Along with the inherent woody biomass supply needs within the bioenergy industry, self-heating risks associated with stored biomass piles continue to threaten worker safety, have the potential to cause serious damages to plant infrastructure and can result in the complete loss of feedstock stores. Though bark and woodchips can both be utilized as a feedstock, their physical and chemical properties differ significantly. Self-heating risks and dynamic pathways leading up to such events were therefore expected to vary as well. A large-scale industrial storage trial was conducted in Point Tupper, Nova Scotia along with comparative physical tests to determine whether wood self-heating models could be used successfully for piles primarily consisting of softwood bark (from local sawmills). Modeling with established bark variables yielded accurate predictions of pile temperature when compared with actual temperature sensor data (R-2 = 0.94). Following the start of the simulation (Day 1 = November 10, 2015), it was found that the average bark pile temperature peaked at 58.4 C on Day 33 with varying heating rates between the pile layers. The woodchip pile simulation in comparison, was found to peak on Day 23 with an average temperature of 64.9 degrees C. A sensitivity analysis highlighted significant self-heating variables, revealing those associated with microbial activity as being some of the most influential on temperature profile during initial storage stages. Our overall results indicated that bark piles heat at a slower rate compared to woodchips while retaining more heat over time. Wood parameters are insufficient for modelling bark pile dynamics and the use of specific bark parameters is necessary.