To many folks, location dictates the best firewood. Here on the west side of Washington state we get Doug Fir, Western or big leaf Maple, Alder, Madrone, Western Cherry, Cottonwood, White Fir, Gary Oak (increasingly protected), maybe Western Ash but really too little to mention. I would rate them best to worst in BTU's/lb : Gary Oak, Madrone, Doug Fir, Western Maple, Western Cherry, White Fir, Alder then Cottonwood. Rated by availability to me in my suburban home: Doug Fir with Madrone, Cherry,White Fir and Maple about the same. Alder and Cottonwood can be found in less developed properties and I won't bother to cut them. So in my area and situation I find my stacks roughly full of Doug Fir 70%, Madrone 10%, Cherry 10 % and a bit of the others as well. I could hang tough for Gary Oak and Madrone but good ole Doug is everywhere and there is always someone having one taken down in their yard or an occasional Madrone or Cherry. Therefore my official vote for me in my area is: Doug Fir, Madrone and Cherry for the "Best Fire woods"!
Nah. It's just a very open ended answer. I'm a snob because there is almost always plenty of high quality stuff available to me. Density equals burn time so most of us are trying to get the most dense wood we can. Oak works great for me. Splits good. A good load will let me sleep through the night and still have coals available when I get up. That's all I really want from wood. Locality and access (or lack of) will dictate which wood everyone prefers.
If any of ya’ll have an excess amount of the “poor” firewood split and stacked - and you want to get rid of it… PM me!
