Elderthewelder said:
The pine in your area is western white pine, travel over the Cascades and you will find an abundance of Ponderosa pine, It is intersting to see you rate the western pine as very good, but you do not like Alder or Cedar
According to this wood chart the cedar and alder have a higher BTU count than the pine, also the doug fir has a higher btu count than the Big Leaf maple ( soft maple) that is abundant in your area
http://www.thelograck.com/firewood_rating_chart.html
I find it fascinating to hear about these trees I've never seen in real life. I've been in the Northeast for 60 years - Vermont and New York. Also have some forest land in northern Michigan - that I regard more as more northeastern then mid-western. Although I've always heated with wood, I still like seeing trees alive and standing better then in the wood-furnace.
But I always choose being warm over the life of a tree. My wife and I own many large woodlots, but I still cut on other people's properties when it's available, and only cut my own when I have to.
Here, none of the red or white pine is very good for firewood or structural strength. But, southern yellow pine from down south is almost as hard as oak. I also bought boards cut from Ponderosa pine and they are much harder then any of our white or red pine we have here.
You've got me with the Big Leaf Maple. Never heard of it until today. I have many stands of hard maple, used mostly for making maple syrup. We also have black maple, silver maple, red (aka soft or swamp maple), Norway maple, and striped maple (aka Moosewood). All the maples here are great for firewood. Hard and black have the most heat but take that much longer to dry. The softer maples dry easier and faster, and are good wood in their own right.