WOOD NOTES: Today, more answers to those “burning” questions
about the best wood to use for heating your house.

The other day, we printed a poem which said some of the same
things – only in verse. Jim Hyland of the Pennsylvania Department
of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry, Elk
State Forest, fills in the gaps about which woods burn best.

With tongue in cheek, Jim tells us, from him, the best wood is
whatever is closest to his truck!

More scientifically, he said, comparisons are made of the number
of BTUs produced by an equal amount of seasoned wood from different
species, and many locally available species stand out.

This testing indicates the best locally available firewood is
hickory, with 30.6 million BTUs per cord.

Jim adds, “I have tended stoves stocked with shagbark hickory,
and I felt like I was working in a steel mill.”

If you can’t get any hickory, there are about eight other
species too close in comparison to make a difference to the average
person. They are black locust, white oak, American beech, sugar
maple, sweet birch, red oak, yellow birch and white ash.

American hornbeam, also known as “blue beech” or “muscle wood,”
and eastern hophornbeam, sometimes called “ironwood,” both produce
BTUs possibly even higher than hickory, but are not usually
available in good quantities, so their consideration as great
firewood is reduced.

In addition, Jim noted that these species produced the most heat
after being seasoned for nine months.

But what if, for whatever reason, you are forced to burn
unseasoned wood? Different species of trees naturally retain water
in varying amounts. For example, a freshly cut white ash may have a
lower moisture percentage than the white oak that’s been seasoning
for several months, making it a better choice for burning.

Ash is the best species to burn unseasoned, followed by beech,
black locust, sweet birch, hickory and sugar maple. The oaks,
especially white oaks, have a tough time letting go of their
moisture.

Jim adds, “I think if I had to name two tree species as the best
all-around firewood candidates, they would be white ash and
American beech. Both are easy to split and burn hot, whether
seasoned or not. Beech also has very thin bark, which makes for
less mess and a little more volume of wood per stack.”