier and hotter if you let it dry first. I think one summer out there should be enough to have it pretty well seasoned.
Thanks. The stuff splits green easy and you are on the Money about land managers . We can cut it green as part of a clearing project for wildlife. BLM PJ clearing project!
Glad to hear that you're able to cut it for free. They couldn't hire enough people a while back for the fuels reduction projects that they were doing in the southwest. More people like you would prove beneficial to the project. Got to burn 800 acres of sage and PJ back in the day as part of a prescribed fire.. What a rush to set that on fire!!!!... You're not only getting some BTU's, you're providing a public service in reducing fire danger... Good work!!!
And they complain that wood stoves are killing the earth. That 800 acres burned probably pumped more crap in the air in a few days than a few winters of burning for all woodburners in the state!
Nate, I can't and won't argue with that.. Bottom line is that PJ is going to burn one way or another. Allowing people to c/s/s and run it through the stove means that each cord of wood will put out FAR LESS pollution (by having a hotter fire and more complete burn) than it would in a wildfire. Try getting that message through to a politician!!
Welcome to the forum Shawn. Of course you can burn it now but you'll be a whole lot happier letting it dry for a year. Six months in a pinch. Someone stated you can burn oak freshly cut and that is true. Even cottonwood. I remember one woods we cut for a fellow and we cut only beech and cottonwood. We had a fire going every day to burn the slabs as they were cut. No problem once you got the fire going. However, that was outdoors and not in a stove.
