For those of you who deal with lots of ash... We dont have that much ash around here, and I've marveled at how much some of y'all are getting into. Well lo and behold if i didnt find some behind the inlaws the other day while chasing the turkey birds... There are a few stone cold dead ones, but also some that most of the top(s) (some have multiple stems) are dead, but have either some green in a couple branches/limbs, or have some sprouts in the bottom say 10 feet. These trees obviously are feeling real bad... My question is are they good as dead, (meaning at least the stems, not necessarily the root ball...) or has anyone seen one re-coup? In other words, should all of them go to the wood pile, or only the totally dead ones?
I've heard of people having shoots pop up from the stump after cutting trees what still had a some leaves on the lower part of the tree...those trees can't recover by the way...not sure if shoots popping up from the stump would ever make for a viable tree or not?
My advice is not as seasoned as some. They are all done for. Get em while they’re worth getting. It seems to me the viability as firewood fades rather fast. There’s some just down the road from me that are just falling. Not worth my effort to get them. If I needed wood maybe I’d reconsider but they’re pretty punky by the time they hit the ground.
They are dead, victim of the emerald ash borer. The sprouts that you see are the tree trying to save itself but it’s too late. Get them now before the tops become a safety hazard.
That's not been my experience with Ash...once they lay on wet ground for some time, then they are gone for firewood. There are a ton of EAB ash trees down in the woods at work...I really don't have the room, or the time to get it all, so I have been cutting the ones laying right on the ground and stacking them up on saplings or limbs (to keep off the ground) for processing at a later date...it'll keep. Fortunately many of the trees are still dead standing, or fell and ended up off the ground for various reasons...I'm about the only one that ever goes into these woods, so not really a safety issue to others.
Get them now. The tops go first and become dangerous. You can drop one with a top that looks full and the top will shatter like fine china when it hits the ground. And man, they make a hell of a mess too. If you see dead ash with the higher limbs already broken from the wind most likely the trunk will still be good for firewood but the rest of the top is probably punky. Once the trunk breaks half way up the tree the chances of the whole trunk being good firewood are slim. Ash that's been on the ground for, say, a year or more is probably fairly punky.
I would get it, it will keep css for ever if top covered but it don’t keep in the woods here. I have a pretty good pile of ash logs under my Quonset hut, it’s my favorite wood so I’ve tried to stock pike as much as I can.
From the state you describe, they might keep a year or two standing, but they are going to die. And if you can keep off the ground and covered it will keep a long time. Out of the multiple 100 I have I have been cutting them as fast as I can, whether up or down, as my owb will eat them fine, and if a little gamey will just use in shoulder season.
Good point...that part of the tree will dry and burn fine, just less weight, so less BTU's. Most trees, even if there are some soft parts, still have some solid wood in them too...and its easy to process since they pretty much de-limb themselves when they hit the ground (or already have)
Thanks for all the replies.. "Gamey "....never heard that description for wood...is that like punky? I've seen reference before on fhc to the tops shattering and making a mess when dropped. That really sucks, cause some of them need to drop in the FIL's hay field.
Yeah. A lot of mess. If the woods, no biggie, but in your yard, uggg. What a mess. As others stated, a tree that is trying to come back, won't. Cut it down. It's it sprouts up a new tree/ shoot, let it go. It may make it, as apparently the eab won't go after very young ash trees.
All the ash around here are dead. It's amazing how fast they turn punky while standing. I took a small one down in the yard that was dead for a year or 2. When it hit the ground, it turned into tootsie rolls. All i could do was rake up the branches.
I've never had that happen even with good ash. They try but usually don't make much at all for a tree if grown from the stump.
It seems with ash it might depend upon where they are grown, which makes me think it has something to do with the soil. Here we have yellow sand and started cutting ash in the year 2002. They are mostly cleaned up but still have some. I've noticed a few more tipped over through the winter and most of them are not on the ground so they will stay good for a good amount of time. But they will have lost a lot of weight as there is hardly any moisture in them, which means they are still okay to burn but won't hold fires as long as ash usually will. On the things sending out new shoots, our experience has been that they will stay standing for many years after that. But once they start dropping any limbs, they then will very soon fall over because the rot at the root; just barely under the ground level. So one has to be super careful felling those trees.
I posted this pic a year ago, A couple members commented and said they thought this ash had grown off a old growth stump. If so maybe those sprigs growing on the dying ash could make something some day. This monster is still standing on my neighbors land. We didn’t get enough frozen ground to get it out. BTW that’s a 20” bar.
Yes, punky, spongy, soft, gamey, partially decayed etc... all mean the same thing, meaning that moisture has stayed in the wood to the point that more rapid decomposition has set in. Even if you get it, completely top cover and dry it out, so that the moisture is gone, you can’t reverse the decomposition and that now dry piece will have much less in btus. A 12 in piece of ash may last several hours in a stove, but a gamey piece even after dried out may last 30 minutes. Coincidentally tonight, as we are still burning with recent cold snap, I threw a piece of seasoned split ash, about 12 inch diameter in my owb, then a similar sized piece that was one of those gamey but now dried pieces. Before I got the next log in, maybe 10 seconds, the gamey piece was already on fire. By the time I went to shut the door, of about six similar pieces, it was the only one completely on fire.
Good as dead according to my arborist. It will take a couple of years before they go full dead. Better to plan a cut in the next year to avoid rot damage in the base.
