Worth Splitting Leyland Cypress?

[barnaclebob]

I'm having 6 Leyland Cypress trees taken out to make room for my wood sheds. They are about 12-18" in diameter with about 10' of usable trunk on each one. Is it worth splitting these up to dry or should I just have the tree company take the wood? My neighbor has a splitter that I would be able to use because this stuff doesn't look like it would be easy to split by hand.

I'm not able to collect wood yet so my other alternative is to buy what is probably a mix of fir and maple as I'm in Western WA.

 

[Eureka]

I’m sure it’s comparable to other evergreens so not high on BTUs but still free BTUs. I’d keep it

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

It splits horribly. Just shears off at 45 degrees and filled with branches. Depends on what the rounds look like but would be very low BTUs. Might be worth keeping if there is nothing else to scrounge.

 

[Eureka]

If the 10’ of trunk is nothing but branches, let them chip it. I tend to just keep and burn anything usable as long as it isn’t brushy. I hate branches

 

[barnaclebob]

Yeah its pretty much all branches and I wouldn't even think about keeping it if it weren't for my neighbors splitter. I'd guess there is maybe half a cord total of stuff that's worth splitting.

 

[Woody5506]

If it's just gonna be a hassle, get rid of it! If you are looking forward to or don't mind splitting/stacking then go for it.

 

[barnaclebob]

Well I did end up splitting this wood. If it weren't my own trees I'd probably try to avoid splitting it again unless someone maybe delivered it in rounds for free and I still had access to my neighbors splitter. Some of the bigger rounds bogged down his splitter with a 5.5hp engine, it didn't say what the force on the actuator was though. The bark was really sappy but it did split into relatively straight splits most of the time. We'll have to see how it dries and burns.