Northern US tree identification

[Jay H]

Anybody have/read this guidebook:

Trees of the Northern United States and Canada (Hardcover) by John Farrar

I saw it referenced in a review of an Audubon book on the eastern US.

As a hiker and a newbie wood stove owner/user, one of the things I want to get more knowledgeable is tree identification and I saw a recommendation of this book as being one of the best ones out there for northern US and Canada...

Thanks,
Jay

 

[kmorgan]

Anybody have/read this guidebook:

Trees of the Northern United States and Canada (Hardcover) by John Farrar

I saw it referenced in a review of an Audubon book on the eastern US.

As a hiker and a newbie wood stove owner/user, one of the things I want to get more knowledgeable is tree identification and I saw a recommendation of this book as being one of the best ones out there for northern US and Canada...

Thanks,
Jay

I own this and several other tree identification books. I'm a woodworker and woodturner and it comes in handy to know your wood.

A better, and in my opinion, the best book for identification is "The Tree Identification Book" by George Symonds (less than $15 on Amazon.com). It's much better and contains excellent pictures of buds, branches and leaves to help aid in identification. 5 out of 5.

Kevin

 

[Rob S]

Hi Jay,

The "Instant Guide" series may be helpful for tree identification while hiking. Not sure tho if this will be sufficient if you are looking for good burnable wood. Here is a link to the Instant Guide to Trees book sold on the Barnes & Noble website.

Rob

 

[MattC]

Jay, that guide looks pretty solid, and you pretty much can't go wrong w/ Audubon. I have an old Audubon Eastern Forests guide that is terrific, it's one of the more reached-for books on my field guide shelf. I also have an old edition of that Symonds that Kevin sites, and he's right, that book is superb. Peterson Guides are of course another old standby. Most guides have the same information, so comparisons are more about how it's presented, usability, etc. Feel free to peruse the stuff on my book shelf next time you're over.

The specific topic of burnability is often mentioned in field guides, but it is generally not given high priority. Maybe one or more guides are exhaustive about that particular aspect of various species, but I don't know which, if any, are.

Matt

 

[DSettahr]

I would look for a book with a dichotomous key... it's a quick and easy way to narrow down potential names when you have a sample in front of you.

Virginia Tech also maintains a pretty good dendrology website with fact sheets and links to USFS Silvics Information about a wide variety of tree species. The database is searchable by common name, family, genus, species, state, etc, and also has dichotomous keys for identification either with twigs or leaves.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/DENDRO/DENDROLOGY/main.htm

I personally use the peterson and the audubon books, and find them to be pretty useful.

 

[Jay H]

Thanks everybody.

Also, do these guidebooks useful for identifying splits? Since I don't have much property or trees, I get splits delivered to me. I bought 2 cords of wood this past summer for $155/cord delivered presplit into 16" lengths... Are these guidebooks useful for identifying wood by the grain and perhaps the bark because being presplit I'm not going to be able to know the leaves and stuff and those kind of details...

Jay

 

[arghman]

Trees of the Northern United States and Canada (Hardcover) by John Farrar

drool... I am running out of room on my field guide bookshelf.

Are these guidebooks useful for identifying wood by the grain and perhaps the bark because being presplit I'm not going to be able to know the leaves and stuff and those kind of details...

that's a toughie! I don't think you could find that in a book. your best bet is probably to ask a forester or logger (does NJ have county foresters?), they could probably feel/smell the wood and it would give them clues that wouldn't really be in the guidebooks. Some of the trees are easier than others; trees like white birch and white ash have rather distinctive barks.

 

[Jay H]

I don't know about county foresters, but I buy wood from a local guy with a wood business and I just want to be able to verify what I'm paying for is what I think I am paying for...


I dunno, I still like to be able to ID some of the trees in the forest, as a hiker. But I don't own a chainsaw and no license for the state as a harvester yet, but someday perhaps... I have a splitting maul and a couple of wedges now but haven't used it yet.

Jay

 

[DaveSunRa]

Jay,

Your more then welcome to come by my house and practice splitting logs to your hearts content. After a few days you would know the difference between wet and dry wood and at lest distinguish between families of oak, maple and beech.

 

[Pete_Hickey]

I dunno, I still like to be able to ID some of the trees in the forest, as a hiker.

Ketch wrote a small book which was published by the ADK... oh... 30-40 years ago... It was 'recently' reprinted, but may be out of print again. It focuses solely on the trees of the High Peaks region. This makes it very nice and easy to identify, since the trees found there form a small subset of the trees of the NorthEast. Also, he mentions some specific places where certain trees can be found.

 

[jrbren]

One thing that helped me is to go down to your local nursery and they have many native trees for sale there and they are all labelled for you. Then you can inspect their needles, bark etc... in person and have the labels for comparison. I think I have good handle on Balsam Fir, Eastern Pine, Cedar, Hemlock, spruce, etc... from these visits...

 

[arghman]

I don't know about county foresters, but I buy wood from a local guy with a wood business and I just want to be able to verify what I'm paying for is what I think I am paying for...

if you aren't sure post a photo here & see if we can guess.

if you are really skeptical of wood type veracity, there's probably an appropriate state govt agency that oversees cordwood sales & you could ask someone there to ID.

 

[REK]

Quick and Dirty Fire Wood Guide

White or grey papery bark or similar, some smell like root beer - Birch

Light colored wood, fine straight grained , Bark is like corduroy pants - Ash

Reddish colored, ragged wood, open grain, big splinters, stinks! (it's not called piss oak for nothin') - Red Oak

Looks deformed, wood and bark Grain looks like twisted yarn or rope, you'll never split it by hand - Elm

Smooth grey bark, white smooth wood, burns hot all night - Beech

Chunky brown bark, nondecript white wood, irrregular grain, sometimes chocolate brown core - Maple

Smells like turpentine or Christmas - Softwood

Green wood will feel heavey, dry the opposite and will have cracks and checking.

This is not very scientific (but niether is a wood stove) or much to do with hiking but it is topical; Oh wait! After a while you'll be able to recognize the various speceis as you hike. Anything found on a pressie traverse will not burn well! (that ought to do it)

Bob

 

[Jay H]

...and I'm not going to be carrying splits on a pressie traverse anyway!

DaveSunRa, thanks for the offer! I think I will be splitting wood only from neighbors... You're probably 3+ hours away, close but not exactly in the "neighbor" category.

I just picked up a bunch of oak flooring chunks, I can cut them up into smaller pieces and have some very nice kindling. Plain old unfinished oak..

Jay

 

[Rob S]

I think I will be splitting wood only from neighbors...

Hi Jay, you are always welcome to come over our house and help yourself to firewood. We have 2 acres of woods, and there are a couple of trees that just fell yesterday or last night from the windstorm. If you have the right-sized hitch on your car, you can even borrow my trailer ....... I would guess you could get about 2 cords of wood in that.

 

[cushetunk]

White or grey papery bark or similar, some smell like root beer - Birch

Light colored wood, fine straight grained , Bark is like corduroy pants - Ash

Reddish colored, ragged wood, open grain, big splinters, stinks! (it's not called piss oak for nothin') - Red Oak

Looks deformed, wood and bark Grain looks like twisted yarn or rope, you'll never split it by hand - Elm

Smooth grey bark, white smooth wood, burns hot all night - Beech

Chunky brown bark, nondecript white wood, irrregular grain, sometimes chocolate brown core - Maple

That's a good list for northern New England, but remember New Jersey also has more oak species, some hickories, and (one of my favorite trees) tuliptree.

Here's the link to the USDA silvics page.

 

[Jay H]

That's a good list for northern New England, but remember New Jersey also has more oak species, some hickories, and (one of my favorite trees) tuliptree.

Here's the link to the USDA silvics page.

Yeah, lots of oak species down here... They are such a pain to rake! (which is probably why I haven't raked my yard this year yet

Jay

 

[mudhook51]

Usually the local Soil and Water Conservation District, or something similar, has booklets on BTU's of woods, and other interesting facts for wood burning. As a long time wood burner and fireman , I can't stress enough to keep your chiminey clean.
And wood heat is the most comfortable heat there is. Enjoy.

 

[Jay H]

Had a blazing fire in my wood stove last night. What I find good kindling is to take a bunch of cardboard (the perforated kind is best) and then roll them up into tight rolls. Then when they unroll, put three of them front to back in my stove and fill the rolls with newspaper. Then put kindling on the top and light the three newspaper crumbles. The starter air for my wood stove (a Quadrafire 3100) is in the back wall of firebricks while the secondary air comes from the top front after being heated by the fire itself. After a few minutes I'll add larger kindling and eventually a big log. Then I'll get the flue temps (I have a flue probe thermometer) to around 400deg and I'll shut the starter air intake and adjust the secondary air intake such that I burn the fire at about 400deg or more to prevent as much creosote buildup as possible.

I haven't played with an overnight fire (hasn't been cold enough down here) but this morning, I still had a few hot embers at about 6am after putting my last split in around 9:30pm which is pretty good. The stove was still fairly warm too... I love the thing. I can sit and watch fires for hours.

Jay

 

[MattC]

Ketch wrote a small book which was published by the ADK... oh... 30-40 years ago... It was 'recently' reprinted, but may be out of print again. It focuses solely on the trees of the High Peaks region. This makes it very nice and easy to identify, since the trees found there form a small subset of the trees of the NorthEast. Also, he mentions some specific places where certain trees can be found.

http://www.adk.org/new_store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=5

Pete's right-an excellent resource, and the key is very easy to use. Although specific to the ADK High Peaks, it would be useful in many other Northeast mountain areas. I've put it to good use in the Catskills, and even the Shawangunks to a lesser degree.

Matt