Wood ID (Birch?)

[Tom Wallace]

Just scrounged this wood from someone's backyard. Owner had no clue what kind of trees they were. I asked why he had them taken down, he said he was told they were dangerous. I asked what he meant by that. He said he heard "they retain water". No idea what that means, so I left it at that.

One of the stumps he had out front was obviously white birch (due to the bark). The freshly split pieces are bright white/yellow inside, which I believe is consistent with white birch.

I Googled white birch leaf for comparison and they look quite similar to the leaves I found around the backyard (photo below). However, the Google images all show serrated edges on the leaves, while none of the leaves I found had serrated edges. Leaves also look similar to cottonwood, and I hope this is not cottonwood as I've heard nothing good about burning that.

The wood is quite easy to split, which is a change from the white birch I had delivered last summer. That stuff was very stringy and a pain to split. Every split would end up stuck to its neighbor with lots of fibers. This stuff isn't like that at all. I was told at the time that white birch is usually pretty easy to split, so last summer's load may not be typical of white birch.

 

[Seanm]

Those rounds dont look like birch to me and Ive got a bunch of it in my stacks. We have lots of aspen (poplar) around here and it doesnt look like that either unless the picture of the rounds are from near the butt of the tree. Im not very good with the leaves.

 

[4fire]

The leaves and bark say cottonwood. If you know what birch bark is, you should know that ain't it.

 

[Tom Wallace]

Yeah, I was thrown off by the rounds that don't look at all like birch. It's possible the big rounds (2) he had out front were from a different tree. One is definitely white birch. I can take a photo. But the other rounds don't look like it. I can take some more photos of various pieces.

 

[Wood Duck]

That is some type of Cottonwood or Poplar.

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

Those rounds dont look like birch to me and Ive got a bunch of it in my stacks. We have lots of aspen (poplar) around here and it doesnt look like that either unless the picture of the rounds are from near the butt of the tree. Im not very good with the leaves.

Yep. From the bark, that's Aspen. I'm not good at leaves either.

 

[Tom Wallace]

Here are some more photos. I agree that the bark doesn't look like birch on most of them. But two of the big rounds (one shown here) looks like white birch to me. Guess it's from a different tree. I thought cottonwood had thicker bark than this. Maybe it's aspen as someone said. Either way, pretty low btu content. At least it's free and it's easy to split.

 

[4fire]

The last pic looks like birch.
The rest looks like cottonwood. Unlikely to be aspen near Shoreline. Cottonwood is everywhere around here though.

 

[Seanm]

@Tom Wallace that last one like you said is birch for sure. I wonder where the rest of it is? C,s,s in the guys back yard no doubt! lol his prerogative of course. I agree with you, free is free.

 

[barmstrong2]

I'm going with Balsam Poplar. The leaves are a near identical match. The bark looks right for a mature tree and your description of the split sound like poplar. The fresh split should have a sweet smell to it.

 

[Applesister]

I'll put a vote in for Black cottonwood.
Populus trichocarpa
The western versions of the trees here in the east sometimes have different names so I dont know if its called Balsam poplar in WA.
Maybe the homeowner had septic problems with the "absorbs too much water" comment.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

I have to agree there is very few rounds of white birch there. Either way firewood nonetheless. And free at that.

 

[barmstrong2]

I'll put a vote in for Black cottonwood.
Populus trichocarpa
The western versions of the trees here in the east sometimes have different names so I dont know if its called Balsam poplar in WA.
Maybe the homeowner had septic problems with the "absorbs too much water" comment.

That could be. My source for ID is specific to the northeast. No information for cottonwood. For all I know, it could be the same tree.

 

[firefighterjake]

Not birch . . . except perhaps for that very last photo.

 

[Wood Duck]

There are a couple of birch rounds and the rest is Cottonwood or poplar. There are a couple of western cottonwood species that aren't found in the northeast, so I am not familiar enough to have an opinion as to which species you have.

 

[Poindexter]

The good news about poplar/ cottonwood is the coaling stage lasts about 5 seconds.

Get that split and stacked and dry. Wait for unusually cold weather. When you see a bunch of threads here about folks having trouble loading more wood in their stove 'cause there isn't room for fresh wood around all the coals they have piled up, start burning this stuff you just scored. You'll have to reload more often, but there will be plenty of room.

 

[StihlKicking]

Birch and poplar have serrated leaves, the picture above dosen't show serrations. You may be dealing with a non native ornamental.

 

[StihlKicking]

Based on the leaves and bark it looks like a tallow tree.