Here’s my take. If your friend has a “never ending supply†he may have enough of a woodlot that he can benefit from professional management of his timber resource. If he has over 10 acres, it would certainly be something to consider.
He can go here
http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/forestry/forest_practitioner_certification/directry.pdf
and find someone who will come out for free to walk the lot with him and let him know if his resource is worth being professionally managed.
Next he can go here
http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/forestry/forest_resource_plan/fplanall.pdf
And see if managing his land will save him on taxes in the long term. If he’s not planning to develop it, it might be worthwhile. In Massachusetts, Chapter 61 knocks the assessed value for the land down to less than $100 per acre. So on a 10 acre parcel, the assessed value would be under $1000 making the annual tax payment about $10.. You used to have to pay a portion of your harvest revenue to the town to make up some of the loss of taxes, but they got rid of that in 2008 to slow development by getting more participation in the program. I don’t know the rules in CT.
Even if it's professionally managed, if he has enough land, there will be more than enough for you to burn and he can save on taxes and make some money in the mean time. While the timber market sucks now, it will no doubt improve in the long term and its an investment that only bugs or drought can take away (giving you more wood to burn).
What you can do in the mean time is:
1. Take a walk through the woods and pick up every leaf that looks different. It’s better to do this in an area that doesn’t have a lot of underbrush to keep from picking up huckleberry, blueberry, mountain laurel and the like... Then take a pic of the leaves and post it here. Sometimes easier to ID species by leaves than bark…. Although there may be people on this site who would differ with that opinion.
2. Plan to take the dead and down, followed by the dead and standing followed by the live and crooked trees. If the place hasn’t been harvested in a long time, chances are the better trees could benefit from a thinning. Find the good straight ones and take down a crooked one next to them. Also, before taking dead and standing, ensure that there aren’t nests in the tops or woodpeckers living in the tree. It’s good to leave wildlife trees undisturbed. Additionally, be VERY careful taking down the dead ones as sometimes they’ll throw a limb down at you and cause an early payment of your life insurances.
How’s that for a first post on Hearth.Com?