First of my Norway maple

[drewmo]

We had three 70+ year old Norway maples cut down off our property in the spring of 2014. I'm just now starting to burn the uglies and shorts. So far, I love this wood. It's hot, gasses forever and it coals like lava. We had a true overnight burn last night on an incomplete load (i.e., the insert blower was still on in the a.m.). Should be a warm winter. I sacrificed my eyebrows for this photo.

 

[TheAardvark]

Thanks for your sacrifice to get us the nice pic !

 

[HisTreeNut]

Very nice...[zoom lens next time ].

 

[bag of hammers]

Norway gets a bad rap up here in the Great White. Nice to see you getting some great heat off it.

 

[LocustPocust]

I had some Norway Maple once and I liked it. It seemed to season very fast like junk but It burned like a higher quality wood.

 

[MaintenanceMan]

Great pic! I've burned some water maple and sugar maple. A little red maple too. Never had any Norway. Got a nice sized water maple to split up this weekend....

 

[TedyOH]

I had some Norway Maple once and I liked it. It seemed to season very fast like junk but It burned like a higher quality wood.

Same thing here with all the silver maple I have.......soft maples get a bad rap.

 

[kennyp2339]

Love burning maple, it dries faster than oak, burns clean, leaves nice coals, doesn't shed bark real bad. I also enjoyed that pic drewmo.
In my area a good way to tell Norway maple from sugar maple is this time of year, sugar maple leaves always turn color first in the maple species. Norway's always are the last to change maple tree wise.

 

[UpstateBill]

I have read that Norway Maples burn just as well as Sugar Maples. I chopped down a small Norway Maple tree on our property early this spring (late March). Do you think the wood has seasoned enough to burn yet?

I think Norway Maples get a bad rap. They are a beautiful tree if you have enough space and you don't mind their late leaf drops. Oth, they don't seem to grow as tall and look as stately as sugar maples. Instead, they tend to spread out further with big huge limbs almost the same size as their trunks. I can never tell if volunteer seedlings are Sugar Maples or Norway Maples, though. Like Kenny P says, the best way to tell the difference is that the Norway's leaves change color later. On our property, they tend to be the last tree to drop their leaves in the fall. This can be sort of annoying if you need to rake up the leaves and there is snow covering the ground.

 

[Applesister]

I never thought about their late leaf drop as being specific to that tree, but Im leaf vacuuming in Nov. They are listed as an invasive species from information that I have. And they are prolific seeders. My whole lawn was covered in seedlings one year. I let them get about 8" and then just set the mower deck really low.
I don't know what the bad rap is. There is some odd politics involved in that tree being imported to this country. Norway maple isnt on any BTU charts that Ive ever seen. I wouldnt clasify it as a soft maple. I would rate it closer Sugar maple but you wont find any info on the wood characteristics. Its almost like its been shunned.
Which is too bad, great firewood, great shade, nice looking, pest free...
An easy way to tell Norway is the milky sap exuded from the leaf petioles when you snap a leaf off the stem. Like milkweed.

 

[UpstateBill]

Yeah, they sometimes don't fully lose all of their leaves until after a couple snowfalls. We've seen leaves hang onto the trees here until early December. Another way to identify them is by the color of their leaves in the fall. They turn a pretty yellow color instead of red or orange like Sugar Maples.

 

[drewmo]

I was told by a tree guy when we bought our property that Norways grow quick (several feet per year) and were a favored tree to plant because of this. More shade more quickly, or, as he put it, "shade before you die." Not an incredibly sturdy tree and mine were starting to suffer. When the power co. wanted them away from the lines, I had no issue with seeing them go.

 

[TheAardvark]

They are invasive. They grow faster than native trees and have a thick canopy that blocks out light for other plants. They will take over a forest. Get rid of them if at all possible.

 

[iamlucky13]

Is the bad rap due to anything other than the fact that Norway maples are generally considered invasive (although not bad enough to be legally prohibited in most areas)?

 

[SeanG]

Great pic! Really love the focus on the coals.

 

[Applesister]

My mom found an acorn sprouting in the woods and she planted it in a row with our Norways. They were all nursery trees(large saplings) But the Oak has surpassed the Norways and now towers above them. I remember resentfully mowing around that seedling oak for years. I dont think theres much risk of Norways choking out other native trees, they may lack a forest habit. Ive never seen one growing in any woodlot that Ive ever traveled thru. They may compete with poplar or bradford pears or crabapples but I think our native Pines and Oaks and Sugar maple may hold true.

 

[TheAardvark]

My mom found an acorn sprouting in the woods and she planted it in a row with our Norways. They were all nursery trees(large saplings) But the Oak has surpassed the Norways and now towers above them. I remember resentfully mowing around that seedling oak for years. I dont think theres much risk of Norways choking out other native trees, they may lack a forest habit. Ive never seen one growing in any woodlot that Ive ever traveled thru. They may compete with poplar or bradford pears or crabapples but I think our native Pines and Oaks and Sugar maple may hold true.

I am working on a project now at my grandmothers where Norways have taken over areas. I plan on making a post with pics as I progress on their eradication and replacement with native seedlings.

 

[MJSully]

Roll Drewmo on the ground...His eyebrows will grow back...

We had three 70+ year old Norway maples cut down off our property in the spring of 2014. I'm just now starting to burn the uglies and shorts. So far, I love this wood. It's hot, gasses forever and it coals like lava. We had a true overnight burn last night on an incomplete load (i.e., the insert blower was still on in the a.m.). Should be a warm winter. I sacrificed my eyebrows for this photo.

View attachment 165518

 

[Paulywalnut]

I can always tell when someone is burning hard maple, it's a great old aroma that waives through the neighborhood reminding you of the great smell of a nice fire.

 

[bag of hammers]

Is the bad rap due to anything other than the fact that Norway maples are generally considered invasive (although not bad enough to be legally prohibited in most areas)?

It's a bit of everything. Some feathers got ruffled when the maple leaf on the Canadian $20 was looking more like the "invasive" Norway than the "real" maple leaf (sugar maples). Kinda silly I guess, but the maple leaf here is like the stars and stripes for our US friends - you kinda don't mess with it. Norway is considered invasive, but apparently has been here for 100+ years, so there's some differences of opinion around what that really means too. It does seem to grow like a weed - at least a few I see around the vicinity of my place. But some folks like that they can get a full shade tree sooner than later. So I dunno if i like it popping up on my property, but I wouldn't hesitate to add it to my wood pile in any case.

 

[Wood Duck]

Norway Maples take over a forest through their very dense, shallow roots and dense shade. Although they don't grow faster than other trees over the long term, and they'll never grow taller than many other types of tree so they can't shade out the mature trees, they can prevent regeneration of most other trees. The dense roots don't allow seedlings of other trees to survive. The roots also kill most of the native shrubs and wildflowers too. A woodland taken over by Norway Maples consists only of Norway Maples and bare ground.

We should all be burning any Norway Maple we cat get hold of because they are a menace and also burn well. Ailanthus is also invasive but burns like crap, so we should burn Norway Maple and leave the Ailanthus to rot. Actually the best way to kill Ailanthus is to girdle them which prevents suckers from growing, and leaves a nice dead snag for wildlife. I also think the dead snag serves as a warning for other Ailanthus, sort of like the hanged pirates at the entrance to the harbor in Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

[jrems]

I'm still baffled why it doesn't ever show up on any firewood charts for btu. I have at least a cord and it burns really well.

 

[DBoon]

I'm still baffled why it doesn't ever show up on any firewood charts for btu.

I have seen it on some charts in the past and it is rated similarly to Sugar Maple. This fits with your experiences as well.

 

[lindnova]

I burned some what I believe to be Norway maple a couple years ago. I got it from a yard at a house demolition. The leaves were yellow in fall. Great clean wood. Loved it.

 

[paul bunion]

I'm still baffled why it doesn't ever show up on any firewood charts for btu. I have at least a cord and it burns really well.

That would probably be because the webpage maker uses published densities of bone dry wood species to derive BTU yield. (Unless the webpage maker just copied another chart which I'm sure is the case more often than not). The calculated yield will work because BTU/pound wood is the same no matter what species it is. Trouble is Norway maple is a weed tree and nobody in the forest products industry has bothered to figure out its density or if somebody has the chart masters haven't consulted enough sources.