There is a backstory behind this on this forum. Just about everyone on here knows I hate Ash, which apparently firewood hoarders like it about as much as the Emerald Ash Borer. Honestly, my distaste for the tree comes from two major angles. The first is that it smells like the south end of a north bound bear taking a dump in the woods. Good molly ash stinks when it is cut. While the second is not from the standpoint of being a logger, or a person who burns wood, but one that clears a lot of forest into field. In that capacity, I would rather see a 16 inch maple stump then an 8 inch white ash stump, because White Ash have a tap root that goes down into hades that lucifer is grabbing ahold of to keep my dozer from ripping it out. Ash stumps come out dry! (White Pine stumps are the same way, but I don't have a lot of White Pine so I still kind of like that species of wood).
At least you have several choices My choices are spruce & birch. I’m also a wood snob , hate cottonwood
I don't have trouble with eastern white pine stumps, They have shallow roots. But damm they have a grip on the topsoil and subsoil they are in. If the termites get in them they can be gone in three years otherwise I have some that are still there hard as the day the tree was cut 35 years later.
I''m not surprised demand is up over last year, the price of HHO is up. Plus there are (adverse) geopolitical concerns driving the price of crude (well until last week anyway ) up and uncertainty regarding any change to those driving forces. Interviewing just one firewood dealer for a pulse on local prices seems a bit odd though. Is everyone up or just him ?
Generally here, the price of firewood is dictated by the price of pulpwood, but it depends on how it is sold. Firewood is sold at $20 more per cord then pulpwood, so if I get $70 per cord tree length, roadside for pulp, then I will get $90 per cord for firewood tree length, roadside. But when a person gets into cut, split and stacked, then the price is more in relation to how it compares to home heating oil. I had one guy who thought it should be the same as pulpwood, to which I said, "Sure, but I thought you wanted firewood? If you want pulp I can get you it, but you are not going to like it". (Bigger wood, undesirable species like basswood and popil mixed in, dirty wood, etc) Firewood Dealers are taking a pretty good hit right now though from many different sides. Insurance companies putting higher premiums on homeowners who burn firewood Heat pumps Pellet Stoves Baby Boomers who are aging out beyond the ability to deal with firewood Homeowners dealing with bigger sized logging companies (who do not deal in small firewood orders)
"Good molly ash stinks when it is cut" ... that it do. Ugh. But, I have to admit I burn more ash than oak or maple now because it's what I decide to take, when I'm cutting. Happens that our lot has many big ones ready to drop. When we moved to the old farm in 1994, we were so lucky to have ash everywhere around the big field. It saved our ashes many times over. I had no time, after moving there in late summer, to css enough wood ahead to go a couple winters. Had an old Hydrocat loader I'd made a claw for. I was able to drop ash into the field, cut them in half, top them, grab the tops and stuff em into the tree line, and then grab the entire tree and carry it up to my work area behind the barns. I had all the wood I needed in about 2 days. Ash drys quickly and, though it wasn't seasoned, it got us through that first winter. Ahh memories...
Yep sure thing. I always thought Ash trees were a provision of God's grace. Sure we may mess up like not getting firewood cuts, split and stacked in time, or like me one year, a plan to burn propane coal when that stove self destructed half way through the season and I had to quickly install a wood only stove. But when we really need it, there is the Ash Tree. I prefer Maple and Beech, but Ash is there as a back up plan.
Yep, we did the coal thing too for 4 years. 8 cords firewood / 5 tons of coal per winter. That was enough...
Firewood sales are up around here as well. Less guys clearing land and those that do are chipping a lot of it. I have a contact with a guy who clears land here and there as part of his excavation business. He is supposed to be hooking me up with 20-30 cords of black locust in the somewhat near future.
But in comparison, firewood is a minor business. The local paper company here consumes 2500 cords of wood...per DAY! When the paper mills started closing a few years ago, I heard some people say, "what about firewood"? Firewood. pellets. Even silly wooden bridge girders are not going to absorb the sheer volume of wood that paper mills consume. But this is Maine so its not unsustainable. We average 1 cord per acre per year sustainably. What do you do with 23 million cords of wood that can be sustainably cut every year? Our 6 paper mills at best can only consume 5.5 million cords.
People like this have no shame. I would not do business with them either. Disrespectful people turn me off and I just won't do business with them. Firewood market is very strong here so for every jerkoff wood customer, there are 5 excellent ones that stick with me and become loyal year to year.
