The slightly cooler temperatures as this week ended and the urgency to scavenge what's left of our standing ash trees while they were still worth burning ended up in a couple of dump trailer loads being hauled to the house today. It's sad to think that these are the last of "our" ash trees I'll ever cut. A few of the ones I'd found and cut were already doughty, and busted into chunks when they hit, so I just left them in the woods. A couple of photos of the second load I brought in: Even though the truck/trailer never left the farm, I did strap this second load once I topped it off. It ended up being FULL because I was too lazy to make another trip. One person walking back and forth all over the farm to move two pieces of equipment (truck/trailer and skidsteer) as they're being used gets old. LOL. The woodshed's already full for the coming winter ('25-'26), so these will be stacked and top-covered to be cut up next spring and put in the shed to be used in '26-'27. Here's our beagle inspecting the two loads to make sure they will keep her toasty in the coming cold : I'm going to miss the ash trees throughout our woods. They were easily overlooked, but their absence is leaving big holes in the canopy. Life in the forest always goes on, but I hate to think of all the species we've lost dragging imported pests and diseases across the ocean.
Nice pile of logs but a sad scene indeed. What's left of the ash in my area looks a lot worse than that. Makes me wish I salvaged more for milling 5 years ago.
Yep, a lot of ours have been dead and down for a few years now. And once it starts falling apart in chunks, I don’t use it for firewood, just not worth the work for half-rotted wood. These were the last survivors, at least on our place, but had been dead for at least a year, some longer. We do have some young live trees scattered around but I have no idea how they’ll fare. They certainly won’t be big enough to be worth cutting in my lifetime.
We have 3 mature trees and a couple younger ones that seem to be doing well so far. Maybe they dodged a bullet?
The ash trees are all dead around here. I had 2 taken down a few months ago. Still very solid. There's a 3rd that'll be taken down, at some point.
Yes, the loss of our ash trees is terrible and it was caused needlessly. Ours have been gone for a long time now. You definitely have some questionable wood there but there appears to be a good amount of still good firewood there.
Not that I've heard of...the bug seems to be put off by some individual trees though, I had read that is being studied heavily and they are trying to "breed" that characteristic into new ash trees
Sad sight to see them go. Lost the few I had in my woods in recent years. Impressive amount of wood though.
That would be nice if they did. I've cut living ash logs a couple times this year. Have some small ones growing from old stumps with full leaf canopy.
Cant say there is. All I notice is the leafless skeleton and recognize it as an ash tree. Only white and green ash the varieties I'm familiar with around here.
Have to admit I didn’t even know what an Ash tree was until they started dying. Had maybe three on our main woodlot and they were along the road down in a gully that we never bothered going down. There are quite a few more on another parcel we own. Same thing we never firewooded that lot. It had an old house which we rented to an old guy and that was his woodlot. If I ever saw one I’d probably think it was a tulip.
Ash all dead here in central PA, has been for years but a lot of the standing dead are still quite solid and good firewood. Low moisture content too.
I too will miss ash. Love it for firewood. Every once in a while we’ll stumble on one that has a bit of good wood in it. Getting more rare though.
