Plz excuse the tongue twister, I couldn't resist.
I too, am quite new to timberframing. I,ve been doing alot of research on the net for the last couple of years. I have two of Benson's books. A very good read.
Being located in northeastern Ontario, I have access to eastern white cedar, black spruce, poplar, jackpine, birch, white pine(with permit)very expensive, balsam, and redpine(with permit)

What species to use, considering all the requirements in a timberframe building. I'm concerned about many things, including twist, shrinkage, checking, workability, shake, to name a few. Of course there's the engineering side of things, stress loads, joinery I think you see what I'm getting at.
If anyone can offer a good web site, or their personal ideas on what to use it would be much appreciated.
In advance, thanks