Yes, the ashes can be useful as well!

A retort inside the woodstove will allow sticks, twigs etc to burn without oxygen, which means you're left with pure carbon. Crush it up and inoculate with some compost tea and you have a soil amendment that holds 8x its weight in water and acts as a living space for microbes and other wonderful soil critters. Many folks use it as their primary soil fertility tool.

I'll gather a few photos and post them soon.