My father-in-law lives in Anahuac, TX, which is about 45 minutes from Houston (east side of Galveston bay). He alone has TONS of oak trees that were damaged in one way or another from hurricane Ike. I'm still waiting on pictures, but many have either had their tops knocked off or were knocked over in one piece. We're talking probably 20-40 fully grown oak trees here.
I'd REALLY hate to see these trees left to rot or burned in a burn pile.
Some basic questions I have:
1) How long do we have until the freestanding/laying trees are no good?
2) What should we do to the trees to facilitate future milling? Cut length, end treatments, etc.
3) What is considered the smallest usable/millable size log (both length and circumference)?
If anybody is interested or knows someone who might be interested in milling these please let me know. This could be a work for wood arrangement, or something else that is equally equitable for all parties.
He has a tractor and trailer on site, but we really need someone with a portable mill and a strategy for drying all the resulting lumber (which I suppose could occur onsite if something is built/setup to do so). Given the extensive damage in the area I doubt anyone local is going to be available anytime soon. There are probably other opportunities in the area as well if this amount of lumber isn't big enough for the trouble.