Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) for firewood??

[twang]

I have access to about 1-2ac of this invasive species (seems someone planted a few of these in an old graveyard in the late 1800's) and they have taken over a large area. Looked them up and seems the btu's are decent....

Ailanthus altissima 8,171 - 8,452
White Ash 8,246 - 8,920
Sugar Maple 8,190
Red Oak 8,037 - 8,690
Hickory 8,039 - 8,670
White Oak 8,169 - 8,810
Beech 8,151 - 8,760
Hemlock 8,885

Has anyone tried it as firewood?

 

[10range]

Had a tree that I suspect was a Tree of Heaven come down on my wife's grandparents property. It was about 2 1/2 feet in diameter and about 50% hollow. It had been down for about 6 months when I cut it and we burnt some of it in the boiler just this past week. It seems to burn fast and hot.

I spoke with a friend who is a DNR forester and he said to be careful when working with it because there are claims that the sap has been know to send people into cardiac arrest.

 

[amateur cutter]

Welcome, never tried the stuff, but if it's the same tree we have around here, ( & I think it is ) I've heard it's almost useless. One old timer called it, " worse than willow". Take that fwiw. If it's free & close, it'll make heat. Just be careful felling. They seem very prone to barber chairing, snapping, etc. due to the weak nature of the wood. A C

 

[Thistle]

In Feb - March 2000 Dad & I removed 2 large ( 18" & 25",40 -50 ft tall) & 1 smaller (12" & 30 ft tall) of those f-ing eyesores from my yard here in town.The 2 bigger ones were the biggest ones I'd seen in the area.We ground up all the brush & branches up to 2" with my little chipper/shredder for mulch,gathered up all those nasty seed clusters & burned them so they wouldnt repopulate the neighborhood.The trees are very brittle in ice or wind storms,the male flowers & leaves really stunk if handled in summer.

I did cut up everything else for firewood,including the massive logs,which split fairly easily if I remember.Ended up with about 7 pickup loads which was burned the following year.Was OK on a few fall days,but that wood created more ash than anything I've ever burned.The only reason I burned this was because property is small & I didnt want to have to haul them off somewhere.At least that cut down on any new offspring,for 2 yrs afterwards I would see quite a few 3" scattered sprouts growing in the grass,each one I saw would get chopped out with a hoe.Havent seen one since thankfully.

 

[Coach B]

I burned a bunch of it three or four years ago in my OWB. We didn't have any good wood on the ground and it was easy to get to this stuff. The fact that it is easy to work with is its best quality. I found that when felling most of the little branches popped right off when it hit the ground leaving only the firewood. It also generally grows nice and straight and splits easy. Other than that its pretty terrible...burns up fast....rots quick...leaves lots of coals and ashes. I won't be burning any more of it unless it falls right next to the trail.

 

[Hunderliggur]

You can have all of mine! This tree can break just looking at it. Everything will burn but this is probably not the best. Don't know how they came up with that BTU rating. This is the only tree I can cut down without any hassle from the gov't - the state forester say kill them all and he gave me a few tips on how to make sure they don't come back. I probably have 2 to 5 acres of them.

 

[CTYank]

In much of the northeast, these things are trying to take over the place, most notably along highways. The ultimate invasive species.

IME, they will resprout indefinitely from stumps. To eradicate them, you have to treat the stumps with something like Roundup.

 

[Hunderliggur]

From my forester - if you want to KILL a buch of these trees, girdle the trunk with a cut though the sapwood with a down angle. Then pour in Roundup and let it kill the roots. Harvest the tops when you are ready (or when they fall over). I'll probably burn some of this this winter. It was cut down and stacked in 6 foot lengths in the Spring of 2009.

 

[711mhw]

Unless It's your only wood, I wouldn't spend one minute cutting it up for fuel. I cut mine into 16' log legnth and burn big in a pile just to get rid of this truly junk weed!

 

[kjklosek]

I have some in my stove right now.

It burns pretty much like poplar.

Dries quickly. Just leave the splits big so it doesn't burn so fast.

I put in 2 big chunks in the back of the stove at night and still have coals in the morning after 8 or 9 hours.

It's wood, burn it.

J.P.

 

[Hunderliggur]

"It’s wood, burn it."

Agreed! I have burned some junky stuff and all I have lef is some ashes.

 

[Battenkiller]

Ailanthus altissima 8,171 - 8,452
White Ash 8,246 - 8,920
Sugar Maple 8,190
Red Oak 8,037 - 8,690
Hickory 8,039 - 8,670
White Oak 8,169 - 8,810
Beech 8,151 - 8,760
Hemlock 8,885

I don't know about heavenwood, but where'd you get that bogus BTU chart? Look like BTUs per pound, not per cord. All wood has around 8800 BTU per pound (oven-dry weight), so that chart is about as useful as tits on a bull.

 

[5654684]

The only place for that wood is in a good burn pile.

 

[twang]

Ailanthus altissima 8,171 - 8,452
White Ash 8,246 - 8,920
Sugar Maple 8,190
Red Oak 8,037 - 8,690
Hickory 8,039 - 8,670
White Oak 8,169 - 8,810
Beech 8,151 - 8,760
Hemlock 8,885

I don't know about heavenwood, but where'd you get that bogus BTU chart? Look like BTUs per pound, not per cord. All wood has around 8800 BTU per pound (oven-dry weight), so that chart is about as useful as tits on a bull.

(broken link removed to http://www.dof.virginia.gov/health/resources/pub_Ailanthus-Control-and-Utilization.pdf)http://www.dof.virginia.gov/health/resources/pub_Ailanthus-Control-and-Utilization.pdf