Wood is light, soft and weak, and used for boxes, crates, pulp, excelsior, pallets, chipboard and matches. It is harvested and sold with the wood of bigtooth aspen. Quaking aspen is used as a nurse crop for more valuable timber species. Grouse eat the buds and catkins in winter and spring. Rabbits and browsers eat the twigs, tender bark and foliage, and porcupines feed on the bark and wood.
Quaking aspen is used by beavers to build dams and is their principal food.
Although this is an ornamental tree, it has a number of drawbacks and is not well suited to landscaping.