Is willow even worth the gas and time to go pick up for free?

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One learns something new daily!
 
One learns something new daily!

No hackmatack (aka juniper, tamarack) where you live Backwoods? Around here that's pretty much the only softwood that drops all its needles in the Fall.

That said . . . most of the time what you said about leafs dropping in the Fall . . . and trees with needles vs. leafs . . . is correct.

It just happens that like most things there are exceptions . . . and as such there are "soft" hardwoods and "hard" softwoods -- or rather trees that are hardwood with the properties of softwoods and vice versa.
 
Seasoned, it is great for camping. I used some oak and hickory for cooking and then burned willow at night. Flames nicely
 
Well that sucks... I have a little that I was gonna cut up and burn in a firepit but if it's hard on my chain....screw that!

Had a 60ft white willow fall on my house during Sandy. Had a tree service out to get it off safely and I processed the rest. If you let the rounds sit on their sides for a few months, it will split easy as can be. If you try to do it right away, it's so wet it just swallows your axe/maul. I still quartered with sledge and wedge while wet. Anything knotty got pushed into the woods (and is now freaking growing after being cut for 7 months. I went a head and split it and burned a bit last in a make shift fire pit on top of an old stump I'm trying to get rid of. No complaints really and I definitely didn't smell any piss, though the stump is from a huge old hedge from teh cedar family, so make the two smells canceled each other out. East coast folks tend to look down on it because there are much better options available here. In England its widely used for sustainable burning practices (coppicing)
 
No hackmatack (aka juniper, tamarack) where you live Backwoods? Around here that's pretty much the only softwood that drops all its needles in the Fall.

That said . . . most of the time what you said about leafs dropping in the Fall . . . and trees with needles vs. leafs . . . is correct.

It just happens that like most things there are exceptions . . . and as such there are "soft" hardwoods and "hard" softwoods -- or rather trees that are hardwood with the properties of softwoods and vice versa.

Don't have any around here but in other parts of MI there is lots. And yes, there usually is an exception to every rule.
 
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