I live in southern Colorado and have used wood as a heat source all my life. Pine, white fir, juniper, aspen and pinion along with some cotton wood are woods I use. I don't cut and use much oak because it is not large here. My favorite is pinion because it is heavy or dense and produces a lot of heat without ever popping. Pound for pound aspen is as heat intense as pinion but of course weights much less so a cord of aspen only weights maybe one half as much a pinion. I use aspen to clean the flu. If you take a cold day and burn a hearty aspen fire it will burn the fouling from the chimney especially on a wood cook stove. In most cases aspen it used to make match sticks and as kindling it will light a fire without any other fire started. Aspen also works well as a wood used in smoking meats. I do not and never have cut living trees to use a firewood. When I worked for the forest service aspens were considered the weeds of the forest.
I use Aspen here in northern Alberta because it burns a bit hotter than spruce , its cleaner to handle ( doesnt leave bits of bark all over the place but it's ash is very fine and can cover everything in the area it's being burned. We don't have the option of good burning hardwoods like oak , maple.
Hi Mark, I burn aspen for that exact reason. No bed of coals to fill up the fire box. Most of my firewood is popular or softwood. Free wood from my woodlot. I do mix in a small amount of good hardwood but that is like 10%. I am retired and like working in the woods. The aspen I harvest for firewood is cut in early summer when the bark is loose. After falling the tree I use a spud and remove the bark up to the limbs. Limbs and leaves on, with no bark it dries out very nice. In fact it will last for 3 to 4 years like this if the butt is up off the ground. It does make nice clean firewood.
We're surrounded by aspen, so it's our main source for firewood. I save some beautiful birch for when it's very cold, like today, as one large log will burn well into the night. I do find it creates a lot of ash, though, and btw, we leave the bark on for kindling. I pry it off easily from the log with a screwdriver.
Very nice summary of the Aspen family... I'll add my 2 cents. Aspen is not my favorite tree for a variety of reasons. They share a common root system which means they spring up from the roots and can be difficult to contain if your trying to minimize their presence. They also are not long lived and tend to grow tall and then either break during a windstorm or uproot causing damage to other hardwoods your trying to promote. I've been slowly girdling the few I have. As far as firewood goes, it is close to the bottom of BTU's per cord. I have an EPA stove that can build up a great deal of coals which requires you to either open the draft significantly or add wood that does not coal to help burn down the coals so you can reload the stove. By adding Aspen to the coal bed, it gets the stove hot quickly and burns down the coals since as you said, it does not coal very much, which is why I add it in the early morning to help burn down coals and add some quick heat. I also find Aspen to be great at starting a fire in the stove. So in a nutshell, I think Aspen plays an important role in my firewood woodshed. Worse for BTU's per cord, best for starting fires and burning down coals. I will say in my previous non EPA stoves, I don't think it would be helpful other than maybe to start a fire.
I have 23 acres in NW Wisconsin loaded full of Quaking Aspen. It’s all I burn in my wood stove which is my primary heat source. The Aspen is choking out all the better hardwoods like Oak, Maple and Birch so I’m thinning out the Aspen to promote the better hardwoods. I have actually found to prefer burning the Aspen, it’s easy to process, it burns hotter, leaves less coals so I have more room in the stove for wood and I can still get a decent overnight burn with enough coals for reloading in the morning.
We're up in NW Wisconsin too and had been using oak, which was burning very hot. And felt like we're supposed to cut down these trees on our property. Turns out they were aspen and thank God, sounds like we can use them. Thank you for sharing!
One comment here says aspen is the oldest living tree but that is incorrect. They are the largest living single organism and the oldest living trees are bristlecone pines.
Aspen are the world's oldest tree. A stand in Utah is 80,000 years old. I have aspen and bristlecone pines on my property...some of those are 2000 years old. All my aspen have white bark. One other nugget...the bark has chlorophyll in it so it continues to grow in winter after leaves drop. Thanks for info.
Hey Zach. If you need to bring down some of those trees don't hesitate to process it into fire wood. One of the worst things about aspen is the thickness and density of the bark. All aspen needs to be split to permit drying. If left in the round, it will rot before it dries.
Inflammatory statement: if aspen is good enough to heat homes in Alaska, it’s good enough for us in the lower 48 😉 Use it for burning down deep hardwood coal beds, if nothing else. You won’t be disappointed.
Yes - we're in Alberta, and the tree looks more like a balsam, rather than a trembling, aspen which has a light bark with dark knot holes, much like birch.
I live in southern Colorado and have used wood as a heat source all my life. Pine, white fir, juniper, aspen and pinion along with some cotton wood are woods I use. I don't cut and use much oak because it is not large here. My favorite is pinion because it is heavy or dense and produces a lot of heat without ever popping. Pound for pound aspen is as heat intense as pinion but of course weights much less so a cord of aspen only weights maybe one half as much a pinion. I use aspen to clean the flu. If you take a cold day and burn a hearty aspen fire it will burn the fouling from the chimney especially on a wood cook stove. In most cases aspen it used to make match sticks and as kindling it will light a fire without any other fire started. Aspen also works well as a wood used in smoking meats. I do not and never have cut living trees to use a firewood. When I worked for the forest service aspens were considered the weeds of the forest.
I use Aspen here in northern Alberta because it burns a bit hotter than spruce , its cleaner to handle ( doesnt leave bits of bark all over the place but it's ash is very fine and can cover everything in the area it's being burned. We don't have the option of good burning hardwoods like oak , maple.
Hi Mark, I burn aspen for that exact reason. No bed of coals to fill up the fire box. Most of my firewood is popular or softwood. Free wood from my woodlot. I do mix in a small amount of good hardwood but that is like 10%. I am retired and like working in the woods. The aspen I harvest for firewood is cut in early summer when the bark is loose. After falling the tree I use a spud and remove the bark up to the limbs. Limbs and leaves on, with no bark it dries out very nice. In fact it will last for 3 to 4 years like this if the butt is up off the ground. It does make nice clean firewood.
We're surrounded by aspen, so it's our main source for firewood. I save some beautiful birch for when it's very cold, like today, as one large log will burn well into the night.
I do find it creates a lot of ash, though, and btw, we leave the bark on for kindling. I pry it off easily from the log with a screwdriver.
Ive never seen Aspen bark like that, even in colorado.
To me it looks more like a balsam poplar than an aspen. It's a pretty sturdy looking trunk that doesn't look like it lends itself to trembling.
Very nice summary of the Aspen family... I'll add my 2 cents. Aspen is not my favorite tree for a variety of reasons. They share a common root system which means they spring up from the roots and can be difficult to contain if your trying to minimize their presence.
They also are not long lived and tend to grow tall and then either break during a windstorm or uproot causing damage to other hardwoods your trying to promote. I've been slowly girdling the few I have.
As far as firewood goes, it is close to the bottom of BTU's per cord. I have an EPA stove that can build up a great deal of coals which requires you to either open the draft significantly or add wood that does not coal to help burn down the coals so you can reload the stove.
By adding Aspen to the coal bed, it gets the stove hot quickly and burns down the coals since as you said, it does not coal very much, which is why I add it in the early morning to help burn down coals and add some quick heat.
I also find Aspen to be great at starting a fire in the stove. So in a nutshell, I think Aspen plays an important role in my firewood woodshed. Worse for BTU's per cord, best for starting fires and burning down coals. I will say in my previous non EPA stoves, I don't think it would be helpful other than maybe to start a fire.
Thanks for the notes there Mark - that’s an interesting point about mixing it in with other wood to burn down the coals.
I have 23 acres in NW Wisconsin loaded full of Quaking Aspen. It’s all I burn in my wood stove which is my primary heat source. The Aspen is choking out all the better hardwoods like Oak, Maple and Birch so I’m thinning out the Aspen to promote the better hardwoods. I have actually found to prefer burning the Aspen, it’s easy to process, it burns hotter, leaves less coals so I have more room in the stove for wood and I can still get a decent overnight burn with enough coals for reloading in the morning.
We're up in NW Wisconsin too and had been using oak, which was burning very hot. And felt like we're supposed to cut down these trees on our property. Turns out they were aspen and thank God, sounds like we can use them. Thank you for sharing!
One comment here says aspen is the oldest living tree but that is incorrect. They are the largest living single organism and the oldest living trees are bristlecone pines.
Aspen are the world's oldest tree. A stand in Utah is 80,000 years old. I have aspen and bristlecone pines on my property...some of those are 2000 years old. All my aspen have white bark. One other nugget...the bark has chlorophyll in it so it continues to grow in winter after leaves drop. Thanks for info.
No, aspen are the worlds largest single living organism. The oldest living tree are foxtails or bristlecone pines.
No, they are the largest single living organism. Bristlecone pine is the oldest living tree.
“You can tell it’s an Aspen because of the way it is.”
Neeture!
These look like Bigtooth Aspen, not Quaking, right?
Thanks! My cabin is surrounded by Aspen
Very cool!
Hey Zach. If you need to bring down some of those trees don't hesitate to process it into fire wood. One of the worst things about aspen is the thickness and density of the bark. All aspen needs to be split to permit drying. If left in the round, it will rot before it dries.
Inflammatory statement: if aspen is good enough to heat homes in Alaska, it’s good enough for us in the lower 48 😉
Use it for burning down deep hardwood coal beds, if nothing else. You won’t be disappointed.
excellent information
Good info.
You said the Aspen doesn't burn great now you just offended the Great Big tooth aspen tree
My least favorite firewood. Kinda has a bad smell when cut or split
Wierd looking aspen. I see some in the left background that appears to be aspen. If that is an aspen tree they look way different in CO.
Yes - we're in Alberta, and the tree looks more like a balsam, rather than a trembling, aspen which has a light bark with dark knot holes, much like birch.
Maybe you have Quaking Aspen...these look like Bigtooth...
could it be used in like say a charcoal bbq ? my pet rat died last week and i have a brand new aspen bedding , im curious
good read from US Ag 1947 "Aspen Lumber for building Purposes" only a dozen pages long
thoughts on milling aspen into siding for a building?
I know it's a different species but I know lots of people that use tulip poplar for siding
it's used in eastern Russia for all kinds of siding and even roofing apparently