T I M B E R !!!!!

[John Pollman]

I had a fun day yesterday.....

The dreaded Emerald Ash borer that is decimating our Ash trees has taken it's toll on my lot too. This tree was pretty much the grandfather of many of the Ash in my neighborhood. It was at least eighty feet high and I measured the trunk at the base where it was cut and it's thirty-five inches in diameter. I've got a LOT of tree work to be done soon. A lot of it I can do myself, but this beast is well beyond my capabilities. I found a guy who was reasonable and very good at what he does. I told him I needed to get it down as cheaply as possible. I asked him to give me a quote for just taking it down as far as the first crotch (about twenty-five feet up) and take away the brush. He could leave the wood and I'd cut it up, move it, and clean up. I planned on taking down the butt log myself later. He said he'd do it for $800. That sounded fair so I told him to go ahead with the job. He rigged up and started climbing. In about an hour he had taken out the majority of the top of the tree and was about 18' above the crotch that he'd agreed to take it down to. He shut down his saw and yelled down to me. He said that if I wanted, he'd just take it all the way to the ground for no extra charge. He had a rope attached to the top and he said he'd tie it off to his truck and cut it at the ground and pull it over. I said "Heck yes!" I figured if that was the case I might as well get the stump done too. Well he came down and cut this sucker off at ground level and it came down with an earth shattering THUD! Well here are some pics of what's left of my once proud Ash tree in the front yard. Right now I'll probably just start cutting it up and splitting it. That's gonna take a lot of work but I'm going to talk to a guy who has a mill and see if he thinks it would be worth it to cut this thing into usable lumber. That would cost a couple of bucks but be a LOT less work in the long run. It ended up costing me $1100 by the time the stump was done but it was a HUGE stump and he did a great job removing it. He had one serious stump grinder and he took that sucker down about 2-1/2 to 3' below ground level.

[Jim Becker]

It's a shame to lose a tree like that, but nice if you can put it to good use. Hopefully, you can get some nice lumber. If not, Ash is one of the best firewoods going...burns nice wet or dry.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

I'll bet your neighborhood is going to seem empty without that giant. Make something special out of it.

[John Pollman]

Yeah Jim I hated to see it come down. But it was a victim of the darn Emeral Ash Borer. There aren't going to be ANY Ash left in Michigan before long.

I did a quick ring count this morning and it looks to me like this tree is 75 years old. Too bad, I wish it had gone much longer. This tree has seen a lot!

John

[Doug Shepard]

Sorry to hear about your loss. No ash trees in my yard, but quite a few neighbors have lost trees to the borer. Just one question though: I was under the impression that you couldn't use the wood for anything and that the state was making tree fellers grind the thing into pulp. I thought the borers could survive in the lumber and still spread later?? Just wondering.

[John Pollman]

Doug,

I believe the lumber is fine. The bug lives in the cambium layer. This is the layer between the bark and the wood. They don't bore into the lumber. Once the log is milled into lumber and dried, it's safe to use. In fact, I think they're using a lot of the dead ash trees for railroad ties and landscape timbers and stuff like that.

John

[Wes Bischel]

John,
Really sorry to see it come down - we have two very large ashes in front of our house here in eastern PA - around 80-90 years old (we have pics of the area before the houses were built.) I dread the thought of them having to come down. I hope PA will let us use the wood when/if they come down.
Glad you have the chance to use the wood and give it "new" life.

Wes