Poplar

[Alex123]

Hi everyone,

I was walking to woods today and noticed my poplar stand is starting to die off/fall over. It's mostly an even age stand and there are lots of small hardwoods underneath ( Sugar maple, red maple, birch, also some softwoods). 

Anyone know if these make good boards or lumber to sell? Trying to see what options I have to maybe offset the cost of removing these trees. Some are fairly big diameter.

Thanks

[beenthere]

This is aspen, Populus ?

Not Yellow poplar, I presume. 

Aspen has a short life span. Tremuloidies more-so than grandidentata

[Alex123]

Yes, Aspen. Big trees but short life span. 

[BargeMonkey]

Where are you located is the question. It doesn't saw bad, easy to work with. Typically unless it's a beautiful clear log we leave it in the woods, can't give it away for firewood. Most of the time here anything of size is already dying or hollow on the stump. 

[Ron Scott]

It sounds like the aspen is "over the hill". Remove all the aspen from the stand for pulpwood and sawlogs, or chips depending upon your local markets.

Much of the large aspen may be unmarketable due to white rot throughout the trees. You will find this out as soon as you cut the large aspen.

As previously stated, aspen is short lived. It usually matures in about 60 years.

[Mooseherder]

I had a couple of loads go to Huber in Easton, Maine a few years ago.  They're making advantech chip board products from it.  I don't know if they're still buying or if you are close enough.  Wish a a couple more loads would of gone because they are junk now. We heated with that wood and worst first practice for almost 20 years.  I cut some with the mill last year and air dried.  It moved a lot.  I've developed a dislike for the smell of it and from now on it is going straight to the burn pile.

[Alex123]

There is a mill buying it for pulp around here so that's what I will try to sell too. I will take all of it out in that section of my property and let the hardwoods and softwoods take over. 

Thanks for all the inputs! much appreciated

[Resonator]

If it's like the poplar I have here, you'll see blackish grey growths (look like conk shells) growing out the side of the trunk. When you see those, you'll likely have rot inside. They'll then snap off 20' high in a windstorm, and leave totem poles. 
Pallet wood is about the only use I've had for the lumber, though did have had a customer try using it for a trailer deck. As said it moves a lot while it dries, but is fairly hard when dry. Some logs have kind of a fruity smell, but most are well... stinky.
Firewood is lower grade, have cut it for outdoor wood boilers before. As a buddy of mine would say: "It's better than burning snowballs".

[windyacres207]

The jenka on poplar is harder than white pine...
It does not seep sap as it dries and bleed through paint (trim)
It's easy to work....
Maybe find a small sawmill and turn it into something more than pulp...

[doc henderson]

Our state tree is cottonwood and is in the popular family.  It is 18 million BTUs for burning compared to oak and mulberry at 25 mil, and Hedge at 32 million.  It has been used for trailer decking as it crushes fiber instead of cracking and re-expands with moisture.  It has been used for coffins as it is light weight and machines well and takes finish such at tinted lacquer well.

[doc henderson]

Populus sect. Aigeiros - Wikipedia

[cutterboy]

I have sawed a bit of aspen. It saws easily as it is a "soft" hardwood. The lumber from the sapwood can be very white.


with knots that look like eyes.


or sometimes it can be off white



The heart wood can be different shades of brown, sometimes quite dark.



I have had good luck air drying it and have sold some, a little here and there. I also cut it into strips to make kindling which I sell, but that's another story.

  Cutter

[KWood255]

We have tons of both white and black poplar here. Black poplar grows in the low ground, often with black ash. Lots of septic tanks were built from black poplar years ago. I'm told that as long as black poplar stays damp, it will nearly last forever.

We have some very large white poplar, but as Resonator said if there's even one of the grey coloured growths on the truck, it's firewood at best. There will be sections of punky heartwood/core sporadically throughout the tree. This can make for a real dangerous felling job.

I've sold quite a lot of poplar for trailer decking, and it can make beautiful flooring and panelling as well. I would hazard to guess that a large majority of the barns in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are built solely from white poplar, as it's so common there. It is an under-appreciated species in this part of the world. 

[Kodiakmac]

Funny how things change. Three years ago clear poplar/cottonwood was paying $600 per kbf in Lachute, Quebec.  It doesn't even show up on this year's price list.  And now soft maple - which you couldn't give away three years past - pays $650.

[barbender]

Black Poplar/Balsam Poplar/Balm of Gilead/Balmy is common here as well. Usually on the wetter margins of Aspen/White Poplar stands. It usually has more moisture in it than Aspen, and it stinks😊 I've never sawn it, it does have kind neat olive to brown color.