Get every last bit of that wood you can! It'll burn well at those moisture readings & make good heat. It is almost certainly an Ash variety. Good hard firewood & BTU's. I know your space is limited, but find room if you wanna make good heat. A Holzhausen was suggested & might be a viable option for your situation. Nice find!
Here are the pics . There is no other leaves other that at the very end. The tiny branches at the very end break so easily like they are fully dried. I do not want to cut any live tress since they belong to the city park. Do these leaves mean tree is still alive? There is another tree next to the this one. The one on the right is the one I posted pics of. I think they are both the same tree.
Yes, green leaves means it’s still alive. Toppled, damaged, struggling but still alive. City park???? Hahahaha I know nothing!! nothing!!
I called park department. They told me it is fine to cut and take wood from dead fallen trees. The leaves seen are only at the last branch. The other leaves seen on the trunk part belongs to other trees. I should have said city forest not park. It is a huge forest.
Guys, Im new to posting, but been enjoyng this site for a while, actually this is my first post. I was a sculptor and wood worker that used many local woods and therefor I did much tree identification the old school way before the internet was a thing. I'm pretty good at wood Id for any trees in the north east and know much of their wood working characteristics. Thanks to this site I now know much of their wood burning characteristics. Anyway I feel your plight chemiee, and as you can see by my name I am in the New York City area and I know collecting wood here is not easy. That said the tree you stumbled on is most certainly a Catalpa tree. I could tell by the olive green wood, but also I see the easy way the grain is crushed and then there is the leaves. This is a good find because it is dry and we are still in shoulder season, but do not expect it to burn like ash. Hello everyone!
Knowing that I’m not the only one in NYC suffering about obtaining firewood, in a way, is relieving I almost do not know anything about the trees. When I looked at Wiki, it says Catalpa has rather soft wood. I do not think the wood I cut has very soft wood. It has a nice distinctive smell when cut into pieces.
Jack Straw, now that summer’s over, that is probably unlikely. I find I only run into swamp ash during the heat and humidity of the summer! Wait, are talking about the same thing? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes, not sure of your expectations about soft wood. Catalpa will feel hard when very dry, actually I would almost discribe some of the smaller twigs to be crispy, but the wood is soft to work with for instance when cutting or carving. Some of the definite clues are the dusky olive color, the leaves you posted, the wood should feel exceptionally light for its size. Also did you happen to notice any long skins of a been like a brown 16 inch stringbeans on the ground? These are dropped by this tree and leave split shells. wood burns good, but fast and leaves no coals.
Just wanted to also note that Catalpa does have a noticeable musty spice scent when cut that many find hard to describe, but also hard to say if it is a pleasant smell or just smelly. When I worked with it I found it mildly pleasant. It is also very rot resistant when dry especially considering how its open grain can leave it voulnerable to absorbing water.
Now that you have pictures of the leaves I have to say my ash I.D. is wrong and Catalpa it is. I've never cut or burned any, I know only 2 things about it: many years ago it was used for railroad ties and it doesn't sit very high on the BTU charts. But it's free and easy to get so, GET IT!
I went back and checked if there is any brown beans like shells that I see in some street trees. There were none. The color of the bark more like tan to light yellow color. I realized all most all the similar trees were surrounded by ivy like structures . Almost all similar trees have dead like branches ( some many dense branches) without any leaves.
I thought the same when the leaves were shown. Didn't know what was, but knew what it wasn't. Good posts, and welcome out from the shadows Urban Woods
Welcome chemiee and Urban Woods to FHC! We love to hear about wood scrounges, and we really love pictures! Don't be shy about jumping in, we all bring something to the table, novice and expert alike.
Welcome and.. Good call on the catalpa! I have a few around the house. I love their blossoms in the spring. Being dead and dying they probably won't flower, or make "Bean pods" as I call them.
Hey everyone, Thanks. I have been meaning to write in, but just havent been ready I guess. I do take pictures but I use a web browser only when on the internet because no viruses and easy to refresh the simple thing. I only have photos of my wood exploits on my galaxy phone and need to talk to my son about how to post pictures from it. Anyway Started scrounging wood in Brooklyn when in art school at Pratt Institute in the mid 80's. As you all can imagine mostly at that time brooklyn had Locust, sycamore, silver maple, some small mulberry, and relatively plentyful amounts of Ailanthis *(A tree grows in Brooklyn fame). However, It was very precious amounts and If I was scrounging for firewood alone in Flatbush, it just wouldn't be possible especially using the subways Haha! I love the tree ID questions and am a bit of a tree and wood enthusiast. I see these questions here all the time and you guys are so good it doesnt take more than three replys before someone hits it on the money. This time I noticed a true ID was not going to happen and I couldn't let that slip for the integrity of the FHC. Lol! I was just outside cutting and splitting a dead dry silver maple for my first fire of the season tonight. Like chemiee I don't have much yard to store cordwood, so I need to scrounge a lot of ready to burn fallen dead wood during the burning season. I do have more space than Chemiee though and can keep a good 2 to 3 cords on property lines and against house. Thanks again for the welcome! Good to be a part of the fun and will try to have pictures soon.
I’m terrible at wood ID. I do have some Catalpa that will be burned this year in the stacks. Nor sure if it will make it 8nto my house or one of the families. I’ve got a lot of tulip to burn through too. Not the best woods by far but they burn. Best guess is next year I’ll still have a lot of those woods left and a ton of Sassafras I’m processsing now. I think the sass will be ready in a year if top covered. Some ash and aged oak should be ready also. I’ll burn whatever comes my way.
