Pine isn’t hardwood, but check this out...

In Colorado, our beetle-kill is resulting in what some are calling an "incomprehensible" amount of dead wood in mountain forests. Folks are talking pellets, firewood, dimensional lumber, motor-fuel, town boilers, you name it. (It is sad, but I burn the stuff. Free is good.)

State Forest Service estimates 50,000,000 tons of dead wood. Yes. See article:

http://www.timescall.com/News_Story.asp?id=7266

Regards,

Dexter

All wood has about the same btu's per pound...what differs is just he space that pound fits in. But as you say, free is good and putting wood to use instead of letting it lay out to rot is also good. Might be a little tough to get a good overnight burn with the stuff, but otherwise enjoy your free wood score!

We burned nothing but willow and poplar for a couple of years and it still kept the oil burned off and kept us warmer too.

NIMBYism will keep any large scale biomass related projects from happening. Sad but true. Energy prices haven't gone up enough for people to allow this type of energy project in their locale. We live in a country where the greater good of most is sacrificed for a few.
2 projects here have been shot down in recent years here because of NIMBYism. A coal to biomass retrofit and a massive wind farm. Sad ,very sad.

Anyways as far as the OP goes the priority is to get that wood removed asap because its become a fire hazard.