I've had ample opportunity to procrastinate for the past few years when it comes to gathering firewood. I tend to collect the easy stuff and leave the "hard to get to" or the "I can do that some other time" for later. As a result, I have a great opportunity to learn what species will sit on the ground and still be usable after a number of years, and what will be garbage if I so much as blink and turn around. This is the good stuff - I can let this sit for a while and still C/S/S it, let it dry and it will be good firewood. White pine - heartwood is amazingly rot resistant. Black cherry - this can sit for several years and still be solid. Black locust - 'nuff said - I can leave this for my grandkids. Butternut - surprisingly rot resistant heartwood. White oak - only the heart. The sapwood turns into fibrous rot inside of 2 years. This is what I've found needs to be processed quickly, a year or less. Ash - gets rotten and punky quickly, especially with ground contact. Otherwise one of the best firewoods. Sugar maple - spalts if you're lucky (and a woodturner), rots if you aren't. Get it split and stacked quickly. It will still mold and discolor even in a covered stack. Red pine - if it's standing dead, it's already rotting. Not usually worth the effort and it's a crappy firewood to boot. Poplar or cottonwood - good if you have a thing for strange fungi growing on wet sponges. Red oak - gets punky quickly. Takes forever + three weeks to dry well for burning. I don't like it. White birch - this is only slightly worse than it's black and yellow relatives. If it's standing dead, you have only a matter of weeks or a few months, if a big tree, to salvage the trunk. Otherwise leave it for the woodpeckers. It's excellent firewood if C/S/S green and dried carefully.
Jon_E we have only a couple of differences. Here, the cherry will not last long but the ash will last many, many years. Many times I've left ash laying on the ground and sometimes in areas where it will be in water for months. Yet, it will last for years with no rot. I well remember especially one time when I had found an ash I had forgotten to get the whole thing out. No doubt I ran out of trailer room and planned on going back as the wood was already bucked to size. I don't remember how many years it laid on the ground but I picked it up and put in the stack with the rest of the wood and it was very solid. Our red oak does well so long as we get it off the ground split and stacked and top covered. It won't keep as well if not top covered.
Main thing I've learned from procrastination is "opportunity lost." But I do like your assessment, Jon_E
Good info Jon_E but you left out Willow if you leave it on the ground it will grow new shoots and roots the next thing you know it's a new tree.
Yeah, I know I left out a lot of species but those are the ones that I seem to have the most experience with. At any given time I have 12-15 different species in my stacks, sometimes more, but a lot of them find their way quickly from tree to C/S/S without being left on the ground for several years. I have never had to deal with willow, I have told tree services and the Town that they are welcome to drop it off but it will compost in place before I touch it. And for those of you guys in other parts of the country - well you probably have your own lists. I am just surprised about the behavior of some of these common species in my area & thought I'd share. As an example, I always thought that white pine was quick to rot, and it turns out that it is more rot-resistant than most hardwoods. The sides of my garden beds are 2x10 white pine and they have been there for 10 years now. Yes there's some rotten spots and bug holes, but overall they hold in the dirt just fine. I still have a stack of pine logs that have been sitting next to my driveway since before I built my house, they were never milled into lumber. The hearts of the larger logs are still solid and clean and could probably make some decent utility lumber.
I agree with your species expiration list, same experiences here. Got a good chuckle out of "if you have a thing for strange fungi growing on wet sponges". Heheh. But I do like red oak.
It also would depend on the type of climate you have where you live. Out here it is very dry and cotton wood can sit on the ground for quite awhile and I have never seen any fungi growing on it.
It's only been two months since I visited the western slope of CO. (high desert) and I'm already missing it.
Ok.. wow Colorado is quite a state.. Went to Roanoke va and wife n I stopped for some sights and walked down through the natural bridge in the Shenandoah.. Some gorgeous country..
