Ash trees dieing

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  • #39991
    Donn Hewes
    Keymaster

    On our farm we have about a 15 acre wood lot. For the most part we take fire wood and have milled a few trees for a building project. The largest and most mature trees in this stand are the Ash. In the last few years several of the ash have died. Several more show weakness in their bark or in the crown. I need to do a web search but was wondering if any one knew what was killing them? Is it local or wide spread? Is it certain to kill them all or just some of them? To take some of these out for commercial timber would be a job for me. A friend with his own mill offered me 250$/1000 BF. I have no idea if this is a good price or not. I should probably shop around just to compare prices, but I have bought a lot of wood from this guy and would like to support his mill. It is a long pull, better than 1500′ and up hill part of the way. I can borrow an arch. I am open to any comments, suggestions, things to consider, etc. My primary goal would be to do what is best for the stand that is left behind, and not do a lot of work for no gain. Donn

    #48563
    mstacy
    Participant

    @Donn Hewes 4081 wrote:

    The largest and most mature trees in this stand are the Ash. In the last few years several of the ash have died. Several more show weakness in their bark or in the crown. I need to do a web search but was wondering if any one knew what was killing them? Is it local or wide spread? Is it certain to kill them all or just some of them? Donn

    Don,

    I’ve read reports that the “Emerald Ash Borer” is hammering trees in the upper midwest. Northern Woodlands magazine published an article on this within the last year or so. The last map I saw shows it’s territory wrapping around NY state on 3 sides. My understanding is that this is an exotic pest, threatening to expand it’s newly adopted home. It might be worth having a forester or somebody knowledgable about tree pathology determine what your trees are suffering from.

    I would bet that Carl, Jason and others can provide more insight.

    -Matt Stacy
    W. Topsham, VT

    #48560
    Patrick
    Participant

    I think that Matt is on the right track, but as far as I know, the emerald ash borer hasn’t made it that far east, yet, but that’s not to say that it just hasn’t been detected yet. Along the highways in OH and PA I saw plenty of the sticky traps used as sentinels to detect them, on a trip last summer back from Michigan to NH. I’m wondering if ash yellows or ash dieback is not what’s killing your trees. That disease has been known in NY for some time. It’s been implicated in killing a lot of the trees in Ashland, Massachusetts, named for the large stands of the trees which once stood there. Supposedly, a fair number of witches brooms result from infestation of the disease. If you have noticed any deformed branching on the still living trees, I’d suspect Ash yellows.

    #48557
    Gabe Ayers
    Keymaster

    Don,

    It sounds like maybe yellow ash wilt, but it could be the Asian long horned beetle, or Emerald Ash Borer, both brought here in un – kiln dry – wet green pallets from…..you guessed it….. China.

    Once I was at a sustainable forestry conference in NYC when the first ones (insects) were discovered in Central Park. What a stupid place to have a forestry conference… After a few drinks some of us decided to would be a good idea to fumigate every tree in big plastic bags…and folks thought we were nuts…. It would have been a great investment in the forest of the entire continent. They didn’t do it and the bugs escaped into the environs.

    The ones that thought we were crazy were probably right if being sane means going along with the same old things from the status quo power structure people that have a vested interest in all of us being mindless consumers and/or robots.

    But the fact is I don’t know how to deal with the alien invasive insects, botanicals, fungus, virus (or even Mexicans). Biological control is the best approach and there are currently none known for many of these pathological forces on the forests.

    I think you can definitely harvest these trees NOW and turn them into some value and I would do it as soon as possible because they are not getting any better. In fact the ash that are showing decline in bark or leaf are also probably growing/creating bigger heartwood, meaning darker reddish brown wood. This characteristic has been traditionally a lower value log and never a veneer log. Ash is the lCD of hardwoods. The beautiful white wood can be stained to be the color of anything, with distinct cathedral grain patterns. But when it gets a lot of darker heartwood you lost the option to stain it light colors, which sometimes are the style, say in modern housing cabinets in kitchens. The blush look is in recently for light colored interiors, which is what a lot of ash lumber goes into.

    The market sucks right now. But if there is a market at any price it is better than them dieing, falling over and rotting into the forest floor.

    I wrote recently about value adding lumber from logs and that will make you the most money but it is not easy. That post is on the

    http://www.restorativeforestry.com site.

    There are lots of things to do with the lumber, all of which are worth lots more than raw logs. Sell raw logs, get a raw deal – in most cases….

    I would consider it salvage harvesting Don, save what you can of it while you can. It is a notoriously brittle wood that is easy to crack a log when felling or bucking, so skill is required there. I have had ash logs setting on a landing and pop open while we were all sitting on the log pile eating lunch.

    They do still make baseball bats out of it, but I bet they have millions of feet stored somewhere for that market into the future. That would be a good use if they are straight and not pistol grip coppice regenerated from stump sprouts.

    Split handles would be a product you maybe could sell over the internet and ship off the farm UPS….when I get to old to log I am going to do stuff like that…maybe. I wonder if they split baseball bats? Slow grown is the texture everyone likes, meaning more growth rings per inch.

    You can always call the public forester, but don’t let them talk you into clear cutting or high grading or do a diameter limit cut….take the worst first!!!

    You can probably google all those potential causes of ash mortality and see if you can identify what it is…

    Log it man..let us know what you decide.

    #48559
    Mark Cowdrey
    Participant

    Donn et al,

    I have noticed a problem w ash (White in my case) dying in my 18 acre woodlot in central NH. Typically I notice gradual crown die back over several (3-5) years before the tree is dead. I have also noticed that the very pith (1/4″ diameter) of some of the trees I have cut is white & punky, though I do not know that that is directly related to the demise.

    A note of caution. My Dad tells of when the chestnut blight hit New England everyone cutting all the chestnut to get what they could from it. This conceivably eliminated resistant specimens, although with its vigorous sprouting habit that could be debated. My point is, that if I have a healthy looking Ash, I try to hang on to it.

    Maybe you should plan a harvest weekend W several teams.

    Good luck,

    Mark

    #48558
    Carl Russell
    Moderator

    There are many real and significant reasons why trees decline in health. Some times it seems to be species specific, and often there are diseases that can be epidemic. However, it is my perspective that managing woodland is much like any other cultivation project, and if you keep your eye on growing crop trees with purposeful objectives to harvest marketable timber, then you develop a continuum of cutting. This way the harvest is focused, and regular, and even though there is still the possibility that disease complexes can cause detriment, at least your approach to the woodlot is more proactive, rather than reactive.

    I am just about to cut a load of ash, and have found prices from $250-$600/MBF, depending on quality.

    Donn there used to be an ash market in Hancock, NY. I think they made blanks for Louiseville Slugger.

    Mark, ash has a distinctive pith, just as you describe.

    Carl

    #48562
    becorson
    Participant

    That is sad about your ash trees dying.
    Your state department of agriculture / plant pathologist might be able to help you decide the cause and then you could go from there in deciding what to do.

    You probably have thought of this already but beware of moving diseased wood that hasn’t been kiln dried out of your area, at least until you know what disease is affecting the trees.
    . depending on what’s causing the disease, it could be spread via the wood. that’s how the emerald ash borer is spreading for example. a bundle of firewood is enough :o(

    #48561
    jason glick
    Participant

    i was at a talk recently by a state forester who said a lot of ash were finally dieing due to damage it incured in the 1998 ice storm. loss of crown and the effort to regain that crown led to weakness in the trees defences against pathagens.

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