Welcome to the rabbit hole, I suspect you have plenty of dead Ash in your area being in southern Minnesota. If not on your own property, perhaps scrounge a little. Ash makes great stack starters to get you to a 2-3 year supply. It dries quickly when stacked and burns pretty hot. If you don't know what a dead Ash looks like, find someone that does. Once you see one, you won't be able to un-see them. Use more caution when dropping them and watch some videos. Ash has a lot of fragile top branches that can get you. You'll realize how fragile they are the first time you drop one and the top explodes everywhere. FYI- you'll need at least 10 good saws. Good luck
Hey MHL68 , glad you dropped by! Pull up a stump and grab a cup of coffee. Lots of characters to learn from here! I live in Washington State and Lopi is a well respected name up here, I'm sure you will enjoy yours. Sounds like you have and are acquiring some good equipment although you need to work on more saws. Concerning wood, when I first started, close and free was the name of the game. As your hoard and experience grows you will learn to be more selective. You will become adept at sniffing out scores and develop connections with land owners and tree services and such. I have a cadre of friends who are always on the lookout for potential scores. It is all a learning process and an enjoyable and rewarding one at that! I am looking forward to your posts and pictures. Again, Welcome!
All the counties south of the metro are in the EAB quarantine zone and Rice county definitely has it, so you’re not likely to spread it worse by moving ash. I’m in Cannon Falls and scrounge mostly Dakota, Goodhue, and Rice county. We probably have some overlap in the areas we’re looking for wood. There a lot of stuff in the Northfield and Kenyon areas. FB marketplace usually has a decent amount of wood available around Faribault, and if you’re willing to drive a little farther, there is always a lot in the south metro. I like to keep my cutting gear ready to go in the summer because after a July thunderstorm, you’ll have more opportunities than you can handle.
EAB quarantine is a waste of time, it hasn't worked anywhere yet, just delays the inevitable a bit, end result is they all dead, except for the few that seem resistant.
While on a snowshoe walk, I noticed some 8" ash trees along property line that have the bark beginning to peel off. Looks like I'll be re-prioritizing my ash tree removal to that spot this spring.
That is good info about the counties South of TC. I work in Lakeville and my current score is in Burnsville a few minutes away. Guess I'm not hurting anything bringing it south. I have noticed some in the Northfield/Kenyon area. Wife works in Northfield...if I could only get her to load 50lbs logs after work I'd be golden!! I'm going to have to infect her with this hording disease I have caught. Don't think that's going to happen.
