Another fun one.

Ed L

Treehouser
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Front seat on the struggle bus
The EAB Ash in my woods are starting to fall on a regular basis now, they will uproot or snap off near the ground. Doesn't take a lot of bad weather to send them over.
One of the latest stumps. Tree was only 10" dbh, but 60' long.

stump.jpg



Which left me with this. Over 7' in the air.

tree1.jpg


Fun eh? As you can see, theres a little tension...........

tree2.jpg



After an hours worth of clean up in the area as there are other Ash to fell, a little work with the pole pruner, its a little easier to access.

tree3.jpg



Still lots of tension, I cut from the north side, as the tree was heading south.

tree4.jpg


It swung around far enough to hit the nearest tree behind it.

tree5.jpg


All said & done, it had turned 90 degrees from where it started.

tree6.jpg


Everything went pretty smooth on this one, took my time and thought everything through. No reason to rush and get hurt.

Ed
 
Thanks for sharing Ed. Great pics. EAB is a killer for sure. Good thing you didn't have to climb it. Dangerous this time of year for sure, as the infestation of the boarer is less recognizable.
 
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  • #3
Don't have to worry about recognizing EAB here anymore, they are all dead. now its getting scary with them falling over all the time. I'll get some shots of the other side of our woods, its hard to cut there due to standing water on a regular basis, pretty much a fallers hell in there.

Ed
 
Thank you for posting that Ed. EAB has been here for two/three years or so but this was the first year where we finally saw symptoms, and is getting really bad here. We have removed tons of them already and it is just getting worse. It looks like it is much more advanced there, which makes sense since it was first noticed in Michigan. I have yet to see an Ash THAT decayed from EAB. That is something else man. How long would you say it takes to go from first symptoms of dieback to the state that they are in your pictures?
 
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  • #7
Thats 4-5 years after infestation on that stump. Since they die slowly, they dry out as they die. Hard to tell whats inside until you put the steel to it. If the tree starts to lose its bark, they get really nasty. If the tree has/had carpenter ants, faster yet at going down.
I'm at the point now, I can get ya'll a good package of pics this weekend. They are dropping so fast I can't keep up....stragety this year was to harvest good sawlogs before they rot, going to be hard.
I'll add that our woods was not properly managed in the past (highgraded every 20 years, before we bought it), there is an overabundance of Ash, some areas are going to look like a clearcut when its all said and done.

Ed


Ed
 
Boy that's a side bind if there ever was one. interesting the stem maintained its strength and resilience and the stump went to punk. Not much control you can put on a tree in that state. Just be sure to stay clear of the stump when it goes.

Good Pics! Worth a thousand words.
 
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  • #11
3 years or less.

Not going to dispute that. With an overabundance of Ash like I've got, one can't recall what tree got it when. Also no way to know the trees health when it got infected.
This one was dry at the stump, many are wet, like dead Elm, from the moisture in the tree draining down.

Ed
 
After about a year standing dead they are drier than a popcorn fart .If you want you can cut them and burn them right then .
 
Thank you for posting that Ed. EAB has been here for two/three years or so but this was the first year where we finally saw symptoms, and is getting really bad here. We have removed tons of them already and it is just getting worse. It looks like it is much more advanced there, which makes sense since it was first noticed in Michigan. I have yet to see an Ash THAT decayed from EAB. That is something else man. How long would you say it takes to go from first symptoms of dieback to the state that they are in your pictures?

Sounds like your a little ahead of us with this EAB. We just had our first offical confirmation that the borer has arrived here in our county when some adults showed up in some traps .

The question I have is do people do anything for their trees as far as soil drenches or injections to supposedly keep their trees safe from attack or do they just look the other way and hope the tree will be spared from the borer till it becomes a removal issue??

The guy appointed by the state to handle our county recently was here to update our compliance for the quarrantee requirements and of course he had to check our wood pile for infected ash wood. He suggested that I get back my certification from the ISA to treat trees for the borer. A few adults in a trap aren't enough for me to go through that again. It is easier to just my applicators license back from the state if there is enough commercial demand for this service. I already have the knowledge. I don't need a piece of paper and annual dues renewal to treat trees.

It has been my experience that MOST people do nothing and would rather remove a tree than try to save it. Some people are being do it yourself arborists by buying some chemical at the store ,mixing it into a five gallon bucket and poring it around the base of the tree hoping to save it . I have my doubts it will work but they at least have peace of mind that they are doing the right thing.

What has been your experience from you guys where this EAB has been established for awhile. Are we going to play arborists or Ash tree removers?? We, here in our county are a long way from a full blown infestation. I am just waiting to see what happens.

Those punky stumps are a little scary. I take it this is the norm?? Is this just happening to the smaller trees ?? How about something bigger?? Most times a dead Ash is rock hard with no decay.
 
The question I have is do people do anything for their trees as far as soil drenches or injections to supposedly keep their trees safe from attack or do they just look the other way and hope the tree will be spared from the borer till it becomes a removal issue??

It has been my experience that MOST people do nothing and would rather remove a tree than try to save it. Some people are being do it yourself arborists by buying some chemical at the store ,mixing it into a five gallon bucket and poring it around the base of the tree hoping to save it . I have my doubts it will work but they at least have peace of mind that they are doing the right thing.

What has been your experience from you guys where this EAB has been established for awhile. Are we going to play arborists or Ash tree removers??

Those punky stumps are a little scary. I take it this is the norm?? Is this just happening to the smaller trees ?? How about something bigger?? Most times a dead Ash is rock hard with no decay.

Here is a good write up on treatments. http://www.emeraldashborer.info/files/multistate_eab_insecticide_fact_sheet.pdf

99% of home owners will do nothing, so it will be removals. If you know some one with a large yard ash tree approach them about treatment. Sad to see 5' dia main trees go in a yard.

Doesn't matter the size the wood goes punky quick and the roots rot fast. So they snap like Ed's pictures show or the whole root ball fails.
 
We use Xytect/Imadacloprid, but to be honest I rarely prescribe it. I have little faith in curative treatment with EAB, even with the new 2x dosage allowance. Preventative treatment is a different story. The problem with EAB and preventative treatment is that a tree can be infected for up to two years and show no symptoms. So what happens is an EAB infected tree gets prescribed a preventative treatment because the tree has shown no symptoms, the tree dies, and now you have an upset client. A slippery slope.
 
How you gonna get saw logs off dead ash trees? That stuff stains like a bugger pretty fast when the eab gets ahold of it.
 
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  • #18
I've been milling EAB Ash for several years now, never had any staining. EAB lives in the cabimum layer, never bores into the wood.

Ed
 
That's new to me. Loggers and mills are gobbling up ash here before eab hits because of the brownish red staining after mortality.
 
You have to remember where you're at .Pa probabley lays atop granite or sandstone .Ohio and Mich for the most part sets atop a huge limestone substrata .

For example the oak where I'm at in western Ohio ,limestone , has a different coloration than 120 miles to the east in Knox county which is devoid of limestone and is a mixture of granite and sandstone .

The dead EAB ash does not stain in these parts either .For all I know the mills in these parts only pay pennies for it because that's all they have to pay .---but it's a business
 
Ya know in rereading all this I see the difference in what Ed's dealing with and myself .For the most part except in the rear portion of my little woods it's well drained .Ed says his is water soaked .

That would explain why the base is rotting out on his and mine not so much .It would also explain the reason I find ants in the low ground trees and almost none on the high ground trees .

If I get some time later I'll drop a dead one out front and snap a pic of the stump .I'd about bet it's solid as a rock .
 
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