Wood species. What’s worth bringing home

[SwampDonkey]

Ashes aren't a deal breaker for me, I'm after the heat. Since there's no red oak of firewood size or bigger around here close enough or in quantity, it would be a rare thing to burn. I also burn 7 wheel barrel loads of wood a week, so there is a lot more ash in comparison to the volume you burn a week. If I was to burn one wheel barrel a week, I wouldn't clean ashes for 2 months.  ;D

I have tried to regenerate some red oak here and the wildlife either debarks it, chews it back from the top down or rips the limbs off it before it can get big enough to withstand the onslaught. :D

[KEC]

I don't spend much time worrying about how much ash I'll get from any particular kind of wood. Too many other things to consider. I regard ashes as a resource to scatter in the drip line of favored trees, or put on the garden or the lawn.

[Old Greenhorn]

I don't worry about ash either, it's a byproduct just like sawdust but not as heavy. ;D I don't care for wood that tends to leave unburned chunks, but I keep stirring that up with every new load and eventually it turns into ash. I empty the shop stove about every 10-15 days, and the house about once a month and let it sit in a steel pail for a few day on bare ground before I dump it on the compost/rot pile I've been using for 35 years. (Someday I might take something out of that pile. :D )
As for species, I pretty much burn it all in it's time. I don't have a woodlot, so I burn what I can get. The exception being pine, which I don't get much of, but will throw in some pieces now and then in a mixed load. Lousy wood either gets burned up quick in the shoulder seasons, or mixed in with good wood here and there. So I am the opposite of a snob.
I also don't go with the crowd on the 'red oak has to dry for at least 2 years'. I am burning some beautiful red oak that came down in the spring. It was split smallish (3-4" squares) and stacked in a dry spot. It dried nicely, gives good all night heat, and I can almost light it with a match. I do not care for the splinters though, they are fierce and hurt like the dickens.
I just finished heating my shop for 3 weeks straight with dried out pithy garbage ash and maple. 72° from nice dry ash is about the same as 72° from semi rotted pithy garbage. Yes, it's a bit more effort with all the junk that falls off it, but I back the trailer up to the side door of the shop and feed right off that to the stove 15' away. All the junk gets swept up and goes right in the stove.
I guess I am just a wood pig.

[ihookem]

I even burn hybrid popplar, only cause it's 50 yds. from the boiler. It's one step up from rolled up cardboard, but keeps the hardwood pile a bit bigger and is nice in a spring evening when it's still cold, but not to bad that I need to max the fire box. It might raise the house from 67 to 70, but it makes the floor warm from hydronic , keeps the floor warm till till the next day and heats the water too. My nat. gas  bill  was $18 and $17 the last 2 months . heck, just the fees are $12.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Was written by the lady Congreve.  Id say she got it about right. 

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter's cold
But ash wet or ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.
 

[SwampDonkey]

Aspen and fir is the biggest part of the firewood pile here. Never froze yet. In fact I don't burn wood all day long, too hot. :D

[NewYankeeSawmill]

Around here most everyone who doesn't have a wood stove will tell you you can't burn anything other than oak or Hickory. It's infuriating how often this lecture is repeated. We did mostly burn oak and hickory growing up but back then it wasn't hard to come by cheaply. The oak was for when it wasn't very cold. We started working a little Hickory in during the freezing nights.

I save the pine for the fire pit, but put plenty of poplar up the chimney the passed several years. Property is loaded with it, price is right!