Hey everyone! I am not very skilled in tree identification. I want to get familiar with the different types of trees in the BWCA and how each type of wood performs as firewood. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

Your are going find pine and birch the easiest to identify.
Pine is going to burn hot and fast. I use it to start a fires and for the evening campfires.
Birch will give your nice coals for cooking steaks and fish over the campfire grate.

Excellent question. Old Scout has it. I have also found cedar in some areas, splits easily and functions for flame between pine and birch.
Watch for fallen birch bark while scouting for wood, dry it is a great fire starter.

There is also a lot of aspen, a less dense hardwood and favorite snack of the beaver. It can commonly be found 'cut', peeled and dried along lake shores that has drifted in after the beaver is through munching it. By the time birch dies and falls to the ground (no cutting standing timber, right) it's usually punky or rotted beyond use, though the bark is great tinder. Similar bark pattern to birch, but generally smooth and doesn't peel off like birch bark. Downed and found beaver wood is great for fires and particularly for cooking over as coals.

One paddling buddy on the forum here swears that the ONLY acceptable firewood is red pine, 2-4" in diameter, sawn and split. He's a bit of a firewood snob - self declared of course!

pd

Thanks to you both for the responses so far! A question about birch: have either of you ever found birch that is actually usable? I have only found it all rotten and punky, I guess this is due to the fact that it can't dry out with its oily bark.

I have found birch in general to be punky and poor. I don't even touch it any more.

unshavenman: "I have found birch in general to be punky and poor. I don't even touch it any more."

In general I agree with this, because that is almost always the condition of dead and downed birch. The birch that makes good firewood is usually sawed & split while alive & then allowed to dry out - as initially it would be VERY wet.

Ditto on fallen birch as too wet to burn or soggy and rotten. I did find some around Lake Two where the fire went through and "dried" some nice 2-3 inch birch. I generally burn pine and beaver wood never collected from a den or dam.
I have stopped cooking over fire so fires are becoming optional except on chilly nights.

Unlike most other woods, birch rots from the inside out. The bark can look perfectly intact, but the inside is mush. I don't think I've ever burned any birch bigger than an inch or so. I pretty much look for white pine, red pine, cedar, jack pine, or black spruce, about in that order.

As important as what wood is where to find it. I almost never bother looking near any campsite, as I assume its been picked clean for 150 yards or more. I usually paddle away from camp and look on the south/west shore for blow down - often on islands without campsites, and walk in from there. That usually produces really well. I also watch for big white pines that are about 25 yards or so in from shore. They often have big branches that have broken off an fallen but not quite hit the ground. I find these to be golden.

How did you feel being a protagonist in a Dostoevsky novel?

I would be honored! :)

JW

Seek out cedar for your cooking fires.

schweady: "Seek out cedar for your cooking fires.

"

Agreed. Not that I was the one gathering firewood, mostly, but I know Spartan1 would agree. :-)

Watch for the 2-5 inch diameter spruce that have died in the understory and then tipped to the side. Often times staying up off the ground. Look for the ones with the bark cracked and peeling away meaning a fairly dried piece of wood. Easily cut with a small saw and no splitting required.

JWilder: "How did you feel being a protagonist in a Dostoevsky novel?


I would be honored! :)


JW"

I don't want to spoil my story for everyone, so I won't give details :) Just go read my book!

Birch bark is water tight. Unless it is split it will rot from within. When split and seasoned for a full summer it burns well. This is beyond the time one is permitted to remain at a single camp.

My favorite is the bare dead limbs from fallen jackpine. Burns enthusiastically and smells divine. Easy to gather. When fully dried even substantial pieces can be broken by being swung hard on the sharp edge of big rock. No need for saw or axe.

I'm a big fan of gathering driftwood caught in brush on the shore or stranded on beaches during high-water. This is Quetico endorsed behavior, not B-dub. Nothing better than a nice fire made of art.

Banksiana: "Birch bark is water tight. Unless it is split it will rot from within. When split and seasoned for a full summer it burns well. This is beyond the time one is permitted to remain at a single camp.


My favorite is the bare dead limbs from fallen jack-one. Burns enthusiastically and smells divine. Easy to gather. When fully dried even substantial pieces can be broken by being swung hard on the sharp edge of big rock. No need for saw or axe.

I'm a big fan of gathering driftwood caught in brush on the shore or stranded on beaches during high-water. This is Quetico endorsed behavior, not B-dub. Nothing better than a nice fire made of art. "

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is "jack-one"?

Raskolnikov: "

Banksiana: "Birch bark is water tight. Unless it is split it will rot from within. When split and seasoned for a full summer it burns well. This is beyond the time one is permitted to remain at a single camp.



My favorite is the bare dead limbs from fallen jack-one. Burns enthusiastically and smells divine. Easy to gather. When fully dried even substantial pieces can be broken by being swung hard on the sharp edge of big rock. No need for saw or axe.


I'm a big fan of gathering driftwood caught in brush on the shore or stranded on beaches during high-water. This is Quetico endorsed behavior, not B-dub. Nothing better than a nice fire made of art. "

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is "jack-one"?"

I would guess it is a misplaced finger trying for "jackpine"

auto correct of jack pine.

schweady: "Seek out cedar for your cooking fires.

"

Although Cedar is a great wood to burn, it will snap, crackle, and pop and throw cinders which put holes in your camping chairs. Keep anything away from a cedar fire into which you don’t want to get holes burned.

scottiebaldwin: "Although Cedar is a great wood to burn, it will snap, crackle, and pop and throw cinders which put holes in your camping chairs..."

Not as much as jack-one.
:-)

Tree Identification

Tree Identification starts around the 1:00 mark.

What the heck did I just watch lol?

schweady: "

scottiebaldwin: "Although Cedar is a great wood to burn, it will snap, crackle, and pop and throw cinders which put holes in your camping chairs..."

Not as much as jack-one.
:-)
"

I believe cedar is more pop and crackle than jack pine. It smells great both on and off the fire and is a major component of collected driftwood.

No real clue but at 17,082,105 views? Rough guesstimate? Maybe $50,000 minimum? I'd call that capitalism at it's finest. Good for him!

Any wood you find close to a camp site that is dead and dry.

Is then very best.

I am not picky at all when in the BWCA

Cc26: " Tree Identification


Tree Identification starts around the 1:00 mark."

"You can tell it is an aspen tree because of the way it is." Too funny!

That's pretty neat!

Balsam is my personal favorite. It grows in dense thickets at first, and eventually a bunch of the young ones die, leaving wrist sized standing dead wood. Easy to split, burns well. That and the floating aspen that gets stuck in shrubs along the shore after the winter.

Cc26: " Tree Identification

Tree Identification starts around the 1:00 mark."

Mountain cougars and biting goats! And this video has had 17 million views - no wonder we’re seeing problem visitors in the BWCA lately.

MichiganMan: "What the heck did I just watch lol?"

I followed the link at the side for "Guy On A Buffalo". My wife was singing for the rest of the afternoon.

For firewood, if it is down and dry, it goes into the fire. For wood that is still a bit green, we split it and pre-bake it close to the fire to dry it out a bit before adding it to the flames.

Our entry night dinner is usually a frozen, foil wrapped hobo meal that we put in a bed of coals to heat. For that, we like cedar or spruce.

Raskolnikov: "Hey everyone! I am not very skilled in tree identification. I want to get familiar with the different types of trees in the BWCA and how each type of wood performs as firewood. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!"

Black Spruce

White Cedar

Interesting thought experiment and learning to distinguish trees is admirable. But in the BWCA or Quetico you are limited by law to dead and down wood. I know of nobody who chooses a type of wood to harvest ignoring other types. Most of the time there are no leaves, sometimes no needles and little bark, identification may happen somewhere in the processing and burning. You will develop a talent to see the wood color/grain/feel and learn what it's best use is. But most often it's just a pile of wood to use for a fire.

butthead

Episodes 2 & 3 are equally as riveting!

OldScout48: "Your are going find pine and birch the easiest to identify.
Pine is going to burn hot and fast. I use it to start a fires and for the evening campfires.
Birch will give your nice coals for cooking steaks and fish over the campfire grate."

+ 1

Along these lines, I’m curious if anyone here regularly looks for (with success) pine knot in the BWCA. Is it worth the time to search or no?

SummerSkin: "Along these lines, I’m curious if anyone here regularly looks for (with success) pine knot in the BWCA. Is it worth the time to search or no?"

I've never specifically gone looking for knots although, on rare occasions, have come across a site that is loaded with them. (Usually where there was a blow down years earlier) But, as butthead has astutely indicated, I wouldn't necessarily try to target a specific type of wood.

Commonly the campsites have been picked over pretty good. I find the search for decent firewood one of the more enjoyable aspects as it usually provides an opportunity to explore deeper into the woods. You never know what hidden treasures you may stumble across. :)

I have looked for but have never found a pine knot. I too love collecting and processing firewood! I know it pops and snaps but cedar is my favorite wood to burn in the BW. I love the smell of it. I left this nice stack for the next group on Ashigan.