How much does a cord of wood weigh? Northwest species compared

How much does a cord of wood weigh, by species?

The weight of a cord comes down to two things: how dense the wood is and how much water is still in it. The chart and table model both for 12 species people burn in Washington and Oregon, using specific gravity and green moisture from the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) reference tables. Every figure is a modeled estimate for a full 128-cubic-foot cord, not a scale reading.

Modeled estimate. Specific gravity (oven-dry weight, green volume) and green moisture (percent of oven-dry weight) from USDA Forest Service FIA REF_SPECIES, checked 2026-10-02. Weights rounded to 10 lb; heat is gross, at 9,000 Btu per oven-dry pound (PNW-GTR-810).

Density does most of the work. Oregon white oak, at a specific gravity of 0.64, is the densest of the 46 Northwest species in this site’s FIA extract, and a seasoned cord of it outweighs a cord of western redcedar (0.31) by about 2,100 pounds. Water is the other half of the story, and it is the part you can change by drying the wood.

How these cord weights are modeled

Published firewood tables use different assumptions about stacking and moisture, so this page builds its numbers from public inputs and shows every step. Anyone with a calculator can redo them.

Each input moves the answer. A loose stack with 80 cubic feet of wood weighs about 6 percent less than the model and a tight 90-cubic-foot stack about 6 percent more; the University of Washington tables add that crooked, knotty bolts can cut solid volume by about 20 cubic feet. Wood also shrinks as it dries below about 30 percent moisture, so by the Wood Handbook’s shrinkage figures a cord stacked after seasoning holds roughly 2 to 6 percent more wood than one stacked green.

Published tables land in the same range but not on the same numbers. OSU Extension’s EC 1127 assumes 90 cubic feet of solid wood and lists seasoned cords about 10 to 20 percent heavier than this model (3,308 pounds for Douglas fir, for example). The model’s heat figures, by contrast, fall within about 1 million Btu of OSU’s EC 1628 values for Douglas fir, alder, Oregon white oak and ponderosa pine. The site’s approach to modeled numbers is on its methodology page.

Green vs seasoned firewood: how much water you haul

Fresh-cut wood carries a lot of water, and the amount depends on the species. Among these 12 species, FIA’s green moisture runs from 35 percent of dry weight for Douglas fir to 138 percent for black cottonwood, so a green cord of cottonwood holds more water (about 2,270 pounds) than wood (about 1,640).

That is the weight you avoid hauling, and the water you wait out, by drying wood before you move or burn it. Douglas fir sheds only about 370 pounds per cord on the way to 20 percent; quaking aspen and black cottonwood shed about a ton. Washington’s Department of Ecology says softwoods need at least six months and hardwoods a year or more; the full drying guide, with Northwest rain data, is how long to season firewood.

Best firewood per cord: heat by species

Heat tracks dry weight. PNW-GTR-810, the Forest Service’s fuelwood reference for the Northwest, puts the higher heating value of nearly all species at about 9,000 Btu per oven-dry pound, give or take 10 percent, so a denser cord holds more heat. Modeled, a cord of Oregon white oak holds about 30.6 million Btu, Douglas fir 21.5 million and red alder 17.7 million, with western redcedar and black cottonwood last at 14.8 million.

Those are gross figures. OSU Extension says each 1 percent of extra moisture costs about 1 percent of heating value, and its EC 1628 put new EPA-approved stoves at 60 to 80 percent efficient in 2013. What survives the stove differs from house to house; the ranking does not.

“Hardwood firewood” is not automatically better. Bigleaf maple, a hardwood, comes in about 2 percent below Douglas fir per cord, and three hardwoods in the table (red alder, quaking aspen and black cottonwood) carry less heat per cord than fir. Density is the number to ask about, not the hardwood label.

Is Douglas fir good firewood? Species one by one

Douglas fir

Yes: it is the densest conifer on this list. Its specific gravity of 0.45 is close to bigleaf maple’s 0.44, and its low green moisture (35 percent) means a green cord weighs only about 370 pounds more than a seasoned one. OSU Extension lists about 21 million Btu per cord; the species page is Douglas fir.

Oak

Oregon white oak is the heaviest wood here and holds the most heat per cord: about 4,070 pounds and 30.6 million Btu per seasoned cord, with roughly 1,280 pounds of water to lose from green. With the Mediterranean oak borer now found in six Oregon counties, the Oregon Department of Forestry asks people to avoid moving cut firewood more than 10 miles from where it was gathered.

Maple

Bigleaf maple (0.44) and Douglas fir land about 2 percent apart per cord, and Norway maple is a little denser at 0.47. Maple starts out about twice as wet as fir, so a green cord has about 1,190 pounds of water to lose against fir’s 370. More on the species in bigleaf maple and types of maple trees.

Red alder

Alder is light (0.37) and wet: a green cord is about half water by weight. Seasoned, it models at about 2,350 pounds and 17.7 million Btu, close to the 18 million OSU lists.

Birch and aspen

A seasoned cord of paper birch (0.48) weighs about 37 percent more than one of quaking aspen (0.35), and aspen starts at 129 percent moisture, the second-wettest wood in the table. The two trees are compared in aspen vs birch.

Western redcedar

Tied with black cottonwood as the lightest wood on the list (0.31): about 1,970 pounds and 14.8 million Btu per seasoned cord. OSU notes that softwoods burn quickly and hold less heat per volume, which is why cedar earns its place split thin as kindling rather than as the main fuel. See western redcedar.

Black cottonwood

Cottonwood ties cedar for the least heat per cord and is the wettest wood here when green, at 138 percent: a green cord of about 3,910 pounds is more than half water.

Can a pickup carry a cord of wood?

Check the truck before you load it. NHTSA says new vehicles carry a Tire and Loading Information placard on the driver’s side door pillar, or on the edge of the door, and under the federal standard behind it (FMVSS No. 110) the placard states the most that occupants and cargo together may weigh. Subtract the people riding along; what is left is your firewood budget.

Then compare it with the wood. Modeled, a half cord of seasoned Douglas fir is about 1,430 pounds and a half cord of green Oregon white oak about 2,680; a 16-inch face cord (one-third of a cord) of seasoned fir is about 950. Run your own species and moisture below, and split heavy loads into trips.

Firewood from a tree you are taking down

If a Douglas fir, maple or alder is coming down anyway, ask the crew when you get the quote to buck the trunk to firewood length and leave the rounds. Rounds are at their heaviest the day they are cut, so decide beforehand where they will be split and stacked. How to measure what you end up with is in how much is a cord of firewood, and the job itself is described on tree removal.