Hey guys, One of the guys I work with has a 'lawnscaping' business on the side, and said one of his customers had some trees down and asked if I'd be interested in looking at them to cut up and he'd deliver the wood to my place. Well, went with him and the ones that are down have been there quite a while and don't look like they are worth keeping. But some of the others may be coming down also, and I think they may be sickly white birch trees. There's 3 trees in total, but I'm not sure what they are for certain. Here's pics. A pic of the "flowers" from last year.. And one that has fallen over, but may not be possible to get without some good equipment as it lays across a small creek that he says never dries up. So, question 1.. what type of trees am I looking at?? Question 2.. is it worth the time to drop and cut them in the condition they appear to be in. I already have a lot that I can cut and take care of here, so I don't really want to get into another project if it's not worth the effort. Thx Chaz
Poplar eh.. pretty low btu's by the chart. Cottonwood (Poplar) Populus trichocarpa 12.6 Mbtu Not sure that I need 3 trees worth of shoulder season wood, but if I put in the hours to drop and chop, you know it'll get brought home and burnt. edit.. I would be the one cutting into rounds, and may be the one dropping them. There's nothing to be harmed in that area, so we're good on that, but it seems a bit much for SS wood.
The way winters have been lately, needing more SS wood has been a reality. I end up with too many coals otherwise. I'll be dropping a poplar or two soon due to this.
I agree with Horkn - poplar for the first one, second one is a little tougher call but all those whips do look willow-y. I’m not really a fan of either in particular, but I also burned through all my shoulder wood for the year and I’m wishing I’d had more. It’s going to be in the 50’s this week and I’m burning ash and locust. We’re letting it get colder in the house than we normally do and only having overnight fires cause otherwise we’d be opening the doors and windows. If I was you I’d probably take the poplar but it looks like you’re going to need your fishing pole if you want to go after that willow. I’d leave that one if it was an option.
Thx for the input guys. I'll have to wait and see what happens when he talks to the landowner. He also said that at times he has other customers that want to get rid of tree's, so I may be able to secure some future scores. I'll have to assess again after he finds out if the landowner definitely wants them gone or not. We just took a quick look today. Its a shame though, there was a nice ash that fell a couple of years ago so he says, but it's been laying on the wet ground right alongside the creek. That thing looks like you could nearly kick it apart. There are also some trees that have dozens of small to midsize burls on them, didn't snap any pics of those though.
Yeah, that one would take some decent sized equipment to pull everything out of the creek. It was flowing pretty good today, I sure wouldn't want to be holding on to anything falling in there, let alone try to drag it out again.
I know I'm going against all of the rules, regulations and codes here, but I'd skip all of it. I'd rather burn pine than poplar, and willow is better off chipped and left to compost.
I'm with Jon_E on this one. The poplar is just as much work processing as any good wood,( but it does dry fast and can be used.) No way I'm volunteering to take willow. That crap takes 36 months to dry!! Spend your time getting good wood. Unless, of coarse, this is a favor to the land owner or friend.
Well, I don't know all the rules, regulations and codes yet, but I figure it's all good opinion. As stated in original post, I have plenty of good wood to get cut at my place and don't especially need any side projects. I just figured I'd find out what the trees are, and if the time spent could be justified. Thx for the advice everyone.
Chaz I agree it is popple and willow. Popple can be okay if you need something for a fast fire. It does not last long in the stove and this is why we call it gopher wood. Willow? One of the few I won't even mess with.
Only way I'd spend time on it is if it was an inroad to a new wood hookup, with consideration for your having mentioned that you have plenty of other better woods to cut. If it was delivered, I'd take it regardless, but I go through a ton of wood so I'll take anything.
Good point. I would gladly feed the willow to my firepit while working in the yard if it meant a good hookup for the future. I will take the crap that people have to get the good stuff if needed. I just quarter it and toss it in the pit green.
I took probably ten truckloads of junk from an Arborist a couple years ago, who kept promising I'd be the first call when he had some good wood.. Just when I was about to give up he took down a monster pine about twenty minutes away.. I wasn't going to go, but ended up doing so anyway, and found that he was also taking down a massive multi trunk sugar maple that yielded close to five cord.
I'd skip them both unless you can get paid to remove them Chaz. Poplar isn't the worst wood, but close. Willow is about 1/2 step below burning card board. Chit takes forever to dry & produces very little heat per pound. Around here shoulder season wood is easy to come by, but if you need it grab the Popple.
New tree, new post. Can anyone ID this tree. Cut it down about 20 min ago. It was all but dead, have a dual in the same condition.
