I have perhaps an acre of woods on my property divided up. I have noticed several Ash trees that have died from EAB. I get most of my wood from a land clearing company for free and don't need to drop these trees. Am I doing the woodlot an injustice by not harvesting those trees? My free source of wood could dry up any time. I am working on year 3 now and kind of figuring that the standing dead Ash is a reserve supply at this time.
Not so much an injustice, but the woods wont be as safe with a bunch of widowmakers standing and dropping branches. If it was me, id lay down a couple stringer logs, and drop those trees on those stringers to keep em off the ground until you are ready to process them. If you let the wind bring em down, you may end up with a bunch of hang ups.
I've found that the ash trees that have died in my woodlot start to rot at the root ball then fall over. I would get them down and CSS.
Hopefully, that wood you get fomo the tree service, is longer lasting than the ash, and can hang around for a year or two. Drop the ashes
If they are starting to die, by all means you need to get them down. If you drop them and cut into log lengths and keep them off the ground you can keep them for years and years and years without them going bad. In addition, bocefus78 hit the nail on the head. Do you really want a woods with trees ready to fall over? Get them before they fall and make a mess.
Most wood, with a few exceptions, will last for several years in tree length/log form as long as it is kept off the ground. I would cut them down and set them on some cross-pieces or even pallets. Also, if you can strip some or all of the bark, that will make them last much longer.
I hadn't given a thought about safety wise or widow makers. One is very large and I don't comfortable dropping it. Besides it is to big for my saws. I do have a FHC friend close to me that said to give him a call when I decide to drop it. It is beside a trail and the thought of it falling when we go by scares me. The other trees are surround by weeds, brush and off the beaten path. I feel comfortable dropping them. I will go back in the morning and see if I can identify them with no leaves on the surrounding trees. Mark them with paint. My log pile is about empty and the logs that are left will make some real uglies. Maybe just use them as stringers and skid the logs up to my cutting area. I am kind off waiting until we get a good snow to knock the brush down. There are a few easy to get trees back there to feed my addiction until we get a snow.
