Cut up some ash yesterday

I was real surprised both of these ash trees were still very solid. Last standing dead one I cut, was 1/3 punky. Sorry for not taking more pictures. It was 46* out and sunny. This picture was taken last summer.

 

Stack of rounds were two rows deep.

 

I wish I could find a dead ash. I rarely see them here. Scrounged one about three years ago that died in a neighbor's yard.

 

It’s a rare find anymore. Finding one still solid is even more rare. They’ve been dead for many years.

 

Very rare for me to find any ash solid enough to use here as well. I had a really scary situation falling 2 last year. I doubt I'll even try again and will let nature bring them down. Use caution! Cherries and ashes

 

I have a pretty good sized one at my Target rich environment!!! score. I hope it is still good. Really strange that there is only one ash in amongst all those elms. I’m sure it was planted as the shelter belt was being planted because it is perfectly in the row of trees. Must have been a stray seedling in the bunch as they were planting

 

Always nice to get a solid piece of ash

 

There's still a few around here worth messing with... getting rarer though. You almost hafta sink the saw in different places in the tree to see if it's worth cutting up or not...many times some of the tree is still good

 

Wish I could still get ash like that. Best I've got lately is one maybe 10" dbh.

 

100% agree with this!

 

Good stuff. Being elevated and having less bark they stay solid for some time unlike most other "one year" woods. getting harder to find decent dead ash around here.

I have access to this good sized (20+") barkless ash log. Pic taken Early January. Once the snow melts I'll be all over it.

 

That's funny, it was the opposite for me. As you can see in the first picture, it is a low area and has standing water a lot of the time. It was the perfect time to cut these up.
That sure is a big ash, looks mostly solid too. I had a standing dead ash fall a couple weeks ago in the woods behind me. I cut it up and 1/4 of it was punky thru the whole trunk.

 

Snags up off the ground like that are great to find. With Michigan being ground zero for EAB, I'm amazed that you guys still have ash worth salvaging. Around here where EAB was first detected in 2012, it's disappearing faster than my YouTube comments. Almost nothing mill-worthy to be found, but good enough for firewood purposes. Eventually that'll dry up too, but I suspect we'll have at the very least a few more years before the supply is just about completely exhausted. I can remember cutting dead ash 6 years ago and turning my nose up at the stuff that had some slightly discolored wood grain inside. Now I get excited cutting logs that look like this:


This is about as good as it gets these days. Punky outer wood with some reasonably solid heartwood.

 

I don't mind if it's a lil punky...shoulder season wood.

 

That's what standing white oak is getting like around here.
It doesn't keep in rounds either.

 

That log was a recent blow over. The same area had a whole bunch of dead ash in various stages of decay that the town cut down . They neatly staged them roadside. Friend of mine living near there told me about it. I talked to the tree company and only had a few days before they came and took the logs so couldn't get any of them.

That trunk is laying on rocks so gonna be tricky to cut.

 

How a professional logger in NY cuts dead ash trees.

 

I like watching Dave work. His technique for felling big trees with a small bar is really interesting, but seems very effective for him. Seems like a down-to-earth family guy, too. And he’ll show you his mistakes, unlike some other YouTube wizards.

 

yep, I am intrigued by his technique too!

 

Thats how most of mine looked if not a little worse. Im going to be sad when its all gone. I've found the largest ash regeneration's on my property though and have been treating them every spring with success so far. While waiting for a long term solution.