Woke up before dawn this morning to swap batches of maple sap. Might end up with around a 1/2 gal of syrup this weekend. Got some coffee and read some of your posts here and just had to do some firewood. Log pile is starting to thaw, so I decided to work on splitting a trailer load of ash. I can just park it in the garage and wait for some more snow to melt before I stack it. Found what looks an awful lot like EAB galleries in one of the bigger rounds. I hadn't seen it here yet. This is from the roadside tree that the phone co topped and i dropped last year. Took the dog for a walk, and to my horror, my next door neighbors woods is showing what appear to be signs of 1st year infestation. Good 3 acre stand of ash - every single one had woodpecker damage. Not sure how well it shows up in these pics. More pics to follow.
I have several acres of ash trees on my property. It dominates my low spots. Not ready for this $#!+!! Lots of nice ones too. Guess ill let em get as big as possible and save the nicest ones for lumber. This one is firewood: I was already planning to take that one down. Didn't put out any leaves last year, and its in a fairly open spot that I'm planning to plant some trees in this year. Looks like a beetle kill too. I was just in denial.
No doubt about it Shawn, the bug has arrived in full force. Take heart though that we found our first bug damage in 2002 and we're still cutting good ash. There have been only a very few to get punky and either break off part way up or break off nearer the ground. Now we are finding many that are breaking off at the root. But, the wood is still great firewood. Why do you have the pots covered? Where does the steam come out?
There are steam vents on the top. I like to keep the lids on when the pots are full, because it gets boiling faster. I really need a better heat source. As they start to empty out, it can keep up better with the lids off. I don't think it slows the process down very much from what it would be anyway with the little hot plate.
I've found the same bug galleries in some splits here in Maine, Shawn. Our lot has a fair amount of ash and some of them are getting hammered by peckerheads too. Glad to hear Dennis saying he's had EAB since 2002 and still has good firewood from the ash. Good to know. Last couple years I've dropped some of the biggest ash, oak and maple. For the most part those 8-10 ash were fine. This year, I plan on going after the deadpoles more and open a trail all the way around the 14 acres here.
Would be sad to see the ash start going here - we have it here in NH - but no evidence in my area yet. Hope you get some good syrup! Cheers!
Sad to say but there is no stopping it at this point. If it's in NH it won't be long before it's in your area.
Unfortunately, I'm sure you are right - once the invasive stuff hits, it tends to do create quite a problem. Cheers!
It's around some cities here in Wisconsin, but not at my house, or in my town or neighboring cities. Since most of my mature trees by my house are ash, I am hopeful my Bayer tree treatment, the extreme cold we've had the last couple of years, and fingers crossed.
The roadside near my place has dozens of ash marked for cutting but I don't remember seeing a problem along that road last year. Maybe the county is taking preemptive action. The EAB has been seen within a few dozen miles of my place.
