Best trees to plant for future firewood harvest

[LocustPocust]

I buried my 18 inch bar cutting some Black Locust trees back in the summer and I counted 35 rings on one of them. It has an amazing BTU output for such a fast growth rate and If I had to choose I'd plant a bunch of those. If you're lucky you could yield a lot of outstanding firewood after 20 years. Dries FAST too.

 

[begreen]

Locust, doug fir, alder.

 

[Paulywalnut]

I have about 30 Leyland Cypress on my one property lines. They're 30 years old and I'll guess all of them put together would not equal a cord of wood. So not a good choice to grow just for cultivating

 

[Ashful]

Leylands cypress is one of the fastest growing trees, but suffer from disease when mature, and low BTU/cord. Not a good firewood tree.

I can't imagine planting any tree that I will burn in my lifetime. My grandkids... Maybe. I burn 80% oak, the balance being mostly ash, and pretty much always older than anyone on this forum. Good trees don't grow that fast.

 

[Poindexter]

I have read this thread a few times over the summer, might as well pipe up.

I vote for a couple or six big leaf maple in the mix. If you google search on "quitled maple" you'll see what I am talking about. Not every big leaf maple has a quilted grain structure, but the ones that do are worth big bucks as mature logs.

So far I got one knife handle out of quilted maple and a big enough piece seasoning some more to someday make revolver grips from. If I hit the lottery I'll probably buy a big enough piece to use as a stock on a muzzle loading rifle, that will be (currrently) about $500 for a piece 48" long, 3" thick and 6-8" wide. Selling a whole log of that off will buy a lot of firewood.