Any Juniper fans here?

[turn_n_burn]

I have recently been able to get a line on some Western Juniper to be cut down. I've burned it before, but can't seem to find much info on it. I know it's popular in central Oregon. Just wondering what the BTU rating was and how it compares to Tamarack, and if it is considered a smelly wood or not.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

I have recently been able to get a line on some Western Juniper to be cut down. I've burned it before, but can't seem to find much info on it. I know it's popular in central Oregon. Just wondering what the BTU rating was and how it compares to Tamarack, and if it is considered a smelly wood or not.

(broken link removed)

BTU value is listed in the column on the right.

 

[turn_n_burn]

Nice!

 

[byQ]

Juniper firewood is okay (chart says 19.5 btu rating), but getting the tree to firewood - not so easy. Juniper in Idaho isn't really a tree - it is a shrub, 12-15 feet tall with many branches. There is about 3 or 4 medium rounds per tree and a maybe 10 smaller pieces of burnable wood. I think the wood grows spiral like. I've heard others say juniper is hard on chains because the bark has dirt and grit in it.

Now compare this to a mature Lodgepole pine (~btu 18). Lodgepole grows at a higher elevation than juniper. An 80 foot lodgepole will have the lower two thirds with no limbs. The bark is minimal and flaky. So, with a sharp chain and a decent chainsaw you can cut up 30 medium & large rounds in a reasonable time. The grain is straight so splitting is easy.

It is funny that BLM (the bureau of land management) has a no limit harvest on juniper - help yourself to as much as you want to harvest. 30 trees to get a cord of firewood?

 

[Hoozie]

Yup! I love burning Juniper. But like mentioned, it's a PITA to cut and process (and I have access to 100+ acres of it).

So when I found a guy selling split juniper for $75 a cord last year, I bought all he had :D (which was only a couple cords )

 

[turn_n_burn]

byQ, do I need to get a cutting permit to get Juniper like I would if cutting down a pine? Owyhee county isn't that far from Payette, and I wouldn't mind the extra work to cut and process it. Any areas you know of nearby where you could recommend finding it? Most of what I know is out towards Silver City and Grandview.

 

[byQ]

byQ, do I need to get a cutting permit to get Juniper like I would if cutting down a pine? Owyhee county isn't that far from Payette, and I wouldn't mind the extra work to cut and process it. Any areas you know of nearby where you could recommend finding it? Most of what I know is out towards Silver City and Grandview.

I don't know your area, sorry. Call BLM and the forest service. That is what I did. Blm manages the lower areas and the forest service handles the higher elevations. Most of the bigger trees are in the higher elevations.

 

[HighTon]

I burn a lot of Juniper. $10 per cord for permits from BLM here; dead trees only. We have a lot of big dead Junipers less than 5 miles from my house. I can cut close to a cord in only a few hours with a helper.

 

[turn_n_burn]

I drove down thru Winnemucca and Reno on my way to Monterey last year, there looked to be a lot of primo juniper down there. I found an area in Idaho that has quite a few of them, as well as mountain mahogany, which is the 2nd densest wood in north america, next to ironwood, which I saw a lot of on the great basin highway by Ely this year coming back from Vegas (we like Nevada a lot). Plus, I have relatives that live in Fallon, which isn't too far from you. One of these days I will get around to driving the Lincoln highway (otherwise known as the loneliest road in America). Looked amazing! Cheers!

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

I'm just liking this because I took out about 2,000 square feet of juniper on our property, and it is the devil. Yay for burning it!

 

[turn_n_burn]

It is definitely a problem up here, and seems to spread like wildfire. Our BLM in Idaho is in the middle of a campaign to remove it from one and a half million acres of rangeland. I'm told they have such a hard time with it they literally have to sweep up the cutting sites or it will spring up everywhere. Every seed has to be eliminated. I guess it crowds out other native plants like no other. But, hey, it burns like the milltails of hell and smells great, so why not?