Should I bother with this pine?

[Hasufel]

That's looking pretty punky from here - I'd say it's already being inhabited by all kinds of important critters and microbes and such. Aside from the fact that truly punked wood never burns right, our county sawyer told me they are required by low to leave dead, decaying timber on the ground. Not that you're bound by that but it gives you a sense of how important it is to the lifecycle of the forest.

$0.02

Thanks--I bucked & split some rounds from the far end and got some decent wood out of it but that's all I'm planning to do. The punkiness wasn't as much of a problem as it appeared from the picture. I found the twistiness & knots from the near end to be the really daunting part, which is what prompted me to post this to begin with.

FWIW, I don't mess with heavily decayed logs (I have enough newer stuff to work with) and I believe in leaving plenty of material for the bugs & birds to work with. When I encounter punk I try to remove as much as I can before stacking to help the splits dry faster, so it's just an inconvenience I deal with. I know some people on this forum like dried punk because it's easy to light but I just find it a waste of space.

 

[ADK_XJ]

Thanks--I bucked & split some rounds from the far end and got some decent wood out of it but that's all I'm planning to do. The punkiness wasn't as much of a problem as it appeared from the picture. I found the twistiness & knots from the near end to be the really daunting part, which is what prompted me to post this to begin with.

FWIW, I don't mess with heavily decayed logs (I have enough newer stuff to work with) and I believe in leaving plenty of material for the bugs & birds to work with. When I encounter punk I try to remove as much as I can before stacking to help the splits dry faster, so it's just an inconvenience I deal with. I know some people on this forum like dried punk because it's easy to light but I just find it a waste of space.

Agreed — I hate punky wood. It falls apart, makes a huge mess and I feel like it barely produces any BTUs. I cleaned up some huge ash that the previous homeowners here had dropped in place and left to rot (wanted more sun on their above ground swimming pool) — I methodically knocked off the side of rounds that had laid on the ground. No place for punk wood in my stacks!