Fresh cut wood ready to burn?

[jophysx]

A few weeks ago I went out to the state forest (in Oregon) to cut some firewood. It was my first time doing this. You are allowed to take fallen trees, up to two cords for a ten dollar permit. Mostly Douglas Fir.
I was very surprised to find the down trees to be very dry! Drier than most of the"seasoned" wood I bought at the beginning of the season. The stuff burns great already. Is this unusual? Maybe this wood had been on the ground for a full year and that explains it. I don't know. Sure is nice though because I had run out of wood and the spring has been so cold and rainy.
I wonder if the wood will be even better after a year cut, split, and stacked.

-Jim

 

[skyline]

There is no telling how long it was standing dead before it fell over. Standing dead is the best way in this area for wood to dry out besides being split and stacked in your shed. Once it hits the ground it will rot pretty quickly unless it is being held off the ground by other snags. As bad as this winter has been, just be thankful you're not along the Mississippi!

 

[bogydave]

Should be really dry after C/S/S for a year.
Not hard to believe it's drier that the "bought" seasoned wood.
"Bought seasoned wood" not being ready to burn seems to be the "norm".
But even it is good to go after a year CSS. Most here have learned to buy now,
for next (2012-2013 winter) burning season & it feels good to be a year or more ahead.
(Like the cartoon on top left of this page )

 

[Bigg_Redd]

A few weeks ago I went out to the state forest (in Oregon) to cut some firewood. It was my first time doing this. You are allowed to take fallen trees, up to two cords for a ten dollar permit. Mostly Douglas Fir.
I was very surprised to find the down trees to be very dry! Drier than most of the"seasoned" wood I bought at the beginning of the season. The stuff burns great already. Is this unusual? Maybe this wood had been on the ground for a full year and that explains it. I don't know. Sure is nice though because I had run out of wood and the spring has been so cold and rainy.
I wonder if the wood will be even better after a year cut, split, and stacked.

-Jim

No

 

[okotoks guy]

I split some Larch rounds that were 3 feet in diameter that were fresh cut from dead standing.
The Moisture Content was <10%!! My guess would be that the downed wood that you cut was
most likely a dead standing that had recently fallen.

Nice Score. Dry Fir is very good firewood.

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm burning some dead standing Black Oak that I cut a few weeks ago. Many of the branches that were <6" were dry.

 

[lukem]

A lot of the standing dead wood I cut goes directly into the stove. I don't have a moisture meter, but it is DRY. They have been standing dead for a LONG time though...I'd say 10+ years. Some of the trunks will be wet and will wait a year, but the tops burn great.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Not only is it not unusual, for me it's standard practice.

I posted a thread last fall entitled "Cut and Burn" with a little video of how my boys and I cut our, ready to burn, firewood.
The thread > https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/58715/

The rule of trying to get 2 or 3 years ahead with your cache of wood becomes unnessary if you have and abundent, reliable source of well seasoned trees at your disposal. In my case the beetle kill lodgepole pine fits the bill. I'll sometimes cut some fir too, but it's never as reliably pre-seasoned as the beetle kill lodgepole, nor can it be found in as great a quantities.
Here in BC we have an estimated 16.3 million hectares of infested trees, all for the taking. I'm trying to do my part.

 

[lukem]

Not only is it not unusual, for me it's standard practice.

I posted a thread last fall entitled "Cut and Burn" with a little video of how my boys and I cut our, ready to burn, firewood.
The thread > https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/58715/

The rule of trying to get 2 or 3 years ahead with your cache of wood becomes unnessary if you have and abundent, reliable source of well seasoned trees at your disposal. In my case the beetle kill lodgepole pine fits the bill. I'll sometimes cut some fir too, but it's never as reliably pre-seasoned as the beetle kill lodgepole, nor can it be found in as great a quantities.
Here in BC we have an estimated 16.3 million hectares of infested trees, all for the taking. I'm trying to do my part.

Similar situation here. Very few living elm trees left. The dead ones stand for a long time and make great firewood. I hope I'm not saying the same thing about Ash trees in 10 years. We don't have that nasty EAB yet down here.

 

[Wood Duck]

I think you're likely to get drier wood out west than we get here in the east. I know some coastal parts of Oregon are wet all year, but not far inland there are some nice, dry climate areas where a dead tree might be expected to be very dry. Here in the humid east, a lot of dead standing trees are dry mostly just in the tops and smaller branches. I have cut some dead standing oak that was quite wet and not at all ready to burn. it was better than live wood, I guess, but still needed a lot of time to season.

 

[Kenster]

I've cut standing dead Water Oaks that are so dead virtually all the limbs have just fallen off, yet the trunk almost oozes water and knock my MM right off the scale. I cut down one such last fall. The limb wood, I'm sure will be burnable this winter. The trunk will be at least the typical two years for oak. Not much difference is this standing dead and a fresh cut oak.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

Not unusual at all... softwood wood conifirs like pines, fires, & spruces season very quickly. There's a ton of deadfall/standing dead wood in the forest around here that's dry enough for burning... Like Carbon said, Never a need to get 2-3 years worth of wood built up when you're surrounded by wood that'll be ready to burn almost instantly after being cut..

 

[moosetrek]

I pulled some standing dead pine home a few weeks ago, and it was immediately ready to go. Now, with the rain we've had the past few days, the wood was so dry it absorbed moisture and burns worse than when I cut it. Probably stays dryer upright and in one piece...!

 

[Remmy122]

I just split some white oak that fell recently (trunk rotted out) that seemed pretty dry, I split some red oak a moth or two ago that had been cut down for 8 months and water litterally came splashing out of the wood.

Wood is Weird