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.