What happened to my birch?

So I'm out in my forest with chainsaw and axe, recovering from the recent storms, and I run across this birch. There's about 10 feet oftree still standing, but the rest of it's down. I think to myself that I'll just start up the saw and deal with the stump first. I go to cut into the tree and theirs no resistance at all. Huh? I shut down saw saw and give thetreea gentle push, and the whole thing flops over by what's left of it's roots. There's nothing but brown dirt and spongy stuff. The entire tree, from top to bottom.

What the heck happened to it? I've seen rotted trees but nothing even remotely resembling this, from top to bottom including what had already fallen. Critter of some kind? Lightning strike. It's just recently fallen, and I know it can't have survived in that state for very long, so whatever it was was very quick.

Posted from my iPhone. Please forgive the attrocious spelling and grammer, but it's too hard to go back and fix it.

Could have been a number of things. Without pictures it is hard to tell. Some trees rot dfrom the inside out. Just like big culverts. Basswood is notorious for that. THe rot on your tree could have started from a lightning strike or a limb ripped off in a storm. Once there is a wound there is an opening for the rot fungus to get started. All that was left was the sap wood which it uses for water and nutrient uptake. Trees like this are very damgerour to fell because the hinge material you rely on to control the falling of the tree are 90% gone.

Hope that helps.

Quinn
Forester by day woodworker by night

Turning of brown dirt and spongy stuff is a new avenue of wood turning,but you have to run the lathe VERY slow. It is known as "Beyond Spalted Turning". And,handle the bowls and vases with GREAT care.

re: turning

Good thinking...ROFL. I'm not sure I could even get it back to the house. I stepped on it and it flattened like a pancake. I'm still shocked and amazed it was even standing. I think the leaves on the ground were holding it in place. My wife about fell over laughing when I took the first swipe with the chain saw, shut it down, scratched my head for a second and just pushed it over like a little broomstick.

re: rotting from inside out

That's exactly what it looked like. I'd just never seen it like this before so I never imagined it could happen this thoroughly.

I know that Birch spalts very quickly so that means it rots very quickly, too. Other than that, it's anybody's guess what killed the tree.

BTW, you misspelled atrocious. :D