Aspen Firewood

There are two major types of aspen firewood available in the US and Canada. Aspen is a type of poplar and sometimes when people say polar firewood, they are referring to aspen. Quaking aspen firewood : Populus tremuloides and bigtooth aspen firewood: Populus grandidentata are very similar in the way they burn.

Aspen is technically a hardwood, but like a lot of it’s other relatives in the poplar family, it is a low density hardwood that can be even softer than many softwoods. Quaking aspen firewood only produces about half the heat as other hardwoods such as oak. It’s not the best of choice for firewood but if you can buy it cheap or get it free you might as well burn it. Quaking aspen can make decent campfire wood and is often straight grained and easy to split. It’s low density makes it easy to ignite so it can make good kindling.

Aspen Firewood BTU Ratings

Add your comments below about your experience with aspen firewood. If you have noticed any differences between quaking aspen firewood and bigtooth aspen firewood, let us know.

18 thoughts on “Aspen Firewood”

  1. I burn a lot of aspen firewood just because I have a lot of it. It is not the best wood by any means but it burns fine and I think it has more heat and lasts longer than pine. I will burn aspen when I am around to add wood to the fire. At night I will usually use birch or when I need a fire to last longer. I do like aspen for campfires because it has a bright warm flame and the smoke isn’t as strong as pine or fir.

  2. I’ve heard but can’t find proof that aspen assists in sort removal or build-up in your chimney. Is this true? Can you lead me to a source that has established this or is it a “urban” rumor?

  3. I’ve heard from a friend that burning aspen helps reduce soot build up. Is this true? If so, can you lead me to a source?

  4. I live in Northern WI. There are many different types of “softwood” & “hardwood.” Although Aspen/Poplar are considered a hard wood it is very light and less dense compaired to oak, maple, hickory, ash, locust, beech, ect. Aspen is a very common tree. I have been lucky to find plenty of wind fall/dead red oak the last few years on our family farm. I also stumbled upon 7 cords of Aspen that was felled to clear a road. I thought if I cut it, split it, and seasoned it that it would be just fine to burn. I have read that it would be good shoulder wood and it burns reasonably hot. I did read that it does make a good bit of powdery ash and burns fast. So when I after I processed the firewood and let it dry I realized the bark was very brittle and peals off rather easy. I have been pealing almost all of the bark off and stacking it in next years burn pile. I believe having no thick bark on the peices will decrease the amount of powdery ash. I know it seems time consuming, I have been doing 2 good size wheel barrow load per day Fri/Sat/Sun so I am not working overly hard at it. I will let you know how the bark free Aspen burns this winter in my wood stove.

  5. I’m in CO . USA and aspen is plentiful on my property and elsewhere around. I use it for fireplace wood for relaxing and heat–it is effective and since it burns down fairly quickly i can have a few hours of fire before going to bed and easy to finish the evening. Ash is no big deal and my chimney cleaner says I have a very good looking chimney each year with very little buildup– I use no pine except as occasional kindling. If i want a longer lasting fire I start with some aspen and add seasoned oak for more hours of pleasure or sleeping by the fire. Aspen gets bad revues for btu ratings but i love it– and for me it’s free for my labor. I have bedrooms converted to gas logs but far prefer the real aspen burning in my main great room fireplace– a real cool evening or winter time joy alone or with friends with very little work for me. Just my 20+ years worth of use opinion. Visit Aspen and use aspen wood!!

  6. I sell firewood, and have a tree removal service, in North Eastern Pennsylvania, I keep Aspen for myself because customers look down apon it. I actually think it burns great. I use it both in woodstove and fireplace. Burns clean hot and fast. It does leave slightly more ash than Oak, or some harder woods, but not significant. Its not ment for “all nighter” wood as the previous post explains very well. But it looks almost as nice as white birch sitting in the living room and burns well. Nothing wrong with this wood at all, also its a joy to work with about hlaf the weight as oak. Splitter eats it up, and can cut about 40 cords before sharpening the saw. Lol Enjoy your Aspen.

  7. I stated in a above post that I would get back to you on my luck burning Aspen. It has been a mild winter so far in Northern, WI. I have burnt purely Aspen since the last week in October and it has kept us plenty warm. The wood burns far better than I assumed it would and leaves a bit more powdery ash than hardwoods. It was defiantly worth my time to cut it up. We did have one week with night time lows around -20 and day time highs around 0. I did switch to Oak, Maple, and Locust that week, because the poplar could not keep up. It was defiantly a good year so far to burn apspen. It has saved me from burning my good hard wood stash.

  8. I am a wood carver and aspen is a good wood to carve small pieces (birds, fish, etc). My sister gave me some firewood size pieces – rounds about 6-8 inched. Unfortunately I have used it all up and need a source for 3-6 pieces. Will pay shipping. Does anyone have a contact?

  9. I’m in CO and I got a cord of aspen for a gift to use in my fireplace. I’m having a hard time keeping it burning, even when it’s the top log on a new stack. what’s your secret?

  10. I am in north central Wisconsin. I have had a lot of windfall recently. I have a stand of Aspen windfall. Nice trees. James if you want Aspen I have it.

  11. If you are having a hard time keeping any wood burning it means it isn’t properly seasoned.

  12. Aspen in Manutoba Canada. We have very cold winter months in dec-feb. I have some aspen growing on my propperty, mostly ashand elm. Before i cut down my ash trees i will burn my dead elms and cut down aspen. I was really happy with how it dries ans burns, like in previous comment, it burns great and fast. But my favorite use would be for kinddeling. We also have lots of manitoba maple or box elder. If you let it dry for year and half it also burns well. “Another mans junk is another mans gold” so i think the bad rep comes from people having better trees growing and priorities it less if thats thier least desired species.

  13. Here in the Pocono’s of PA I burn aspen/poplar in early winter. It burns hot. Don’t take long to season at all. Mine was cut early this spring and split. It sat all summer and is perfect to burn. So far our winter has been mild and my hard wood pile can sit for a while as I’m gonna use up all this aspen wood. It does leave powdery ash but I use my ash to kill off all the moss I got growing in my yard. Aspen/poplar is very abundant here. we have winter storms that takes them out very easily. It Does crackle in the stove as its burning like pine.

  14. good info i was wondering this winter im between a rock and a hard place so I’m burning green aspen and birch any tips

  15. I’ve been doing tree removal work since I was 5 and picking up sticks for my dad on the promise of gameboy games. That entire time my dad had some thoughts on aspen as a firewood. Keep in mind this is Colorado just north of Pike’s Peak along the eastern edge of the Rockies. Lots of pine, fir, spruce, aspen and Gamble’s oak; some cottonwoods but no one burns that around here unless they are smoking meat. The conifers were always very sappy here, even when dried they dried with large amounts of crystallized sap in the wood. This meant that any decent softwood for burning was going to pop and burn the oils and gunk. And that would, over time, develops a nasty layer in the chimney. Now you didn’t get that from the hardwoods, but the oak we have is more like a vertical growing (it tries at least), thin stemmed bush. Most tree companies will just chip the smaller diameter ones. This leads to “actual” hardwood to be very scarce and expensive in my area.
    So now we have aspen, a tree my dad had pushed forest fires into just because it will not burn when green. In our area, aspen has gotten a reputation for burning hot, cleaner than the conifers, and given with a stern warning. My dad was a firefighter, he had seen a lot of stupid things happen. Well people that were burning only pine for years and never cleaned out their chimney, suddenly decided to get a few cords of aspen because of how light it is. Well the hotter burning aspen catches all that sappy gunk that is in their chimney, on fire and crap has hit the fan.
    Other, smarter people, would do one of two things. They would only burn aspen, as they found it didn’t dirty up the chimney nearly as fast. Lots of older folks did this because it was lighter and the bark didn’t make as large of a mess inside their house. Or they would burn aspen and pine after having their chimney cleaned. They would use the hotter and faster burning aspen as the starter and the last couple of logs in their stove or fireplace. Helping to break up the stuff deposited by the pine and giving them a little more control over how long the fire will keep going.
    I won’t say its the perfect firewood, but it has some characteristics that make it attractive to a lot of people. In our area it generally dries very quickly once cut to length, and it does not attract the Ips or Mountain Pine beetles while curing. Availability in the area, being everywhere in an area with very high winds being regular, means that it is cheap and easily harvested from natural die off. And with it’s burgeoning popularity as a natural fire and wind brake, its availability is only going to rise.

  16. Good evening everyone. Sorry to be so late to this party, but I’ve been burning quaking aspen for many years here in central Alberta. Here it’s very plentiful and actually more than likely one of the most ancient living organisms still around our parts. As many have mentioned, burning this is very clean.

    Before I took over this place, my parents like the smell and sound of spruce and fir. I end up spending many a summer cleaning chimneys. Ever since burning this quaking aspen exclusively, never had an issue. Plus, some of the older charcoaling / creosote in the firebox itself is all gone. It has never reappeared.

    My question is for those who have more efficient fire box. How long of an actual burn do you get out of your quaking aspen? 4 hours? 2 hours? With my late 1970s / early 1980s fire boxes I get about 2 hours of flame with three sticks. I can have reusable coals for about 4 to 6 hours depending on ash level in the firebox, I can use a Bellows to recover even up to 8 hours but that’s a lot of pumping. My actual heat output is between the three and four hour range. Does anybody get anything better with a more efficient fire box?

    I ask because I’m planning on doing some modifications or just flat out buying a wood stove insert. If no one is getting any longer times with newer technology, why spend the 10 grand?

  17. My question is for those who have more efficient fire box. How long of an actual burn do you get out of your quaking aspen? I have a quadrafire stove and seasoned aspen last March was lasting upwards of 6 hours on a good bed of coals. But if it’s a new fire & no coals your only gonna get 3 hours or so. So I keep loading the stove every few hours.

    My actual heat output is between the three and four hour range. Does anybody get anything better with a more efficient fire box? Not much more than that. Maybe 6 hours on a good bed of coals. But aspen is plentiful and with wind falls I don’t have to cut them down. Definitely worth my work to cut split season and burn than leave in the woods to rot.

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