That's crazy and exactly the opposite of what I thought you were going to say. I would have thought that the Ash market was "flush" with all the EAB trees. BUT I never really thought about the actual wood affected/killed trees having worm "trails", is this true and the high prices are for non EAB logs?
The worm trails are just in the Cambiam layer,the lumber will still be good for a year or so then it starts to stain.
They seem to get punky pretty quick around my neck of the woods. Birds pecking away looking for a meal speed up the decay process. Also the trees don't seem to die all at once, so some of the top has often been dead a long time before the whole tree bites the dust. But yeah you still get a year or so before they start getting real soft. Sent from my LG-H871 using Tapatalk
For the northeast the north east timber exchange is a good (THE guide)guide to pricing. Pricing Most logs/trees that people think should be milled are saw logs. As far as the Ash you need to id it as white Ash. It could be green ash Wich would effect value. When you get into large veneer species like cherry you are better off finding a specialty buyer. Looking up high end custom cabinet/furniture makers and seeing if they do their own milling should get good prices usually better than a mill. That cherry is not veneer, but a sawer will see atleast half the clear side as possible veneer quality, hence getting a better than sawmill price that will grade it as a saw log.
Might try a private mill, one that produces custom lumber if your looking to harvest a small batch of your standing trees. We have the "Leukin" brothers near here, they don't even advertise, but guys in the "know" can find them. They will mill and build custom woodwork, kitchen cabinets, etc. and do beautiful work. They built my brothers kitchen cabinets and all of his trim mouldings. I know a couple guys who have sold them a couple/few trees at a time.
I have done well with Ash over the last few years, but you want to get on them quickly. In a few months they will start barber-chairing on you, making a $500 log worthless.
For what its worth i'm going through the process of a potential thinning....I have hard maple and red oak that are about that size where I was offered between 200-350 per tree. Now on my black walnuts of the same size it was in the 1,200-1,500 range per tree.
If I had the means, I would have hauled, milled, dried and stored every stick of ash I could get my hands on. It's a nice wood to work with and if you can get some with burl, it is beautiful when sanded and polished. Soon there won't be much for the asking and when the supply dries up, it may become valuable
I've approximately 500 foot of Ash used for trim in my kitchen/living room. This lumber was harvested just 6 miles down the road. I finished it in 'satin" but found it hard to mill as it was very brittle.
