When im hunting the only tree the wood peckers get after seem to be cherry, but I'll have to watch next year.
Thought I had a picture of one of our trees with big holes but can't find it. Sometime when I'm in back if I remember I'll take a picture or 2.
You'll surely find that there's not one single btu chart that's entirely accurate. That said, unless you're rolling in the firewood, I'd not turn any silver maple away. It seasons quickly and burns great. As others have said, it's great shoulder season wood. I've got a couple cords of it that I processed last late spring.
That's how it is here too. Then again he's close to Canada. Up in Canada they call box elder, "Manitoba maple".
unless its nice and straight grained i turn it away. They are fast growing down here and are usually gnarly and i split by hand. I got one years back that i couldnt split by hand. Ended up cutting 12" long rounds (it was maybe 20-24" diameter) out of the trunk to load on my P/U and chain sawed it to size. The maul would just bury itself in it. My cutting area had 4" deep ripping sawdust? It insulated the ground so well the snow wouldnt melt from on top of it on a warmer day!
When ive traveled from Southern Conn up to Vermont to camp/vacation ive noticed how certain species disappear as you go north and others more prevalent.
I have some...all from our May 15th tornado. One from a neighbor the rest from a friend who had a 28" red oak land on it and snap it at the stump. Is it common practice for colder area burners like yourself to separate species for different burning conditions/times of year?
buZZsaw BRAD I don't separate by species but sugar, beech shag go into 20 below pile and always need more!!
I separate when I'm stacking, because of different drying times. But when I stock up the shed, I mix it up into blends, one side lower BTU, one side higher BTU.
Swamp, red, soft maple are all one and the same here. It doesn't grow just in the swamp nor is it the only species that will grow in the swamp.
I need the leaves and the silver maple leaf has deeper notches between the "fingers". They supposedly grow in wetlands too, I've just never seen one. I have a small multi-trunk maple near the house that is older than me and has never gotten as big as a dogwood and I don't know what it is.
