Silver maple is great for shoulder season wood as it dries quickly. As others have says 6-8 months drying after split and stacked and it's good to go. Yes, Keep it off the ground, and covered and it will be fine for many years. If you are putting it on a garage or shed, it will last a long time, pretty much indefinitely, provided it stays dry. Welcome to FHC MaladaptiveMonkey
I've burn't about 40 cord of the stuff over the years! It's a (Light'r wood) and where I'm at down here on the shore areas I used to get "Blow overs" during every Nor-easter or Hurricane. It can be burned after 2 years, let it go 3 if you can. I used it mainly shoulder season, early fall then through spring, kept the Oaks and harder woods for winter. Keep it off the ground! Termites, bugs and rot will Infiltrate quick. I do not cover mine till I'm ready to burn, some folks do and thats fine also. My summers here are 90º+ all July and Aug mostly so it dries up quick depending on it's thickness. Not a bad wood and I got tons of pics cutting up Silver maple, when Hurricane Sandy hit just North of us I had 4+ trees to grab and about a total of 8 cord just that year. I like it! Not the greatest but it's BTU's. Oh, Welcome to the Forums!!!
I don't have much as of right now...do have a ton of SM's red headed step cousin though, Box Elder...very similar as firewood, dries quick and burns nice...I think I still might have a slight preference for SM though...BE trees tend to be very twisted and gnarly trees...at least the ones I get! Makes for some ugly stacks sometimes...
I like it and wish I could get my hands on more silver maple. Mostly I see them around as yard or street trees before they grow too large and the town takes them down. I never seem to be in the right place and time to get those. Out in the wild I only see them in places where scrounging it would be more trouble than it’s worth. I’m not too keen on trudging through wetlands to carry out log lengths of silver maple
Silver maple has been one of my staples for over a decade, and I don't see it ever not being in my stacks. As others have said, it can go punky quickly when not processed, and I have lost 16" rounds to rot that have only sat six or so months. SM is great for shoulder season and for getting the wood stove going. BTU charts put silver maple at slightly lower than paper birch and slightly higher than red maple. My only comment to you would be that unless you need to store it in your garage, I wouldn't recommend it (why bring the chance of bug infestation into your home?). Once CSS and top covered outdoors, I have never had silver maple go bad on me. And welcome to the forum MaladaptiveMonkey. I've been a firewood hoarder for over 12 years but only joined FHC a year ago. The knowledge base here is excellent and the camaraderie is akin to sitting around the fire at hunting camp. Good people, lots of fun, tall tales, and well worth becoming a member. Happy hoarding. (Scrounging silver maple late last fall in the pic).
