If there are goldilock zones of firewood, I would say my region may be one. There are so many types of species such as various types of red and white oak , Black locust, mulberry, elm, ash, black cherry, black walnut, sassafrass, sycamore, kentucky coffee, hackberry, red/ white pine, maples (though no hard maple that Ive seen), and poplar. Plus many more. So being fortunate with such a selection one can be choosey when scrounging. However it seems that I always have an abundance of BL and black cherry. I can't walk into the woods without tripping over one of the two. This year I plan on burning much more oak and will try not to touch my BL stacks.
All kinds of premium hardwoods around me. You name it, it's probably here. What I've had; red/white oaks, hickory (shagbark), BL, apple, mulberry, cherry, ash, walnut (but I don’t consider it a premium).
Kinda similar here, lots to choose from. Red Oak, White Oak and Ash are the most prevalent in my stacks. Mulberry and Cherry get sold as smoker wood. Plenty of SS woods as well. Only shortage is time.
Elm and hackberry are the most readily available for me. Then there’s cottonwoods in great abundance, but I’m a long way from being that desperate for firewood
Ash used to be my main firewood but the critter done away with most of those trees. We've always burned lots of elm and soft maple too. For oaks we have white, red and pin. Occasionally I'll cut a cherry.
Title of thread says BEST. In that case, I left out elm, poplar, boxelder, silver maple and several varieties of conifer.
Can be tough to split and smells like a dive bar bathroom but I must say it doesn't burn bad. It would make better boards than firewood
I would have to take a good look at it , it has been stored in my basement for a while now. I'll try to remember to look when I get home tonight.
I have plenty of premium hardwood options. White/black/red oak, hard maple, hickory. But what’s most accessible, either an easy to cut spot or blowdowns, typically Black Locust and Cherry. I have ash, but I’m finding a lot of is best used as campfire wood because of punkiness
Reading this thread fills me with envy and a bit of depression. We have almost no naturally growing hardwoods in my area, just poplar. Best option is lodgepole. Occasionally I can scrounge up some free ash or maple from an arborist in the city, but they often keep the hardwood for themselves. Oh well, gotta work with what God has given you.
Then poplar is your best option. There's lots of worse options. How much wood do you go through in a year's time?
I had a good source for poplar a few years ago and took all I could get. It's great for shoulder season or during the day. I found it would get a fire going good when sometimes nothing else would.
We have a good selection down here, with red oak family and white oak family the most. Some hickory, beech, cherry and pecan available too.
Red oak, white oak, post oak and hickory are my main firewood species around me. There are others and as a scrounger feeding an OWB I'm not to picky.
Nothing wrong with poplar. I'll hoard more of it whenever the opportunity presents itself, and I have an abundance of "better" species in my area. Here's some quaking aspen that was dried 9 months through one of the wettest summers on record. It burned phenomenally. Welcome to the club BTW
I guess I’m spoiled here in Missouri. Mostly red oak, white oak, hickory with an abundance of Osage orange on my property that I’ve started working on.
