Tamarack is a common name for larch. There are two major species of larch in North America
Western Larch Larix occidentalis, grows in Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington, northeast Oregon and into western Canada.
Eastern larch Larix laricina, grows in the northeast part of the US and into eastern Canada.
In the firewood trade, larch is usually called tamarack. Tamarack firewood is very popular in the interior Pacific Northwest. In this area, hardwoods are rare and tamarack is the next best thing. It is one of the higher BTU softwoods. It burns hot and lasts long for a softwood. It is easy to light, splits well and dries quickly.
Both of these larches are unique among conifers in that they are deciduous and turn color and shed all their needles in the fall.
post your experience with tamarack firewood below.
Very popular here in Newfoundland Canada, I find it great for burning, In my local area we have the larch,black spruce and fir in abundance
Western Larch is the best option we have in northeast Oregon. Splits easily, burns hot, and burns for a long time. Have to have it when old man winter rolls around.
Yeah we have started to carry Tamarack for our company. It’s the best! Thanks for the information. I want to inform people of it’s qualities.
There is also Tamarack in the Inyo National Forest close to Bishop, CA. When I was growing up in Bishop, we only used our fireplace for heat and Tamarack was the wood my father looked for and we only burned that and Pinion Pine.
All great information, folks! How is it as far as cleanup? Does it leave a lot of ash debris or does it burn most of itself?
Great firewood. We needed 8 cord a winter growing up in N. Idaho. If it was dead: We cut, split, and stacked that beautiful fuel.
I’m wishing to buy 1/2 cord split. I have a large old Walenco burner so I can accommodate uneven and larger pieces. Would need to be delivered down an alley and dumped into a pile, and I would handle it from there.