LOL!!! I scrounged quite a bit of dead BL over the course of last Winter into Spring. Most had either no bark or it was loose. Under the loose bark there was a layer of "dirt" from the cambium layer decaying which when wet was rather messy to work with while handling the splits. Prior to stacking i had the splits scattered to let the rain wash this dirt off. One of my upcoming scores of BL is a few tress blownover from a tornado we had here in May 2018. One of the areas i scrounged from last Winter. Ive gone back and scraped the bark off somewhat so the wood will be nice and clean to work with. Trees are not touching the ground either. I learned a year ago as it was my first time cutting dead BL and now have a bad case of "locust mania" as its been diagnosed on FHC! Pic of BL i scrounged last Winter. I temporarily stacked the dirty splits and when i restacked i brushed off the loose dirt and some had washed off too. If you plan to harvest more take the bark off with a hatchet or machete and let it get cleaned up. I ended up with almost three cord of dead BL.
Ive never seen a locust growing in the deep woods. Seems its a "weed" tree that grows roadside, along train tracks or in abandoned lots. It can grow in poor soil as it produces its own fertilizer. Your jungle sounds like some areas roadside ive scrounged logs from. Miserable especially in the Summer. I did a job last Spring for a customer taking down a couple cherry trees that were engulfed in vines...one was 4" bittersweet. Heres the thread me Tarzan, you buZZsaw!
Yes. Locust dies out in a forest. The locust here came after this area was clear cut (should not be allowed; there is no top soil on the slopes here as it washed away) and they are all dead in the woods now as the oaks and other trees grew and over took them.
