Not sure if beech or oak holds leaves longer. All I hear hunting is leaves rustling in the wind. In January.
Well right now it's suffering from being turned into firewood disease. But now that you mention it I can see quite a few babies along it's roots.
That's interesting Paul, as the Beech I've seen has fairly smooth bark. I'm FAR, far, far, from being an expert tree identity guru. The Beech we have definitely still have leaves in the middle of winter, as do a lot of the Oaks.
If that is a beech, it should have nuts now. Need more pictures. I'm with PapaDave in that my first thought was popple. It just does not look like the beech we have around here.
You are in MI as I recall. The bark disease is spreading slowly from the North East. As I recall it first was found in maritime Canada. I don't think it has made it to your neighborhood quite yet. It has barely made it into where I live in NJ, but it has destroyed the Beech in VT where we have out camp. The stately 'elephant legs' of the forest have become pocked up messes of trees.
It's definitely beech, trees growing from roots, the disease, and it's got nuts on just about every branch.
Those nuts are really good hard mast for the wildlife. Bears like to climb trees to get them. Look for claw marks on it and any others that you come across. It'll look like really subtle on a tree that got climbed many years ago but the pattern of marks will still be there.
Being in Maine and almost 43 I have never seen a beech that was normal. After spending my whole life in the woods I can say that you see very few trees over 16 inch diameter and seem to branch quickly. Rarely see them die off. Just have a ugly look and not much you would saw for lumber.
Well you all weren't lying when you said it splits easy, even with a maul it pops right apart. I'd say it's easier to split than red maple.
Most are easy to split, but I've had some twisty gnarly beeches that are hydro split candidates only.
I can believe it, some parts of this tree seem a little twisted but it's small diameter so I wouldn't split them normally anyway.
Do see a lot of deer around this part of the lot. Also I came across a smaller tree, maybe 10 feet tall that seems to be black birch. The bark peels like white birch and smells like wintergreen. Left it alone during my initial cutting but it got banged up when the beech fell. I cut it into firewood lengths and set it in the stack, so far so good for the fall season.
I'd love to have some of those three!; mostly red/white oak here. Every beech, rock maple, BL, ash post makes me wish I had a source for these species.
