Cutting firewood in Western Washington

[bigtreesinwa]

I recently (two years ago) moved to Western Washington and acquired some land. I'm ready to start cutting firewood from my own property and help be part of the solution to dependence on foreign energy....

I grew up with a family who burned wood so firewood is well known to me. However - that was back in Montana and my father usually cut 6" - 8" diameter Lodge Pole Pine trees. Those of you in western washington will quickly realize that we don't have a lot of lodge pole pine (it's native here but I don't have any on my property) and I sure don't have any 6 inch diameter trees. The vast majority of my upright trees are 15 - 36 inch diameter. I've worked at cutting some of the downed trees into 18" long rounds for firewood and then realized how difficult it is to handle a 24" diameter round! They're heavy!

Anyways, is there anyone from Western Washington that would be interested in sharing their firewood stories? I'd like to know what kind of trees you cut (standing or fallen, species, diameters, etc) and how you generally go about your operation. I've cut about two cords so far and am finding that it's a lot more work - much more difficult than when a guy has 10 acres of downed firewood that are just waiting to be cut up and stacked into neat piles.

I'm assuming that firewood is practical here in Western Washington? I have tried cutting lots of downed wood and most of it seems to have a great deal of rot, so now I"m looking at live (but undesireable) trees. I won't cut anything for a couple years, but I'm trying to get my information in order.

And yes, I am comfortable working around a chainsaw. I completed a chainsaw safety, maintenance, and operation course at the Green River Community College and am using the appropriate safety apparel.

Thanks

[StorminN]

I'm not in the firewood business, but out here on the Olympic Peninsula what I see a lot of guys doing is cutting alder... all the under 8" stuff.... it grows like weeds, splits so nicely, and the mills don't want anything under a 6" top. I also see guys cutting fir and some hemlock... most is low-grade stuff that grew out in the wind, lots of knots. We get some hemlock here that has root rot, in the wet winter if we have a blow, sometimes they blow right over, root ball and all.

All the bigger, fairly knot free trees that grew in the woods are better used by the sawmills for making lumber... IMHO it's a shame to make firewood out of those.

On my own 9 acre lot, all the fir, hemlock, cedar and alder over about 8" gets run through my sawmill. The waste from the sawmill and all the smaller stuff gets turned into firewood. I've lost lots of trees (mostly alder and hemlock) the past couple of winters due to a combination of super wet ground and strong winds... enough to keep me in firewood for a while...

P.S. DISCLAIMER - Be VERY careful when felling alder, especially if it's growing on a slope and is under stress... it's brittle and can "explode" pretty quickly. If you haven't cut alder before, tag along with a seasoned cutter and watch and learn from them first...

-N.

[Onthesauk]

I've got 40 acres of timber so seldom cut down a tree for firewood, pretty much rely on blowdowns for all my wood.  I burn mostly maple, some birch and the rest alder.  I've got an ATV and a couple small trailers for moving wood and recently bought an arch.  I cut 3 plus cords a year for myself and give away another 3 or 4 cords to family or neighbors.

I use to cut 18 inch rounds and horse them into the trailer, haul them to the house and split and stack.  I'm reaching the age where I simply can't handle a 100 pound round and think I am going to start splitting in the woods.  Should also eliminate the double handling of the wood.

I've got more alder then anything else.  I burn it early Fall and late Spring when you need quick fires but it doesn't produce near the heat of maple or birch and creates a lot of ash.