Which are your preferred tree species to grow your own fuel forest?

Hey Pablo, interesting topic. Would you add a column for "coppicig possible" or something?
Productivity in weight per area per year would indeed be super interesting.
Also another column for "other uses" for stacking functions

Yes, they have been coppicing for firewood in places for over a thousand years, so finding good locally adapted plants for that approach makes a huge amount of sense. ( Coppice Agroforestry by Mark Krawczyk : review here https://permies.com/wiki/203188/Coppice-Agroforestry-Tending-Trees-Product )

I'll also suggest that people know the ecosystem requirements of trees - some will hog water to get that excellent growth, which then denies water to native, locally adapted trees.

And please don't plant monocultures - most coppiced areas use more than one species, and only chop relatively small areas on any one year, and have been shown to improve diversity of birds and amphibians, whereas monocultures tend to reduce biodiversity.

Jay Angler wrote:Yes, they have been coppicing for firewood in places for over a thousand years, so finding good locally adapted plants for that approach makes a huge amount of sense. ( Coppice Agroforestry by Mark Krawczyk : review here https://permies.com/wiki/203188/Coppice-Agroforestry-Tending-Trees-Product )

I'll also suggest that people know the ecosystem requirements of trees - some will hog water to get that excellent growth, which then denies water to native, locally adapted trees.

And please don't plant monocultures - most coppiced areas use more than one species, and only chop relatively small areas on any one year, and have been shown to improve diversity of birds and amphibians, whereas monocultures tend to reduce biodiversity.

Coppice Agroforestry is a great reference for this. It builds on data presented in Edible Forest Gardens textbooks.

Personally I am planting hazels, hybrid poplars, Chinese chestnuts and chinquapin chestnuts, black locusts, and Osage orange. These are not all only for firewood but most of them are intended for resprout-forestry and firewood eventually. Especially the seedling hazelnuts, locust, and Osage orange - what isn't usable for garden construction will go to wood stoves.

My understanding is that calorific value is pretty closely related to density, so denser wood ('harder' in popular parlance) has more calorific value.

My favourites so far are Alder (Alnus glutinosa) and Silver Birch (Betula pendula) - They have been the fastest growing coppiceable trees for me here. Spruce also grows fast, but is cut once rather than 'cut and come again'! Alder has the added advantage of being a Nitrogen fixing tree.

I have a willow hybrid of some sort (I don't know what as it came as a cutting) which grows very quickly too. I'm hoping this will be even more productive for me in the wetter areas. I just cut a bit of it this year as it was damaged in summer winds last year - We'll see how well it burns.

My preferred tree is Black Locust.   They're hardy here in Western NY,  are great nitrogen fixers and grow relatively fast and make great firewood and fence posts.  The only negatives I've found is that they are harder to split than ash, and the thorns on the smaller branches are sharp and obnoxious, but nowhere near as bad as those on the Osage Orange trees I have.  Although the Osage makes a great hot burning firewood, it's thorns are really nasty - it was planted originally as a hedge fence, known as being "bull tough and hog tight" - and once mature, getting rid of it is difficult.  Our native Ash trees were a staple firewood for a long time, being hot burning and easy to split (straight grained), but have fallen prey to the Emerald Ash Borer.  I'm cutting the diseased ones now for firewood, and have hopes for the future for some of the stumps which have sprouted new growth.  Hope springs eternal.