I knew EAB was inevitable but it is north of me a couple hour drive and now confirmed east of me a couple hour drive. I will be a little more cognizant of my wood scrounging going forward. It will be here eventually. What is the expected stand time for trees once dead and leaf free? Those of you that have been long infested, do they ever back off on wood transportation rules once a state is completely infested and the damage is done & what are your transportation rules?
In Wisconsin it's still not everywhere yet, but will be soon so I'm real careful about transport and scrounging. I doubt if restrictions will ease up anytime soon, EAB isn't the only invasive that keeps the DNR up at night.
Ash trees can only stand dead a couple years before they turn punky in spots. You wouldn't think a 2-4 year standing dead tree would snap in half when it falls but they do. Then they are a pain to clean up when you cut them. The top turns in to tootsie roll size pieces when they hit the ground. It's so sad how many ash trees died from the asian ash borer
Ash gets brittle quick once dead. That being said there are now treatments that will likely save your ash trees if you wish to do so.
To add to this, the Wisconsin DNR restricted transfer from affected counties to non affected counties until 2018. It is still prohibited to transfer Ash outside of Wisconsin but free to move within Wisconsin as the EAB had been identified in more than 50% of the counties
In Wisconsin, there used to be a transport ban on ash, but that ban is gone. The only ban on moving wood is that it can't go out of state. That's it
If I saw one that was hit by the ash borer and I had a place for it, I would cut them down as soon as possible. The longer they stay standing, the quicker they get punky. And if one hasn’t leafed out for two years, don’t stand anywhere around the stump when you drop it because they have a habit of snapping off about 15 feet high.
We have lost almost every Ash tree on our place and are getting to the point that it's hard to find any standing dead that still has enough good wood in it to risk cutting it down. They tend to get punky at a crotch or a damaged limb where rainwater can enter or lay and keep the wood moist for extended periods. If there are shelf shrooms growing on it, chances are that section is punky. As Kevin mentioned above, they can be dangerous to cut especially in the woods. Many of them I've cut down have snapped in half as soon as the top hits just about anything. The stump where you are standing is ground ZERO for that top almost every time. They are worth cutting but just be aware that as soon as it starts going, get out of there and keep looking up so you can get out of the way of falling debris or even the top half of the tree. Make sure you have a good clear safety path out of there before touching them with a saw. SAFETY FIRST!
What trees do you see replacing the dead ash in areas of "wild" trees where it is up to nature to replace them? I remember 15 years ago when I was an over the road trucker, I would see whole valleys of dead brown trees in the eastern US and wondered if good trees would fill in or because they grow so quickly if low btu trees would out compete them.
Btw. U could treat and save an ash tree. I did it in my last house. Had probably 10 ash that I cut down. There were 2 that were still kinda alive. I treated them,which was expensive. But they actually came back and became healthy.
So they actually grew leaves back where they had lost them, or just stopped progressing with the top-down loss? From what I understand about the physical damage that the EAB does, there is no recovering that part of the tree once the damage is there...or maybe I understand it incorrectly?
I had thousands of Ash trees. Treatment wasn't an option on my paygrade... They are awesome firewood and live edge shelves, But even with my neighbors helping me cut and heat their homes with them, we still have hundreds laying on the ground rotting... Even the standing dead are getting to the point of no return. We had dozens of them blow over last weekend in the wind storm. I'm trying to manage what replaces them, but that is a full time job on 63 acres of woods. Maybe in a couple of years when I retire I may be able to keep up. It's amazing how fast other trees fill in and "take over" once an area of large ash dies out. I have one area of about 4 acres that filled in with Silver Maple in a few years that I didn't notice till they had established dominance in that area. Last summer I cut and girdled most of the SM in that area so that other more desirable species can fill in. I have to keep an eye on that area so something else that is "less than optimum" doesn't take over.
Silver Maples, Boxelders & Poplars will fill the void in some areas; Mulberry’s & Honey Locust in other areas as well as the others already listed.
