I don’t have elm in my woods. I mostly see it in cultivated parks in the area, though it is absolutely native here. Beautiful trees. Black locust is not native to my area, but if growing here it would be a range expansion rather than “invasive.” If black locust did grow here it would be superior for sure. It’s got higher BTU per cord than oak. If the publications are to be believed, elm has fewer BTU per cord than ash. It’s down between cherry and red maple. With what I have in the woods, ash is about as good as it gets from a production standpoint. Seasons fast too even when cut green.

@@ProductiveRecreation I think you will find that dead standing ash has a higher btu than ash as apposed to just a live timber freshly dried , Although I could be wrong.

@@karlhampson6091 What you get out in terms of BTUs largely depends on wood density and moisture content… dead standing is ahead in the drying process compared to live cut, as long as it isn’t already rotting or bug infested! From a chemical standpoint, wood “solids” are about the same across species (and have similar unit weight), what’s different is the amount of “solids” in a volume of wood. That varies a lot by species and explains how oak and white pine can be so different. These days I cut ash as it’s dead or nearly dead from the borer… which is unfortunately becoming too much too fast, which is a shame. Thanks for watching!