Camping 101: Knowing Your Firewood

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Camping 101: Knowing Your Firewood

May 24, 2022

By Tom Watson

There was once a time when you could bring firewood from home to the campground, collect an armful of squaw wood (thin pieces/limbs of dead wood), or even cut your own from the dead fall on the forest floor. Those days are almost gone.

Now you can't even bring a few fireplace logs or chunks from the backyard spring clean up! The threat from invasive, tree-destroying critters makes such acts a finable offense throughout much of the country.

In Minnesota, for example, we are very concerned about the potentially devastating threat from the emerald ash borer. Since ash is also a premiere firewood species, we should all be concerned about this invasion. The state Department of Natural Resources has authorized wood merchants now whose firewood has to be certifiably safe. Bring some from out of the area and you are in big trouble!

As a safety precaution, wood is stripped of its bark to help eliminate the habitat for beetles to hide, and to detect telltale channels in the sapwood and other signs characteristic of certain invasive critters. Unless you really know your trees from the inside, you may not be able to tell one species from another. I graduated from college with a degree in Forestry and I don't remember squat about interior wood characteristics.

Since the DNR has given its blessing to certain wood merchants, the easiest way to know what you are getting is to simply ask. Here are some of the more common campfire woods (sold and gathered where allowed) ranked according to their all-around performance as good firewood.

The criteria is basic: heat production, flame size and duration, speed of burn, and for cooking production of a good bed of coals. Other attributes to help you decide include the amount and quality of smoke, aromatic smells and flavorings, and the amount of sparks generated:

Alder

Not on the A list of main firewoods, but so common, it's an easy first choice to get a fire started. It produces low heat and is a fast burn. It does offer a mild flavor to meat from its smoke.

Apple

Not easy to find, but worth it. It's aromatic (a fruity, sweet flavor). It produces a hot fire with a low flame.

Ash

A quality firewood sharing the very top of the list with a few select others. It's aromatic, produces a good flame and lots of heat. It even burns while a bit green or wet (but not as well as when thoroughly dry).

Aspen/Cottonwood

Poor choices, but ones I've seen pawned off as firewood, even at some state parks (storm clean-up refuse mostly). It's just not good firewood except maybe for emergencies.

Birch

Everyone knows about its bark's fire starting ability. The birch as a firewood offers good flavor and scent, good heat, and is a fast burn.

Elm

Sometimes sold near urban areas it needs at least two years to dry out so check with the source otherwise expect lots of smoke!

Hickory

Another choice firewood at the top, hickory's reputation as a smoker is world-renowned. It's also a high heat producing hardwood species.

Maple

(Meaning, reds and sugars, NOT silver, box elder and other soft species). This is a good fuel wood, it produces a fair amount of flavorful smoke.

Oak

Another classic firewood, oak makes for a high heat producing, slow and steady-burning fire. Make sure your source has thoroughly dried the wood or you'll be in for a rather unpleasantly smoky campfire.

Pine/Spruce

Two softwood species that are marginally good firewood. They are especially good as a fire starter (can be split or used whole as kindling). Pine is an especially sparking, spitting, nasty popping-and-crackling firewood that produces a good flame.

There are many other regional-specific woods that locals will swear by. Basically hardwoods (oak, ash, etc.) are best for long-term heat generation and coal bed production. Softwoods are fast burning and little else.

A word of caution be sure of your source of twigs and other kindling in the woods. Some forms of poison ivy have large woody stems or vines when burned the oils are in the smoke and can cause very serious problems if it comes in contact with the eyes or is inhaled.

For the most part, a bad fire is better than no fire at all it's the cave man in us all!

Originally published May 8, 2018. Tom Watson is an award-winning writer who lived in Alaska for 16 years, 12 of which were on Kodiak Island. He is a frequent contributor to Camping Life, Canoe & Kayak magazines, author of three books: Sixty Hikes within Sixty Miles of Minneapolis, Best Tent Camping-Minnesota, both by Menasha Ridge Press, and How to Think Like a Survivor, by Creative Publishing International. He's also an avid kayaker, camper, naturalist, writer, and photographer residing in western Minnesota.