I found quite a few birch down while trail clearing today, some are really big. I am new to this species, very rare in Pa, but plentiful here. I know the stuff rots fairly quick, so until I dig into one with the saw, what should I expect? They look pretty good still, bark intact, and mostly off the ground......... Every part of our forest is pretty tricky. My goal is to buck in lengths and winch out to the trail.
My experience with birch is that the bark holds in a lot of moisture, so if in rounds or log length it rots rather quickly if not split and/or kept on the dry side (off the ground and/or under cover). You cannot tell from looking at the bark alone, but as soon as you sink a saw into it you will know if it is solid or punky. A windfall or standing dead with bark split/peeling will often be more solid than one with bark intact.
If you get the white while it's solid, it throws good heat if you can keep it solid. It has a density close to some varieties of ash, maple, walnut and cherry, far above basswood.
Birch here if down is usually all ready punky Gotta get it split & stacked quick but it's the best BTU wood here. I remember Black birch smells real good when cutting it. Hope it's solid , good BTUs !
Just about everyone in New England burns white or gray birch, but only because we have it. It does not have very high BTU's. Yellow Birch is a different story, but harder to split since it tends to be stringy. Log wise, neither Gray, White or Yellow has a lot of value. In the 1960's their were highly prized for their wood (bolts), but that industry has ended and so other than flooring today, they are not worth much. You actually get more money per MBF putting them into mat logs and the tops for firewood or pulpwood.
If you cut it and can't split it right away, it will last longer without rotting if you unzip it. Run the nose of your saw carefully down the length of the log, making a channel through the bark into the wood a half inch or so. That birch bark seems to act like a wetsuit for the wood and it will rot very fast if left in the round without unzipping. -edit- this will make hand splitting a difficult round a lot easier too, for the record.
What???? Yellow birch is awesome in my book... White burch will rot fast and grey birch about the same and maybe a little less BTU's than white....
My firewood customers typically will allow white or yellow birch, but in limited supply. The same with ash. They are looking for maple and beech primarily, under 12 inches in diameter. On an ideal 10 cord load, I'll put in 1-1/2 cords of birch, 1-1/2 cords of ash and then try and finish the load with maple and beech. Most of the time they will take cherry without complaint. You don't think Yellow Birch is stringy when splitting? To bad about the turning mills huh? I pumped a lot of bolts of white and yellow birch there when they were running.
I have not had alot of yellow birch and can't remember if it was stringy or not but it burns awesome and hot
I don't care if it's stringy or not. Yellow birch is right up there with beech & sugar maple for me. Premium firewood for what's available in my area of Maine! (There's no oak here.)
I've got black birch here. It burns well once seasoned. It smells and tastes great. The sticks used to be used for toothbrushes for the minty taste. I'll chew on a stick of black birch while traversing the woods or processing wood. Black Birch can also be a beast to split by hand. If I can't get it to split after multiple tries, then I'll just toss it to the noodle pile to be noodled a bit later. I also have a lot of river birch. It's basically in the same class as paper birch (white) and will rot if it isn't processed right away. Me, I'll burn practically anything wood or wood related! Including bushes! I don't worry about processing it right away because that is what I do normally. Remember, wood in the round doesn't start seasoning until it's actually split.
Above 1500' elevation. 45th parallel (more or less). Just a few yard oaks around, but not for firewood. Main saleable species here: sugar and red maple, yellow birch, beech & ash. Others that are more or less free include poplar, spruce, pine & other softwoods. But no, no oak in my area.
