By Steve Wilent, The Mountain Times
My name is Steve Wilent and I’m a firewood fanatic. When people ask about my hobbies, I say that cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood is at the top of my list, followed by burning firewood and watching it burn. I delight in the smell of woodsmoke; reading, cooking, camping and vegetable gardening come next.
One day while I was splitting and stacking firewood, a neighbor drove by, then stopped, backed up, parked, and walked over to see what I was up to. He said something like, “I’ve always admired your firewood stacking, especially the way you alternate the pieces on the corners. Well done!” I have had few greater compliments.
For what it’s worth, I usually stack firewood on two roughly 4-foot by 4-foot pallets set end to end, and build the stacks 5 feet tall or more, making more than one cord (4 feet by 8 feet by 4 feet tall). Alternating the direction of the pieces on the corners makes for a stable woodpile.
Years ago I was talking with a fellow woodsman in upper New York state. The main purpose of the phone call was to talk about forest management and wildlife habitat, but — surprise —we ended up talking about firewood. His favorites: beech, black cherry, sugar maple, and American hornbeam (also known as ironwood) in the coldest months of the year, and birch, red maple, and white pine in warmer months. This eastern firewood fanatic and I talked, only half in jest, about meeting in Nebraska with pickup loads of firewood and swapping them. I would have taken him some Douglas-fir, Oregon white oak, and lodgepole pine in exchange for eastern hardwoods.
In our area, Douglas-fir is by far the most common tree, so naturally it’s the most common firewood. It’s good stuff. Of the conifer species in the Pacific Northwest, dry Doug-fir has the highest potential energy content, measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs): 26.5 million BTUs per cord (Doug-fir bark is a bit higher). Western hemlock is a close second at 24.4 million, while Western redcedar, another common species in Western Oregon, has much less, at 17.4 million. These values vary by wood density and moisture content. “Seasoned” means it is relatively dry.
One BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of liquid water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.
Red alder, very common in our area, has relatively little heat potential, at 19.5 million BTUs per cord. This alder, however, makes a great night log, because when a large well-seasoned log is placed on hot coals in a woodstove, it’ll smolder all night. Bigleaf maple, which makes fine firewood, has 22.7 million BTUs per cord.
Oregon white oak tops Doug-fir, with 28 million BTUs per cord. This species is uncommon in our area — it favors lower elevations west of the Cascades and is happy in drier areas east of the Cascades. I’ve driven as far as Hood River for a half-cord of Oregon white oak, a heavy load for a half-ton pickup. By comparison, American hornbeam provides 27.1 million BTUs per cord. I’m also happy to drive to the east side of the Cascades for lodgepole pine. Its 22.3 million BTUs per cord doesn’t match the BTUs of Doug-fir, but lodgepole smoke has a delightful piney smell.
The BTUs in firewood is important information, but as someone who cuts his own firewood, usually on US Forest Service land (with a valid permit, of course), ease of access — how far I have to drive to get to it and how far I have to carry it to get it in my truck — is often the deciding factor.
If you buy firewood and have it delivered to you home, how do you know if you’re getting what you pay for? There’s an element of trust involved, since firewood isn’t delivered in neat stacks 4 feet by 8 feet by 4 feet tall. You can use the ocular estimate method — eyeball it — by multiplying the rough dimensions of a truckload. If it’s stacked fairly neatly, this is simple: length times width times height. If the result is 128, that’s the number of cubic feet in one cord, and 64 cubic feet is a half-cord. With a load that is piled in a jumble, rather than stacked, you’ll have to make your best guestimate.
My grandmother, who lived for many years on a farm in northern Alberta and relied on firewood for heating and cooking, knew what a cord looked like. She once ordered a cord of firewood, and after it was dumped in a pile on her driveway, she said to the delivery crew, “That’s not a cord! I’ll pay you when you bring me the rest of it.” And they did. She was one savvy woodswoman.
Have a question about firewood? Want to know how firewood can warm you at least five times?
Let me know: email: SWilent@gmail.com.