How to ID wood

[Frosty the Bowman]

Hey guys, I know this has probablly been covered somewhere before, so sorry.

I would like to learn how to ID wood, and do not know where to look for this info.

At the staore or when buying from someone everything is labeled.
But when you want to cut down your own tree, for some reason they do not have labels pinned to them.

Could some one point out a resource I could use/get, a website, or a book that I could use and study to be able to learn how to do this?

Also, do any of you know what trees growing up here in the pacific northwest are good bow wood?

Thanks for your help.

[gringol]

vine maple!  you have tons of it up there and it's usually free for the taking.  Pick up a tree ID book at a bookstore or on-line and you'll find it in there.

yew is also available, but it's harder to find and usually in the back country.

[vanillabear?]

[PEARL DRUMS]

I bet you can find a book titled, Trees of Washington State. Just get one with color pics.

[So-Mo Archer]

Frosty, you may also want to contact your local 4H or FFA advisors, not sure of their availability in WA, but they can be a great help as tree id is a big part of the forestry competitions.

Also, my brother-in-law just got a book titled "Trees of North America", great info and photos in there. Pics of mature trees, foliage, bark patterns, and maps for most common areas.

Hope this is of some use.

[DavidV]

Originally posted by PEARL DRUMS:
I bet you can find a book titled, Trees of Washington State. Just get one with color pics.

x2

[psychmonky]

A bit of advice: don't get too enthusiastic about identifying trees. I do it while im driving now and I've almost wrecked more times than I care to admit. Its worse than looking for wildlife.

[Frosty the Bowman]

Originally posted by psychmonky:
A bit of advice: don't get too enthusiastic about identifying trees. I do it while im driving now and I've almost wrecked more times than I care to admit. Its worse than looking for wildlife.

 

I will look up some books, Thanks guys, your the best.

[DavidV]

It's not that hard if you have a good book and can get out and ID the plants in person. I started to  memorize the common species in Missouri my Junior year of high school. I can ID a leaf by the drop of a hat now after just a year. The problem lies in separating individual species within a genus during winter.

[Roy from Pa]

If the tree has big round green balls of fruit under it, it's good wood:) When ya cut it and the saw dust is Orange, it's good wood:) Yes I am biased:)

[CardboardDuck]

I personally love the Peterson Field Guides and I know they have one for the western US/Canada. When I was in school for forestry it's what I used to learn tree ID.