Yesterday we had quite the wind storm here in Oregon. We'd lost power in the morning (which didn't come back on until about 7 pm), so I decided to go help a friend haul some firewood. When I came home in the afternoon, I found this cottonwood laying across my driveway. My wife was due home from work in a few hours, so I knew I'd better get to work. Fortunately my saw was recently sharpened and my tractor was ready to go. I bucked the tree and cut it into about four large pieces. I piled the branches into a future burn pile and drug the large branches out of the way. I had the driveway cleared in about two hours. I could cut the tree into firewood, but I don't really like burning cottonwood so I'm reluctant to waste my time on it. Does anyone have any good ideas what to do with a large cottonwood tree???
Not really. Im in your same neck of the woods PNW and cottonwood is actually tired out for my taste I'll burn it at Ocean Shores but usually because its large and already dry going in this boiler size fire. Other than that, It might make a good compost barrier for your grass clippings and then rot on its own. I just don't call it efficient at all because of the rate that it burns to the rate it dries, too much of a gopher wood anyways. You can smoke salmon with it but probably not too pleasing as alder would be or apple. Its really rot prone and gets punky pretty quick on the ground exposed. Maybe a post for stacking firewood that will be burned this year? Put two or 4 parallel to each other in the ground and stack between them? Im kinda out of ideas since its not a hardy wood the likes of black locust but if all else fails, cut it in fire pit sized logs and let them sit.
Here in Pa the ground holds a lot of moisture. I'd cut it and split it and use it on the bottom row of the stacks and then put the better wood on top of it. It does make heat and is very easy to process. Shoulder wood...fire pit wood...camping wood... Or drag it into the woods and give the bugs something to eat...
I don't mind Cottenwood for shoulder wood, and/or kindling. I would split it up and use for kindelind, it lites easy and fast.
It really does light and split well. I don't have qualms of that. But up here in PNW it's regarded as garbage because of how much it smokes. The smoke is really acrid even if you get it super dry. I have to admit im more used to open fires not wood stoves so the pros and cons of these situations are preferential and experience. If it didn't take so long to dry. It might be worth it!!
I burn Cottonwood all winter long. Once it dries out good it does not smell and it does not smoke any more than any other wood. I have also used it in my smoker for the coals and it works just fine there also. It is probably considered junk wood even here but I think most people do not dry it out well and so do not have good results with it. The cotton wood I have is split and stacked for 3 to 4 years now. I never refuse it when I find it.
Those are all good ideas. I have used them as raised beds for my garden which seems to work pretty well, but I do expect them to degrade over the years.
Actually I did drag it into the woods a bit, just to get it away from the road. Unfortunately their my woods and I want to try to clean it up.
That's a great policy. If I CSS it, I'll definitely burn it. As mentioned earlier, it's good for shoulder season and kindling
For sure it went down where you had to handle it. I that case I'd no doubt cut it up and burn it. I too have never noticed any more smoke from cottonwood than other wood unless burned before it is dry. As for burning, it does burn well and gives what we want. That is, heat. Otherwise, for sure you could cut logs and stack wood on them. Normally we use small stuff for stacking wood on but there is no good reason why one can not use larger wood and it will even get the wood higher off the ground. In our case we don't need to get the wood off the ground much and sometimes not at all but not everyone has the type of soil we do so staking on logs makes good sense. We usually do it too. In the picture there are some of the small logs we use to stack on. As we use a row of wood, I just then normally stand them up (so they will last longer). We have some logs out there we are still using that I cut about 10 years ago or longer.
If it rots easily, the best use I can think of is drag it back into the woods and let it supply cover for small animals while it rots to restore fertility. Why remove resources you will not be using?
I have at least a cord of it now and could get many more next door. But there are so many better woods here I can spend time on.
Don't get me wrong. If I could find better wood that is what I would be burning too. I just think though that cottonwood is not as bad as made out to be because there are those who get by with it. You have to remember I live out in the middle of the high plains where there is nothing but grass lands. From the front porch facing to the west.
