Eastern Hemlock useful for firewood??

Been working my clearing of woods trails on our property I’ve noticed over a dozen decent sized hemlock trees uprooted and blown over. Sizes range from 14”-28” DBH, and they still mostly have their green needles. I know some blew over last spring in the April storm but several uprooted in December with the high winds, wet ground, and warm temps. Lots of smaller ones too, but they are getting fed into the chipper, or made into 12’ logs for corduroy crossings.

I could get them limbed and yarded in the next couple weeks while the ground is still frozen, and the cut and split them for firewood during mud season. In looking at the charts it’s 15.9 million btu’s per cord, which is better than the poplar I’m using for shoulder season wood since I have a ton of downed poplars. Is it worth the effort to yard out the hemlock and make it into firewood or should I just cut the ones that are blocking the trails and make critter habitat areas?

Here’s a couple photos of some of the smaller trees, when I get farther back on the property the trees get bigger, I just haven’t been out there in a few weeks.

 

I've burned some hemlock in years past. OK firewood, splitting can be a pain with all the knots. Not something I'd go out of my way for (poplar/aspen is a much better option IMO - no pitch and no knot problems) but if they're convenient to grab it's worth at least trying some and deciding for yourself.

 

Probably could at the least mill some lumber out of them

 

I cut and burn Hemlock a little, if it is easy to get. Dries fast and burns hot and fast. Pops and throws sparks too. I use small pieces to get the fire ripping, do not think it would be good for long burn.

 

X2 Krackle_959

Plenty of hardwoods for us here in Connecticut so I never take any conifers. If anything a few logs to split into kindling. If you have the time and space go for it.

 

Yeah I’ve got about 5 cord of poplar at the moment without cutting up anymore downed trees. I’ve been using it for shoulder season wood to get rid of it. I might try to use up the trees that are in the trail, and let the rest rot where they are. Will most likely cut the root balls off of them to draw less attention to them.

I don’t have a use for the lumber right now, and hemlock needs to be used green. We have a bunch of 2”x12” lumber that was left when we bought the house. It’s tough to use when dried.

 

I’ve got close to 15 cord of red oak logs at the moment, and another 3-4 cords of split red oak. A couple cord of mixed beech, ash, maple, and apple as well. Not quite up to the 3 yr plan, but working on it. I’ve got the room to pile up some hemlock and see how it goes, I’ve got to at least move some of them out of the trails on the property.

 

All the power to ya if you're willing to put in the effort for the hemlock. And I forget it may be your only source for wood so you take what you can get. Guess i've turned into quite the wood snob in my old age!

 

I added hemlock to my hoard inventory about five years ago when I was given about 3/4 of a cord of rounds by a friend. Turned out to be a great shoulder-season wood and helped keep the good hardwoods for those colder nights/months. I have since pretty much kept some hemlock in my hoard since, both from being given some (most people around here are hardwood snobs and won't burn softwoods) and from processing dead/down hemlocks from my own property. Would I go out of the way for it and go looking for hemlock to scrounge? No. But if it's free or it's easy access on my property, absolutely (I've been waiting several years for the leaner in the pic below to come down on its own). I have no problem burning well-seasoned softwoods during shoulder season, and if it extends the life of my primo hardwood hoard, it makes sense to me.

 

It makes great boards if you have access to a mill. Sure it makes firewood , it ain't hardwood but it burns fine and is great shoulder season wood.
Just make sure it is properly dried , we all hear the stories on how bad pine is and if you burn it you will have a chimney fire.
I have burned plenty and zero issues , like others mentioned just watch the popping and sparks that want to jump out.

 

I don't know much about it for firewood. But I did work at a sawm ill on the greenline stacking lumber, you would hear a collective f*** from all of us when the hemlock started rolling out lol. Very wet and heavy green so I imagine it needs to be dried well.

 

Western hemlock needs two years dry time in our climate but it is one of the better species to burn here.

 

I'd look at it like this: do I want my woods cleaned up or do I want it left natural? If it were high btu wood, I'd definitely want the firewood but in this case, I would just follow how I want my woods to look.

 

Thanks for the replies, it’s free, easy to access on the property, and also cleans up some of the debris. I’d rather use it for firewood or fire pit wood than let it rot in the woods. There’s also a couple sugar maples and beech trees that blew over, and those are already marked in my head as to where they are so I can go retrieve them. We are lucky enough to have 153 acres and only 10 acres are not wooded. Since moving here I haven’t had to look off property for wood, or buy wood.

It would be split and stacked for a couple years while I burn down the poplar stacks, so it should have plenty of time to dry. I’ve built a garage with green hemlock, and it’s heavy and wet, once dried it likes to crack and almost brittle to work with. Easier to pre drill holes than to drive a nail and split the board. If I had a use for it this spring or summer I would have some milled and use it.

 

Have you ever blunted the nail tip with a hammer before driving it? Hold nail upside down on a hard surface and gently tap the tip. Lessens the likelihood of a split.

Disregard if you're using a nail gun of course.

Maze nail company made hot dipped galvanized nails for clapboard/cedar siding. The nails were preblunted to prevent the splitting. I used to love using them and still have some hanging around somewhere. Seldom do they get used anymore.

 

Any wood that falls on my property that is free, is a good wood to season and burn.

 

I like it better than eastern white pine.
Not much of it on my property any more though so I would probably mix it in with the EWP.

 

I burn pretty much anything as long as it’s dry. I’ll mix hemlock and pine in as needed; usually during the daylight hours or getting things going from coals. Mixed with hardwoods, burns great and the hardwoods will leave some coals behind for the next reload.

 

yeah I blunted a ton of nails as a kid, and helped my dad do cedar shakes on his 40’x100’ barn. It wasn’t the most fun summer project. He never believed in using nail guns, was a log home builder for 40 yrs.

We had a decent amount of pine, but had it heavily thinned when the property was logged. There’s some big pine trees out back that will become wide pine flooring for the house in a few years. We’ve got 40ish acres of hemlock mixed with pines and hardwoods, and I’d prefer the hardwoods over the hemlock.

Im going to have a chat with my forest conservation/arborist friend this weekend and see if he knows of anyone wanting some hemlock logs for lumber or timber frames. If not firewood it becomes.

 

Cedar shingling is my favorite carpentry task. I've evolved into battery nail guns for framing/sheathing etc, but will still hand nail asphalt shingles.