Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: bjrogg on November 20, 2016, 06:14:10 am
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Sitting here in the dark again. With all these dead ash trees from the emerald ash bore it seems like every time the wind blows the crews are out fixing the lines. Might be a good job to get into I think this is going to be happening a lot for a quite awhile.
Bjrogg
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I stay away from the ashy areas if I'm hunting in the wind. My buddy had a huge cottonwood limb come down on his head last week. I went to the place it happened and found the limb and the spot he laid motionless. It must have fallen 25-30 feet and about 8-10" round. He had no clue it was coming. Lots of blood loss, bumpy ambulance ride, 27 staples, a concussion and two cracked vertebrae. Widow maker is a great name for dead trees and limbs.
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Pearl I just can't believe how many people are still sitting in tree stands in dead ash trees. We have had some really strong winds here lately and you could see all these guys sitting in dead trees in 90 percent dead woods with the line crews working right down the road from them nuts. I passed up some good stands that didn't have a live tree to sit in but if I'm going to get hit by a widow maker it's not gonna be because I'm that stupid.
Bjrogg
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Sitting in or around stone dead trees is Darwin's theory hard at work. :)
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Ha ha that for sure and I don't think it's he with the thickest skull it's he with enough brains in it to stay the heck out of there. I know these guys have hunted these spots for a long time. I know there are lots of deer in them, but to tell you the truth they just look creepy now and I wouldn't feel safe walking through them on a calm day. These spots where ground zero for our invasion of emerald ash bore and the trees have been dead for probably 4-5 years longer then the ones around me property
Bjrogg
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We have several areas that have been dead at least 5 years and all the bark is gone top to bottom, yet that ash stands there proud. Of course after the last 2 days of 25 mph winds, I bet a few bowed down.
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I just moved 2 deads ones off my lane yesterday. I took all of them out of my fence row this summer with excavator. I could tell how much easier they where to knock down it wasn't safe to cut them down with saw. Some of these places I'm talking about already have trees laying every which way
Bjrogg
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bjrogg.....Those guys are taking a risk with those stands in the dead trees.To put it plain they got a screw loose somewhere.I've had to move a couple of stands myself from a dead hickory and a walnut.I won't risk it.Like you guys I've seen trees and limbs from trees fall in broad daylight while cutting wood for the stove and while coon hunting at night in the past.Very decievingly sneaky and unexpected.
It does'nt take much weight to injure a person.There must be a heck of a lot of firewood to be gotten around you on the bright side anyway.
A story here......Once while coon hunting a coon jumped or bailed out from a tree.It happens every now and then but it hit a friend of mine on the head and knocked him out this time.We thought his neck was broke.Scary experience.That coon maybe only weighed 25 pounds at the most.
Another time a coon landed on one of my dogs and knocked her out too.Luckliy in both situations they recovered ok.
I'm sure your friend Pearly will remember that the rest of his life and it's good he's ok.
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Yea Ed lots and lots and even more lots of firewood. I've got huge piles of logs many beautiful ones still standing that are probably 65-75' tall and straight as a arrow would make beautiful lumber. Most of it is going to go to waste 😞
Bjrogg
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There is more dead wood that people to cut and burn it. You cant give it away up here.
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Yea it's gotten so if you want to give it away you practically have to cut it up for them
Bjrogg
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We had the Gypsy Moth , the Pine Bark Beatle
and now the Hemlocks are going away :'(
Not much Ash about so I don't know the status
here in Va.
Is there any value as lumber for your ash trees?
Zuma
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Zuma they would make good lumber yet but there is so much dead ash around that people are paying to get rid of it, or at best giving it away. We did put up a huge pile of logs that were great saw logs and another pile for firewood that we got $1500 for. If it had the time I'd get one of those portable sawmills but I have enough work already 😟
Bjrogg
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We have prohibitions on shipping Ash for firewood up here and probably as lumber too.
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We did before we got the bores, but the campers brought it anyway and it spread from the campgrounds like the plague. No restrictions here anymore no trees left to infest.😞
Bjrogg
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I wonder if any of that dead ash turns nicely? I've seen some beautiful ash lathework, but I'm not sure how the standing dead stuff would take to being turned - worried it might try to fly apart.
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Jackson I'm sure most of it would turn just fine yet on my property. The bores just eat the cambium which kills the tree. The wood itself is basically curing standing. Of course this isn't an idea environment to store wood long term and some other bugs seem to invade crotches and sometimes right at ground level making cutting them down with chain saw a bit unpredictable. Other than those areas and if they have only been totally dead 3 or 4 years the actual wood is still beautiful. I bet someone will find a special name for it and sell the lumber for good $$$$. The real problem is time isn't on the ash trees side, and right now there is a over supply of dead ash trees to try to do something with. I'm sure some of these guys that are sawing them are making a big profit especially when people are paying them to "clean up their woods". More power to them as far as I'm concerned, it just breaks my heart to see them go to waste. I guess they will put nutrition back in the ground eventually but it will rob nutrients 1st to break them down. Eventually Mother Nature will take care of them, but it won't be anything speedy about it. On the bright side it is amazing how the maple saplings are shooting up everywhere and reaching for the sun. I do wonder if the ash will ever come back. The saplings have smooth tight bark that the bore don't seem to get in until the tree gets bigger and gets the rougher bark of a adult tree. You would think eventually the bores would starve. Hard to believe a little bug can kill so many huge trees
Bjrogg
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Thanks BJ for a good education of the ash bore and the trees
they eat. :)
Things like this always remind me of---
"Under the spreading Chestnut tree the village smithy stands---" :-X
Zuma
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We had the same problem a few years ago with the Pine Beetles. My Grandson and I were hunting with a group of people running dogs when the wind picked up and started blowing hard. I don't know how we got out of that huge Pine Forest without getting squished by a tree. The tops of 50-60' trees were falling everywhere. One of the guys had the bed of his new pick-up smashed.
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We had the pine beetles here too. Where the family cabin is at they don't allow any standing dead trees on the property. My father in law said he has cut over 100 standing dead trees off the property, 2 acres. I bring back a cord every time I go up there, and we usually burn about a half per trip while we are there. There is still more than we can use. I would bet he has 10 cords cut, split and stacked at the cabin.