Hey Tim. I really appreciate this "Ode to the Ash." Magnificent and so useful and versatile. And such a loss to the ecosystem. I hope you get to harvest some lumber and bring it into your home as a reminder of their beauty. The last few years has seen an increase in the presence of the borer here in Massachusetts. But the damage hasn't become widespread yet. My property doesn't have any ash on it, I wish it did. Anyway, thanks for the tribute to the Ash.
The white ash were hit hard here as well. Our city has a lot of white ash that were planted in the past 20 or so years. This past summer we really noticed how poor these trees were performing. I think many will wind up coming down this year. We have four green ash on our city lot, so far they are healthy although the emerald ash borer has been getting closer. It’s so sad to see these trees being overcome.
Watching this I found myself tearing up a bit. I'm going through the same thing this year, doing the cordwood challenge as a way to deal with losing all of our ash to EAB.
Sad that these trees are dying out. We still have our ash trees in Florida for the time being. A few years back some scientists came to the boardwalk at the museum I work at to collect the leaves/branches of our trees to send up north to keep the ash borers in labs alive for further study. We also had several traps set out, thankfully they never found any of the borers.
I have one ash (not sure if it's white) that's definitely in decline. The top is dead and has broken off, but it still produces good foliage every year. I plan to leave it alone until it looks to be in danger of coming down on its own. Emerald ash borer is already established in my area (central Indiana), so losing it is pretty much a foregone conclusion.
So sad. It has just started in the Dallas Texas area. I have a huge Texas Ash in my backyard. I had it pollarded a few weeks ago. I’ve heard the infestation of the EAB starts up in the canapy of the tree first and usually it goes undetected for a few years. I’m hoping that if I cut the new growth out every year, maybe I can stay ahead of the infestation. If not, at least I don’t have a huge tree falling on my house. Apparently the English routinely pollarded Ash trees for easy harvest of fire wood in the last century and some of those Ash trees are still living and 1000 yrs old. Even so, I’m guessing my tree will also be dead in 5/6 years. So sad.
I have not tried to pollard ash, I do know that it coppices well. Most of the small trees that I have cut have attempted to resprout from the base of the stump. But the deer attack the sprouts pretty aggressively so I haven't seen any of them succeed.
A worthy farwell for those beautiful trees. So sad to see nature going through this kind of humanmade tragedy. These things happen too often in our days. Crooked stems make wonderful outdoor benches or tables for the garden and in 10 years ash wood will be highly priced ;) any room for long term storage on the farm? I was thinking of the young birch trees being excellent pioneer plants. They will take over in no time. Big birch trees though... they drink an awful lot of water. Don't let too many of them grow big or they might empty the creek in summer. We have a big double stemmed birch at work and it's unbelievable dry around it. According to a forrest specialist it drinks 1600l per day.
There is white birch similar to yours around, but the only birch we have on the farm are yellow and black birch. I think there are white birch close enough for the seed to blow in maybe? I probably wouldn't worry too much about how much water they were using in this part of the farm, it is quite far from my well, and downslope from it.
That's good to hear :) I'm not familiar with yellow or black birch and did not know that they are less thirsty. The white birch is used here to drain wet fields or swamp areas, just by planting it along the edge. Very effective trees and excellent firewood, but no good if you need the water. Their seeds travel surprisingly far, they come up on their own quickly when any 'needle tree' forrest is harvested here. It's the forrests lambs quarter hahaha
I don't know if they are less thirsty or not. The one nice thing about both species is that they have oil of wintergreen in their sap, so the twigs are refreshing to chew on. :)
Hey Torp, I've been doing more research on the emerald ash borer to try and figure out what I should do, how much time I have to deal with these trees etc, and I ran across the news that it is now established in Europe too and spreading west from somewhere in Russia. Do you have ash up in that part of Sweden?
Maybe you can save seeds in the freezer. When the trees disappear the bugs might too. Who knows, maybe in 20 years they can be safely reestablished. White ash was imported to Europe a couple 100 years ago. But I've never seen one around here, it's more common in Central Europe I think. We got common ash (Fraxinus excelsior), but I'm a little north of their natural habitat too. I think there are some in the Karlstad area an hour south of me. The most common trees in my area are probably European spruce, Scots pine, birch, European aspen, grey alder, goat willow and mountain ash.
What a shame. They've hit here in Tennessee as well. I don't have woodland like you but I've had friends report them in their white and green ashes. We have blue ash here and they seem to be leaving them alone for now. They aren't native to the northeast (can't remember what state you said you're in), but might be worth researching as a possible replacement? Everything I've read says they like limestone soil.
I'd read that Blue Ash is more resistant. There aren't any here AFAIK. I have an aquaintance that makes baskets from Black Ash professionally, and he has been harvesting logs for several years and sinking them in his pond so he'll have wood to use for the next decade or so.
Such a shame to lose those beautiful ash trees. Here in the UK we have common ash which has become infected with ' ash die back' - it's a serious problem.
Yes, there are lots of worrying tree problems these days. Oak Death, Long Horned Beetle, Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, and theres a new one called Spotted Lanternfly that just got established in Pennsylvania recently.
Last summer I noticed that nearly all of my Ash had over 60% crown dieback. Most have all of the bark being chipped away in the upper registers where I'm guessing most of the larva galleries are. It is really is sad. I have a huge Ash tree near my house that will probably be dead by spring. I'll see if I can make a video of mine. Just in the last 8 months I've noticed their health diminishing..
Its amazing how fast it has spread in just a year locally. I'm sure they were here a year or two ago, but all of the sudden you can see dead and dying trees everywhere.
Obviously don't answer this if you're not comfortable doing so, but does the 'Oxbow' refer to Oxbow (Ashland), Maine? I'm just east of Bangor and this just bums me out that EAB is working it's way closer. I don't have near as many as you but some 'saw worthy' ones. Rest will head to the wood stoves. :( Also, I'm just a few miles down the road from Peavey Manufacturing, ALL they use for their handles and pallets is ash. Don't know what they are going to do once it's gone. Scary/creepy little bugs.
Hi TreecycleME, our farm is basically named to indicate our enthusiasm for working oxen. So not connected to Ashland at all. Hopefully you've got a few more good years before you get the borer, it looks like our time is very much up here.
Tim you need to find out from the local sawmill what this is the minimum length for a log to bring in for flooring. Hardwood flooring is usually 2-6 ft long pieces, the sawmill I had in here this year, had a five foot six inch outside to outside distance for the first ribs, so it could saw a 6 ft log. And even with the size of those logs and the depth of that ravine I'm sure that Ox of yours the drag a 6-foot log, especially if you could find an old drag scoop to use as a drug...
I'm still doing the research phase, trying pencil out the economoics of having these milled or buying a bandsaw mill, milling it myself and then selling the mill?
I wouldn't use one. They are slow, and waste a ton of wood in the kerf. Pretty much the only advantage to a chainsaw mill is they are relatively cheap and extremely portable. So they are a great option for cabin building in the bush up in the Great White North, but for milling a bunch of hardwood flooring I think they are not a good choice.
No, they look to be fully capable of overwintering anywhere in N. America where ash will grow. Pretty much no more ash left in Michigan where the infestation first started. Its still patchy here, and this is the first season where I'm really noticing a lot of damage.
What a shame to lose such a beautiful species of tree ! The fall colors of the ash trees were amazing . SO SAD !
Hey Tim. I really appreciate this "Ode to the Ash." Magnificent and so useful and versatile. And such a loss to the ecosystem. I hope you get to harvest some lumber and bring it into your home as a reminder of their beauty. The last few years has seen an increase in the presence of the borer here in Massachusetts. But the damage hasn't become widespread yet. My property doesn't have any ash on it, I wish it did. Anyway, thanks for the tribute to the Ash.
The white ash were hit hard here as well. Our city has a lot of white ash that were planted in the past 20 or so years. This past summer we really noticed how poor these trees were performing. I think many will wind up coming down this year. We have four green ash on our city lot, so far they are healthy although the emerald ash borer has been getting closer. It’s so sad to see these trees being overcome.
Watching this I found myself tearing up a bit. I'm going through the same thing this year, doing the cordwood challenge as a way to deal with losing all of our ash to EAB.
Sad that these trees are dying out. We still have our ash trees in Florida for the time being. A few years back some scientists came to the boardwalk at the museum I work at to collect the leaves/branches of our trees to send up north to keep the ash borers in labs alive for further study. We also had several traps set out, thankfully they never found any of the borers.
I have one ash (not sure if it's white) that's definitely in decline. The top is dead and has broken off, but it still produces good foliage every year. I plan to leave it alone until it looks to be in danger of coming down on its own. Emerald ash borer is already established in my area (central Indiana), so losing it is pretty much a foregone conclusion.
So sad. It has just started in the Dallas Texas area. I have a huge Texas Ash in my backyard. I had it pollarded a few weeks ago. I’ve heard the infestation of the EAB starts up in the canapy of the tree first and usually it goes undetected for a few years. I’m hoping that if I cut the new growth out every year, maybe I can stay ahead of the infestation. If not, at least I don’t have a huge tree falling on my house. Apparently the English routinely pollarded Ash trees for easy harvest of fire wood in the last century and some of those Ash trees are still living and 1000 yrs old. Even so, I’m guessing my tree will also be dead in 5/6 years. So sad.
I have not tried to pollard ash, I do know that it coppices well. Most of the small trees that I have cut have attempted to resprout from the base of the stump. But the deer attack the sprouts pretty aggressively so I haven't seen any of them succeed.
A worthy farwell for those beautiful trees. So sad to see nature going through this kind of humanmade tragedy. These things happen too often in our days.
Crooked stems make wonderful outdoor benches or tables for the garden and in 10 years ash wood will be highly priced ;) any room for long term storage on the farm?
I was thinking of the young birch trees being excellent pioneer plants. They will take over in no time. Big birch trees though... they drink an awful lot of water. Don't let too many of them grow big or they might empty the creek in summer. We have a big double stemmed birch at work and it's unbelievable dry around it. According to a forrest specialist it drinks 1600l per day.
There is white birch similar to yours around, but the only birch we have on the farm are yellow and black birch. I think there are white birch close enough for the seed to blow in maybe? I probably wouldn't worry too much about how much water they were using in this part of the farm, it is quite far from my well, and downslope from it.
That's good to hear :) I'm not familiar with yellow or black birch and did not know that they are less thirsty. The white birch is used here to drain wet fields or swamp areas, just by planting it along the edge. Very effective trees and excellent firewood, but no good if you need the water. Their seeds travel surprisingly far, they come up on their own quickly when any 'needle tree' forrest is harvested here. It's the forrests lambs quarter hahaha
I don't know if they are less thirsty or not. The one nice thing about both species is that they have oil of wintergreen in their sap, so the twigs are refreshing to chew on. :)
Hey Torp, I've been doing more research on the emerald ash borer to try and figure out what I should do, how much time I have to deal with these trees etc, and I ran across the news that it is now established in Europe too and spreading west from somewhere in Russia. Do you have ash up in that part of Sweden?
Maybe you can save seeds in the freezer. When the trees disappear the bugs might too. Who knows, maybe in 20 years they can be safely reestablished.
White ash was imported to Europe a couple 100 years ago. But I've never seen one around here, it's more common in Central Europe I think.
We got common ash (Fraxinus excelsior), but I'm a little north of their natural habitat too. I think there are some in the Karlstad area an hour south of me.
The most common trees in my area are probably European spruce, Scots pine, birch, European aspen, grey alder, goat willow and mountain ash.
theres a condition in oaks where a fungus will live in the bark and will make the bark flake off in a similar way
I wonder? Kind of a moot point, but it is very different from normal ash bark. Its almost like layers of cardboard.
How are your trees now? Do they make seeds too, to p/reserve?
What a shame. They've hit here in Tennessee as well. I don't have woodland like you but I've had friends report them in their white and green ashes. We have blue ash here and they seem to be leaving them alone for now. They aren't native to the northeast (can't remember what state you said you're in), but might be worth researching as a possible replacement? Everything I've read says they like limestone soil.
I'd read that Blue Ash is more resistant. There aren't any here AFAIK. I have an aquaintance that makes baskets from Black Ash professionally, and he has been harvesting logs for several years and sinking them in his pond so he'll have wood to use for the next decade or so.
Such a shame to lose those beautiful ash trees. Here in the UK we have common ash which has become infected with ' ash die back' - it's a serious problem.
Yes, there are lots of worrying tree problems these days. Oak Death, Long Horned Beetle, Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, and theres a new one called Spotted Lanternfly that just got established in Pennsylvania recently.
Last summer I noticed that nearly all of my Ash had over 60% crown dieback. Most have all of the bark being chipped away in the upper registers where I'm guessing most of the larva galleries are. It is really is sad. I have a huge Ash tree near my house that will probably be dead by spring. I'll see if I can make a video of mine. Just in the last 8 months I've noticed their health diminishing..
Its amazing how fast it has spread in just a year locally. I'm sure they were here a year or two ago, but all of the sudden you can see dead and dying trees everywhere.
Obviously don't answer this if you're not comfortable doing so, but does the 'Oxbow' refer to Oxbow (Ashland), Maine? I'm just east of Bangor and this just bums me out that EAB is working it's way closer. I don't have near as many as you but some 'saw worthy' ones. Rest will head to the wood stoves. :( Also, I'm just a few miles down the road from Peavey Manufacturing, ALL they use for their handles and pallets is ash. Don't know what they are going to do once it's gone. Scary/creepy little bugs.
Hi TreecycleME, our farm is basically named to indicate our enthusiasm for working oxen. So not connected to Ashland at all. Hopefully you've got a few more good years before you get the borer, it looks like our time is very much up here.
Tim you need to find out from the local sawmill what this is the minimum length for a log to bring in for flooring. Hardwood flooring is usually 2-6 ft long pieces, the sawmill I had in here this year, had a five foot six inch outside to outside distance for the first ribs, so it could saw a 6 ft log. And even with the size of those logs and the depth of that ravine I'm sure that Ox of yours the drag a 6-foot log, especially if you could find an old drag scoop to use as a drug...
I'm still doing the research phase, trying pencil out the economoics of having these milled or buying a bandsaw mill, milling it myself and then selling the mill?
@@oxbowfarm5803 have you thought about a chainsaw mill?
I wouldn't use one. They are slow, and waste a ton of wood in the kerf. Pretty much the only advantage to a chainsaw mill is they are relatively cheap and extremely portable. So they are a great option for cabin building in the bush up in the Great White North, but for milling a bunch of hardwood flooring I think they are not a good choice.
It is sad. There are no living ash here on my property in wny. All of them are just standing dead.
It will be like that here in a few years.
Was that a MOSQUITO at 2 minutes into the video?! Arghhhhh! (I had to rewind to review it). Wow!
No, its just a snow fly. They are all over the place right now.
@@oxbowfarm5803 Phew!
But seriously, I'm very sorry to hear of the borers. Does a hard cold snap help to control them?
No, they look to be fully capable of overwintering anywhere in N. America where ash will grow. Pretty much no more ash left in Michigan where the infestation first started. Its still patchy here, and this is the first season where I'm really noticing a lot of damage.