Info on which trees to cut for firewood

seems like good advice,id cut anything that might benefit the forest in general,hard wood or softwood,for me,everthing has its place....

Good advice all around so far.

As mentioned by Jags . . . just cutting a few trees here and there differs greatly from someone who is managing a woodlot for a specific purpose -- i.e. tree growth of a particular species or two, animal habitat, etc.

As Roddy said . . . all wood has its place . . . softwood and hardwood.

I personally would look first for the downed, dead and poor growing trees . . . but that said I also tend to selectively cut an area . . . leaving the young and leaving the old trees . . . the philosophy being that the younger trees will be harvestable in a decade or so and that the older trees will continue to spread their seed in the area. It may or may not be scientific . . . but it's a wood cutting philosophy that my family has used for several generations so that we can go back into an area that was cut 10 or 20 years prior and harvest more wood in the same area.

Final question . . . you mention cutting, splitting and stacking wood in July . . . I assume this wood would be for the following year and not this coming Fall since processing the wood in July would not give the wood a whole lot of time to season -- maybe 3-5 months.

I think Jags hit it right one.

Look on the ground first. Chances are there is plenty of quality firewood already felled for you.

Next, look for standing dead trees. Anything where the bark is coming off should be your next stop...it has been dead for a while.

Next, look for trees that are almost dead, crooked, damaged, crowding a good tree, in the way of a trail, etc.

My Dad has 40 acres of hardwood. We've never *needed* to cut down a living tree for firewood....ever...in 20 years. There's always going to be plenty of down/standing dead to produce 5 cord a year into perpetuity.

Not saying we haven't cut down some good trees, but they were for milling, trail clearing, fence posts, etc...not firewood.

You say they select-cut hard maple, right there is a good start. Surely there are some tops left from that activity, and as the others said there's probably plenty of blowdowns and standing deads. That's where I'd start.

I agree with what the others have posted. I would add that when cutting standing multi-stem trees such as the red maple discussed in the article, consider cutting only one of the stems at a time. In doing so, the crowns of the remaining stems will be able to expand and the existing root system will be providing for fewer stems. This can increase the growth rate of that tree for a couple of years without opening a big hole in your forest canopy. One of the best tell-tale signs that it is time to cut a tree or two around a "crop tree" is to look up. If you can't see daylight between the crowns of the trees, its likely time to remove something. If you take out too much, you can end up with epicormic shoots (triggered by sunlight) growing out of the trunk of a once perfectly good sawlog.

My property in MA was logged 3 years ago. Forester only had the logger take out about 20% of the timber. I must have 100+ cords of tops on the ground so I don't have to touch anything standing. My friends have an open invitation to scrounge what they can to avoid letting the wood go to waste.

Also keep in mind that it may be hard to distinguish between a healthy maple and a sick or just dead one in the middle of winter - better off to wait until leaf time to try to pick between healthy & not healthy.

I also think you should have plenty of downed and standing dead trees.

Since you are in Michigan, you might as well go for any beech and ash you might have since they won't be around much longer.

Also, please keep the ticks up there. Thanks!

You may want to check with the cooperative extension services in your area, frequently they have a forester that can work with you to mark trees.

By the way, Northern Woodland is a great magazine for articles like the one you found. I subscribe and have given subscriptions as gifts.

peakbagger said:

You may want to check with the cooperative extension services in your area, frequently they have a forester that can work with you to mark trees...

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Best advice so far, IMO. Walking the property with a professional would be my first plan if I wasn't quite sure where to start. Rick

Why not pull the trees out of the woods immediately upon felling them instead of leaving them for a few months? Fell em, buck em and even split em in the woods if possible and leave all the mess out there. Or at least cut them into drag-able lengths and bring them in. Then you can buck and split them at your leisure without having to worry about ticks and other critters bothering you.

BillsWS said:

In a search for how to select trees to cut for firewood I found this article.
http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/how_do_i_choose_which_trees_to_cut

Does that look like a pretty good guideline? I searched for an "Idiot's guide for choosing firewood trees" and didn't find anything (yeah, I really did). If you know of any other info that will help a novice I thank you in advance for sharing it.

My property (40 acres) is about 50% hard maple that I had select cut two or three years ago. I plan to snowshoe and mark some trees to cut for firewood. I will include some softwoods as I have read here of BK users being satisfied with softwood burns. I'd like to drop a few trees this winter that I can get to with the 4 wheeler early in the spring before the bugs, ticks and the clay softens up. Then I have to stay pretty much out of the woods till the last week in July when the ticks more or less disappear. Whatever I can drag up by the driveway early I can c/s/s while waiting for July.

Thanks.

Bill in the U.P.

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Bill, since you selectively cut only 2 or 3 years ago, the tops of those trees would be the logical place to start. And with 40 acres, just start by taking out the least desirable trees you have. Some folks have a problem identifying dead trees unless it is summer time. If you have that problem, go out this summer and paint the dead trees so you know what to cut next winter. Also, with 40 acres, the amount you cut for firewood will barely make a dent in your woods. Not sure if you have any beech there or not but if so, take them out as they will by dieing soon anyway. I do not expect you'd have ash trees there either. But plenty of maple for sure.

How's you access to different regions? One of the things I decided to do was to cut in a "rough" new roadway through a section that I couldn't reach with my winch. When I'm done, likely many years, I'll be able to reach 150' on either side....and the other 150' from the roadways on the other sides of these regions.

I think that article you posted gives good advice. Save the trees with good form, save a variety of species. Most woods are young and tend to have more trees than will survive in the available space as the trees grow. Take out the bad ones to release the good.

I would not cut all of the dead wood, especially all the dead standing wood. Some places have a lot of dead trees, for example ash woods that the emerald ash borer has attacked or elm woods where dutch elm or elms yellows diseases have been through. In those types of woods I'd definitely cut a lot of the dead standing wood because there is so much. In other places where there are fewer dead trees I'd leave some dead standing trees, especially any trees that have hollows, woodpecker holes, etc. Lots of wildlife uses dead trees and removing them would remove some of the wildlife. Woodpeckers like to nest in dead trees and you want alot of woodpeckers to maintain the health of trees (by eating wood boring insects).

BillsWS said:

bpirger said:

How's you access to different regions? One of the things I decided to do was to cut in a "rough" new roadway through a section that I couldn't reach with my winch. When I'm done, likely many years, I'll be able to reach 150' on either side....and the other 150' from the roadways on the other sides of these regions.

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That's a great idea bpirger. There are quite a few access "roads" through the property. I hope I can do most of the skidding in the fall when the soil drys up enough to use the 4 wheeler.

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Bill, have you seen our dray we use for skidding logs?

BillsWS said:

Backwoods Savage said:

BillsWS said:

bpirger said:

How's you access to different regions? One of the things I decided to do was to cut in a "rough" new roadway through a section that I couldn't reach with my winch. When I'm done, likely many years, I'll be able to reach 150' on either side....and the other 150' from the roadways on the other sides of these regions.

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That's a great idea bpirger. There are quite a few access "roads" through the property. I hope I can do most of the skidding in the fall when the soil drys up enough to use the 4 wheeler.

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Bill, have you seen our dray we use for skidding logs?

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Hi Dennis, I just answered you on the other post (yes, deer camp too). No, I have not seen your dray. Is there a link here you can direct me to?

Bill in the U.P.

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Here you go Bill. I spent less than $10 to put this together and it works like a charm in snow or without snow.