Best trees to plant for future firewood harvest

[dave12345]

Hi all,
I am new to having a woodstove, just purchased some property out in the country and would like to grow some trees to be able to supplement my wood supply. I have approx 1.5 to 2 acre of field right now that I want to plant trees in. I don't think thats enough to continually support what I will need, but maybe a good portion of it anyway. The most common firewood around here is doug fir and big leaf maple, some oak but the oak is expensive.

Does anyone have experience burning leyland cypress, I have read that they grow extremely fast and they are easy to find? I think oak will grow too slow that I will not live long enough to harvest it myself.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions on what to plant for firewood, particularly in the pacific northwest area.

 

[BoiledOver]

Poplar and Aspen are quick growers. That is the up side with those species, the down would be their low btu's per cord. We have them here in Michigan and I do use them to heat with. The main source of firewood is purchased oak logs with the aspen and poplar thrown in just because it is free, they grow like weeds.

Do a little google research about the poplar for a sustained firewood source. I do not remember the numbers but it seems that 2 acres will supply a person for eternity or the life of the owner, whatever comes first. Whenever the state clears acerage in the forest, those dang things take off like nothing else.

 

[CountryBoy19]

If I'm not mistaken Black Locust will grow in certain parts of the PNW region. You may want to look into that. It's a good, high-BTU wood, it's a legume (fixes it's own nitrogen so grows fairly quickly relative to the BTU content), and readily grows back when cut (if you can keep the suckers trimmed back to a single chute you'll end up with a decent size tree in short order on regrowth because the root system is already there.

That being said, I would definitely diversify species. 1 single new pest/disease etc and your firewood supply is wiped out. Also consider that in the PNW area you'll always be able to score softwood fairly easily. The hardwoods, not so much. Definitely look into hardwood species that will grow in your area and plant those. They will take longer to mature, but you'll be glad when they do.

 

[Oldman47]

Fast growing and plenty hardy for your area would be mulberry. Where I am they are a weed and the ones I cut off at the ground are 6 or more inches in diameter less than 10 years later.They are prime wood as BTUs per cord as well. Be sure to check local regulations. They grow so easily they may be restricted where they are not native.

 

[Ashful]

I count rings on most trees I cut, and rarely find myself sitting on one under 100 years. Based on a presumption that I will not be wielding a chainsaw even 40 years from today, I'm thinking there's no tree I can plant today and harvest in my lifetime.

Quick growers = low BTU's, so not worth the trouble, unless there's nothing else to cut. How long do you plan to keep at this wood harvesting thing?

 

[DougA]

I have been cutting and burning Austrees that were planted 20 yrs ago. Very fast growing, likes to grow in rows and has straight trunks. You can push a twig in wet ground and it will grow!
(broken link removed to http://www.fasttreesdirect.com/id13.html)
Downside is low BTU compared to others but you will not find a fast growing tree that has high BTU. I have hundreds of Black Locust and yes, they grow reasonably fast but half of an Austree. You're looking at 20 yrs to get a 6" to 8" trunk with BL. These also spread very fast and you need to keep on top of new growth if you don't want them to over run your lot with thorny undergrowth. Great burning but stringy to split.

Also agree, diversify as much as you can.

 

[jebatty]

Check with a local office of your department of natural resources. Planting an invasive would be a big mistake. After more than 20 years of experience using aspen (popple) as the fuel supply for the wood stove that is the primary heat for our house in cold northern Minnesota, I would safely advise ignoring the "Quick growers = low BTU's, so not worth the trouble...." advice. But if you choose to follow that advice on your decision to plant trees, be assured that you will have slow growers and find yourself to be fertilizer in the ground before your first harvest -- which I doubt is your plan.

 

[David.Ervin]

Maybe a mixed stand of fast and slower growing stuff, like poplar and some flavor of maple? You'll get a decent harvest out of the poplar and clear space for the maples to grow up later. Even if it's lower BTU stuff, if it was (more or less) free and you've got enough, I think you'd be happy with it.

 

[Wood Duck]

I think Black Locust is a fairly common, albeit non-native, tree in your region. Black Locust grows fast when young and is great firewood, as somebody else mentioned. Another good thing about Black Locust is that other trees will grow well between or below Black Locust. If Black Locust will grow well in your area it will already be present, so look around to see if they are growing in the area. If they are present, I'd plant Black Locust plus other types of trees. Perhaps every second tree would be a locust, with some Doug Fir, BIgleaf Maple, and Oak mixed in. Eventually you'll harvest the Locust and leave behind a stand of trees native to your region that should do well in the long run.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions on what to plant for firewood, particularly in the pacific northwest area.

Locust: black or honey. It grows fast, it dries fast, tons of BTUs.

 

[Applesister]

Maybe you can get a grant or a tax credit for planting a specific type of vegitation. You usually get a tax break for new plantations. There usually is a line between agricultural and reforestation projects. AKA christmas trees...
Personally, Id sell the fields and buy forested land to start with. Cheaper tax rates too.

 

[byQ]

The tree that will give you the most btu's on your 1.5 to 2 acres? And you live in the Northwest - Douglas Fir. And it grows naturally in your area. The trees can become skyscrapers. A guy could cut down one 160' Doug fir and be good for the year.

 

[Ashful]

Doug Fir grows an average of 1 foot per year in our zone. Good luck getting to the 160 foot mark in time to burn it.

 

[DougA]

I spent some time checking out my forest after reading the answers here. 33 yrs ago, I bought 11 acres with a good forest on one acre and just a handful of trees on the other 10. I planted over 2,000 trees in the first few years. So, my circumstance is pretty similar to the OP, just on the other end of the time line and with more acreage. These trees are all similar in size for amount of wood usable: black locust, silver maple, spruce, pine, ash, elm. Smaller trees are; hard maple, oaks, etc. Larger are; poplar & Austree. There are over a hundred species but these are the primary ones.

From that list I would not plant ash, elm, spruce or pine for firewood either due to disease or low BTU. They are great for many other uses though. Both poplar and Austree are lower BTU but I find both are easy to grow, grow fast, easy to split, fast to dry. For me, these are worthwhile in my wood shed. I did not plant elm but have close to 100 of them. They grow to about 45', then die off, leaving great firewood.

If you take into account the thick bark on the black locust, the usable wood is similar to many other trees but the BTU is indeed better. They can get invasive and you need to cut or mow seedlings you don't want. BL is also great for growing very straight and tall when planted in clusters. These make perfect fence posts at 6 to 8". Thorns are a problem and I have lots of scars from getting hands ripped on them.

Whatever you plant, the natural trees will find their way onto your property and you will end up with a wide variety. This is important as none of us know what trees will be dying 30 yrs from now. Planting a variety also gives them all added protection from damaging wind and ice storms. I've lost over 100 trees in the past 2 yrs from this. Until 2013, I would not have thought it could happen but it does.

 

[Pellet_Pete]

This probably isn't viable on 2 acres, but generally speaking if you're going to plant trees, plant timber trees on a tight grid and have a thinning schedule. You can take firewood from the periodic thinnings and grow nice straight timber trees. Some day, whoever harvests the timber will be able to buy their firewood for a few years. As others have said, in your part of the world I'm guessing doug-fir is both appropriate and readily available. WA has a small forest landowners association that is top-notch - if OR has something similar, that would be a good group to get in touch with.

 

[Applesister]

Yeah, a forest association is a good start.
Ive seen, in my lifetime, an entire apple orchard mature from what once was open corn fields. So its not impossible.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Why not plant trees that will be worth something, then sell them and buy whatever you want?

I have about 20 acers of fields and I have been considering doing this for a long term investment.

 

[Ashful]

Ive seen, in my lifetime, an entire apple orchard mature from what once was open corn fields. So its not impossible.

I can see it now, "Applegranny".

 

[Oldman47]

Why not plant trees that will be worth something, then sell them and buy whatever you want?

I have about 20 acers of fields and I have been considering doing this for a long term investment.

I planted over 30 acres of previously cropped fields with trees. Species selection included a recognition of soil types each species prefers, growth rates, value at maturity and a recognition that thinning will be required. My mix of fast growing ash with slower walnut, red and white oak and hickory gave me fast trees to be thinned later but also gave me a variety of species so that no single pest could clear my land. Since I planted my rows near existing forested land I allowed anything that came up in my rows to stay. That gave me some eastern red cedar and wild black cherry in many rows along with a few silver maples and honey locust in a small part of the planting.
My first thinning scheduled is coming up soon and the EAB has helped me choose to focus on ash as the main species I remove. I planted at 10 x 10 foot spacing and after initial losses I still have over 85% of the planting in place and growing. With multiple thinnings I need to get down to about a 20 x 20 foot spacing over the next decade or so but it need not be on a rigid grid pattern. At roughly 20 foot spacings all of the remaining trees will have the space they need to mature. If I had merely planted high value trees on a 20 foot spacing they would not have competed with each other for light and would be much shorter today, they would no longer exist on a 20 foot spacing due to those early losses and one or more of those premium tree species would likely be lost due to who knows what pest will come along next. If I got extraordinarily lucky I might have done OK with a monoculture planting but even so would have had to plant densely enough to promote good growth through competition and would need to be ready for my tree farm to end up looking like the western conifer forests that have been decimated by a pine blight in the last 15 years.

 

[BoiledOver]

For the original poster, if they decide to check back in. And for anyone else too. Here is a link to a little more detail on poplars for heat. Stated by someone that 1 acre would do the trick. I believe that theory would work.

(broken link removed to http://www.hybridpoplars.com/heat.htm)

 

[Maclura Pomifera]

Does Hedge Apple grow in the Pacific Northwest?

 

[begreen]

It can grow here according to Wikipedia, or any other continental state, but I have not seen it growing in WA state yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclura_pomifera
Osage orange occurred historically in the Red River drainage of Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas and in the Blackland Prairies, Post Oak Savannas, and Chisos Mountains of Texas.[10] It has been widely naturalized in the United States and Ontario. Osage-orange has been planted in all the 48 conterminous States and in southeastern Canada.[10]

 

[iamlucky13]

Also consider that in the PNW area you'll always be able to score softwood fairly easily.

I think this is a good point.

Also, living in Portland, you're within reasonable driving distance of the Mt. Hood National Forest, and can get a $10 per cord permit to cut windfallen trees. You just need a way to buck and haul it and a little bit of spare time to spend in the woods, as if anybody living in the Pacific NW needs an excuse to spend time in the woods.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mthood/passes-permits/forestproducts/?cid=stelprd3793092

Therefore, my advice is to plant on your property the trees you want to look at when you're relaxing there and enjoying the outdoors and not worry too much about firewood. Plant a variety and you'll have lots of different looks to enjoy. If the southern edge of the property has good sun exposure, maybe include some fruit trees.

But if you do want to maximize the timber or firewood value like others have mentioned above, you can also mix tactics - plant a core area of douglas firs, and border it with other trees. A mixed stand will also encourage more diverse wildlife on you're property.

One tactic that is sometimes recommended for timber stands in the Pacific NW is to plant douglas fir or other timber crops and red alder together. I think the ideal tactic is to plant the alder 2-3 years after the primary trees so they have a slight head start.

Red alder is both fast growing and a nitrogen fixer. It grows well enough in the Pacific NW that some people will even call it a weed, but I think of it as a really good cover crop. Even if you give the douglas fir a head start, the alder will catch up in 5-10 years. By that time, you'll want to start thinning the alder to avoid too much shade on the douglas firs, and some of them may be getting close to 6 inches diameter. That gives you small amounts of firewood over time, and the nitrogen it adds to the soil will ultimately help the douglas fir grow. BTU value is moderately low, but better than poplar or cottonwood. Splitting difficulty is moderate, because it's a bit stringy, especially the bark.

 

[Jeffm1]

Hi all,
I am new to having a woodstove, just purchased some property out in the country and would like to grow some trees to be able to supplement my wood supply. I have approx 1.5 to 2 acre of field right now that I want to plant trees in. I don't think thats enough to continually support what I will need, but maybe a good portion of it anyway. The most common firewood around here is doug fir and big leaf maple, some oak but the oak is expensive.

Does anyone have experience burning leyland cypress, I have read that they grow extremely fast and they are easy to find? I think oak will grow too slow that I will not live long enough to harvest it myself.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions on what to plant for firewood, particularly in the pacific northwest area.

I don't know how fast it grows in comparison to locust but I am planting apple trees. I eat at least one apple a day, so I save the seeds. Doing an internet search on growing apple trees from seeds will tell you growing such trees from seeds will produce puny to no actual fruit. Perfect. I don't want fruit. Fruit bearing trees usually are from grafted stock of two different varieties. So, since I want firewood and not apples this is perfect. Applewood is awesome. Burn it, smoke it. Good btus, great smell, hardwood. Am planning on using some to coppice during retirement to supplement my wood cutting excursions into national forest with my wood cutting permit. Will let you know how it goes in 15-20 years.

 

[tsquini]

I would grow a mix of trees. Poplar, maple, ash, birch, oak, locust.