Anyone else dealing with gypsy moth caterpillar devastation this year?

Bad news on the tree front. The forestry service specialist from UNH came by Friday and was gracious enough to spend four hours looking at trees on my property and a few neighbors' properties as well. She confirmed my fears that the trees that aren't budding yet are not going to recover. Just standing on my deck and looking around, I can easily count at least 30 trees that have been killed, many of them tall old red oaks. There are several huge oaks that are too close to the house for me to risk taking down myself, so I will have to get estimates on those. While there is no rush to take those down, as they were healthy oaks that just died, I also have to take the seasoning factor into consideration. I don't want to wait a few years to take the trees down and then have to wait another three years after that to be able to use the firewood. Of course, with the way the health has been, I could always just leave them for the next person that lives here (morbid thought but part of reality).

 

Boy that really stinks...sorry for that loss...nothing changes a property more than the removal of some large majestic trees.

 

Yeah, it's kind of depressing. Losing so many big oaks is going to completely change the ambiance of the property. I'll also be losing many of my shade trees, so it'll be a lot hotter in the house during the summer. Nothing I can do about it so trying to stay somewhat positive and think of what I can plant once the trees are felled, as well as the future amount firewood that I don't have to scrounge for.

 

As unfortunate as that is, it does provide a potential opportunity for a GTG, should your place be conducive to such things.

 

Id be glad to help out. Dunno if i could stack as nice as he does though!

 

Something to consider down the road.

Practice, practice, practice!

 

These pics are just a drop in the bucket of the dead trees around here now thanks to the caterpillars. These are quick pics from around the house of some of the dead red oaks without even going in the woods or looking at some other trees that have been killed off (white birch, hemlock, spruce, and pine).

 

Yup. Looks like areas around here. We got hit hard ~3yrs ago. Lots of standing dead oaks are visible when driving the local back roads.