Having a fire in the early spring is as relaxing as it gets. No bugs and cooler temperatures mean you can sit and enjoy the experience. However, during this wet time of year, you may find that most of the wood around you is pretty wet. Rain, snowmelt, and damp air create persistent moisture that makes starting a fire feel like an impossible task.
If you’ve struggled with wet firewood, you’re not alone. I’ve wasted many firestarters trying to bring a flame to life. I’ve learned through all of that trial and error that it’s entirely possible to get a roaring fire going, even with damp wood.
Table of Contents
Why Is Wet Firewood Hard to Burn?
When firewood is wet, its high moisture content significantly hinders combustion. Dry wood burns because heat converts its chemical composition into flammable gases. Excess moisture, however, absorbs heat and prevents the wood from reaching ideal burning temperatures.
The damp conditions of early spring exacerbate the issue. Heavy rain, melting snow, and high humidity levels keep exposed wood perpetually wet. To make matters worse, many campers dig through wet, rotting wood on the ground in the hopes of finding a dry piece. Understanding these scientific and environmental challenges is the first step toward mastering fire-building in spring weather.
Finding and Selecting the Right Firewood
Even if the forest seems like a soupy mess there is always a chance you will find dry wood. Just because the outside is wet doesn’t mean the inside is guaranteed to be damp as well.
Look for Dry Sources
The key to starting your fire lies in spotting the driest wood possible.
- Search for Standing Deadwood: Dead trees still standing off the ground are drier than wood touching the soaked ground.
- Check for Wood Attached to Trees: Small branches and twigs still clinging to trees are likely to be much drier than those lying on the forest floor. For example, eastern white cedar and pines will often have dead branches at the base of live trees (they died from lack of sunlight or nutrition deficiency), which can be dry.
- Inspect Under Overhangs: Areas shielded from rain, like rocks or dense foliage, often have less waterlogged wood.
Prioritize Certain Wood Types
If you have options, favor hardwoods over softwoods.
- Hardwoods such as oak and maple burn hotter and longer, even in damp conditions. They can also withstand damp environments for longer before they penetrate the inner wood.
- Softwoods like pine and spruce ignite more easily but burn out quickly. Their resin content can also produce more smoke. White Cedar is naturally rot-resistant and will burn hot and quickly even in wet conditions.
Look for Visual Signs of Dryness
- Choose pieces where the bark is peeling, as they can contain drier interiors. This is because, as the wood dries, the cambium layer starts to break down and the bark will loosen.
- Avoid wood that feels spongy or crumbles too easily since these traits often indicate rot. Punky wood can hold a lot of moisture and take a long time to dry out completely.
How to Dry Wet Firewood
No camping trip guarantees perfectly dry firewood, but there are actionable strategies to make wet wood burnable.
1. Peel Off the Bark
Bark traps a significant amount of moisture, so removing it can expose drier layers underneath. Use a knife or hatchet to strip the bark before attempting to ignite the wood.
2. Split the Wood
Large logs take substantially longer to dry. Splitting them into smaller pieces not only accelerates the drying process but also makes them easier to ignite. A good camping hatchet or knife is invaluable for this purpose.
3. Use Heat to Your Advantage
Position wet logs around the flames of an existing fire to dry them out before directly burning them. Use care to keep the wood close enough to absorb heat but far enough to avoid extinguishing the fire.
Best Trees To Look Out For
In a pinch, you could burn any dead wood that you find but if you need to maximize the heat level or burn time then there are some particular types of trees you will want to look for.
- White Birch (Hardwood): A hardwood with flammable, oily bark that burns easily even when wet, making it ideal for kindling. You’ll want to separate the layers of the papery bark to expose the dry layers.
- Eastern White Pine (Softwood): A softwood rich in resin, which burns hot and fast, even in damp conditions.
- Red Oak (Hardwood): A dense hardwood with dry interiors that burns long and steadily once ignited.
- Sugar Maple (Hardwood): A hardwood that burns slowly and provides consistent, long-lasting heat.
- Spruce (Softwood): A resinous softwood that ignites quickly and burns with high heat, great for damp weather.
- Eastern Red Cedar (Softwood): A lightweight softwood with quick ignition and intense heat output, great for wet conditions.
- Ash (Hardwood): A hardwood that is dense but dries out quickly, making it a reliable and easy-to-burn option even in damp conditions.
Final Thoughts
Even the most prepared campers will struggle to get a fire lit in damp conditions, it’s the nature of things, unfortunately. But having the right resources prepped with the right tools will increase your chances of starting the fire. In my many years of being out in the woods I have never struggled for too long starting a fire and the woods have always provided for me.
