Posted on 02/19/2025 6:32:02 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
All the White Ash trees around are all dead now. I still have a couple to take down on my property. I took down three a few years ago that were all over 100 years old. 16” or more diameter at the butt. The ones left are off my trails and are harder to get to.
They make great firewood. The fact that they are already dead means you could burn them within a month or two of cutting them down. Plus Ash has nice straight grain and is really easy to split. I have spit all of them by hand. One wack with the maul.
Danged invasive species!
Right now, we can’t tell if they are dead or not.
Some just have stumps of branches left, so those are obvious, but we’ll see come spring about the rest. Any left alive, we’ll let go. We still have a fair number on the property yet.
They are great firewood. And yes, we noticed they are very easy to split. We have a wood splitter but it’s far quicker by hand with the ash so for that, we do it that way.
We’re clearing out old logging roads which gives us great access to the further reaches of the property with the ranger.
Yes, the Emerald Ash Bore killed them all. Supposedly came into some port like Baltimore and spread north from there.
Probably came from China or some other foreign land.
Kinda like the Zebra mussels that came from the Black Sea back in the 1970s. It ended up all over the Great Lakes.
FYI, White Ash was the only species used for all MLB baseball bats. Not anymore. Now they are all Sugar Maple. I did a project for the Adirondack Bat company back at SUNY ESF Syracuse back in 1984.
I have heard that if there’s no ash around, they will go after other hardwoods.
Is that the case? Because the bark on the ash definitely looks different than other trees.
I do not know for sure.
I just know that this insect apparently started showing up in the mid Atlantic region and eventually moved north killing off all the White Ash in its wake.
There is another insect that is killing off all the Eastern Hemlock trees. However, there are insecticide plugs you can insert into your Hemlock trees to kill the bugs.
I did this with all the trees that I did not want to lose around the house. However, I am not treating the trees on the 10 acres out back. There are some dead ones back there.
This kind of stuff is why I support global warming!
We’ve noticed some ones down on our property so I’m presuming they were dead or seriously weakened.
What are the plugs called?
This is what we used above. ACECAP. It was recommended by a tree service guy.
It did a search for Insecticide Plugs for Hemlock trees to find the above listings.
It was pretty easy to do. You just drill into the bark of the tree with a 3/8” drill bit and push the plug in so it sits below the cambium layer. The living part of the tree that conducts the nutrients between the leaves and the roots.
Thanks!!!!
It's going to be delightsome. Near 50 degrees. Shorts and t-shirt weather. But not flip flops. Not yet.
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