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View Full Version : Using Shamel Ash as lumber?



Brian Kent
05-18-2008, 10:23 AM
I didn't want to hijack Nigel Tracy's thread on local felled wood. In Riverside, CA there is a tree called Shamel Ash that grows like a weed. Dr. Shamel developed the Ash variety to grow well in Riverside County. It worked almost too well. On a 1/7 acre lot I pull up about 100 per year. If us humans ever wipe ourselves out, Riverside will become a Shamel Ash forest in about a decade!

Does anyone know about Shamel Ash as lumber?

I am looking for a local source. This is the tree most often cut down for interference with power lines. If the wood is good I would love to see about the city taking the trunks or major branches to a mill instead of the dump.

On the other hand, I don't know if we have the mill capacity in this region. We have a lot of pines being cut down that have been destroyed by the bark beetle (big fire hazard) and have a huge waiting list to process these logs.

John Michaels
05-18-2008, 4:54 PM
Do you have a picture of the tree. I grew up in Redlands, CA.

Sean Troy
05-18-2008, 5:37 PM
Yes, it should. I've turned a lot of it in large sizes with very good results when I lived in Arizona. In the metro area, there were three types of ash.

Mike Henderson
05-18-2008, 5:55 PM
Do you have a picture of the tree. I grew up in Redlands, CA.
Do a google image search (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Shamel%20Ash%20&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) on "Shamel Ash" and you'll find a bunch of pictures.

Mike