The tops are very brittle on dead ash trees. A few years ago, my friend Don had 11 vertebrae broken and his tractor smashed, when a top he was dragging with his tractor, bumped a standing ash tree causing two large branches to break off. To save his life, they had to Careflight him from Vincent, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio.

Keith

spot on Keith,i'm glad all mine are takin care of.lotta guys say they aren't hurting anything,then i explain exactly the type of thing you are talkin about and you automatically see the wheels turning.

also easier to keep firewood that is cut and split with a good cover over it than those out in the elements in my opinion.

be safe with them folks.

My uncle in Ontario, Canada hurt his head pretty badly cutting down Ash around his church. I agree with the dangerousness of cutting down Ash.

Five years ago a small ash tree (5" diameter) in my yard showed bleeding borer holes and top limbs were dead. I sprayed trunk of tree with malathion and spread Bayer Advanced systemic insecticide on ground around the tree. The tree is healthy now. The systemic insecticide worked but might be impractical for a group of trees.

Sioux Falls has a project going they are cutting down the ones that are the worse and giving what looks like a IV to the ones they think they can save!

All of my Ash trees are gone here in Indiana. I logged around s hundred or so off of my place by myself. I sold all I could to the sawmill and firewood for the rest ( I have an outdoor boiler). In my experience,99% of your trees are going to die 100% of the ones bigger than your wrist. Shelf life of Ash trees dead in the woods is SHORT, like 18 months.

Imidacloprid is the active ingredient of many of the pesticides used to try to save ash trees. It's in Bayer Tree and Shrub and a lot of knockoffs. I bought 3 bottles of Systemic Tree and Shrub Insect Drench at TSC around 5 years ago for $2.99 a bottle. Plants suck up imidacloprid through their roots.

Imidacloprid also kills fleas on dogs. It's in many of the expensive flea medications.

I lost around 350 ash trees to Emerald Ash Borers on my farm. I wish I had sold them all when it first started.

Keith

Having sat through several lectures on EMB, cut now or forever hold your ash.
Even where everything has died and the new seedlings grow up the adult beetles even attach new 6 inch sprouts growing, so replanting several years later is hopeless.

best bet is to save some seed stock in a freezer for the next 10 years, because, the genetics of moving imports from 200 mile from your place is not suitable.

Compared to Elm beetle with stays under the bark, and de-barking you can move it EMB larvae dig deep into the wood and can come out. Also it appears the larvae can take several years to complete a cycle.

It also appears that -40 c/f for 5 days is not enough to control it overwintering in larvae or adults.

Interesting we had a ground fire and the bark sluffed off on the bolts and wood was still good for 20 years as firewood and sawing lumber ( but we had micro-dry post borers 1/16 inch holes )

Lost a couple at my office here in Wisconsin, they were planted when the office was built 35 years ago.
I would say maybe 2 years from symptoms until I cut them this winter.
Some of the bark was already slipping, but will make great firewood.
I have only 1 ash tree in my 40 acres of woods and wouldn't ya know a wind blew the top out in it
during a storm last summer. The tree has to be 40" diameter at the stump and clear for 30 feet, it is across
a little crick and no way to get the logs out without a big mess.
Gonna be a few cord of firewood in that guy once I bring him out in little pieces.
Zim

My advise is cut them and use them, ther gona get infested anyway regardless the size . even after dying the lumber is still valuable, until ambrosia beetle takes over ,then the wood gets the bluegray stain and is worthless only for firewood. unless you like that look in your personal woodworking.

I would like to thank everyone for the information. As soon as all this snow melts(Suppose to get 1 to 2 feet tonight, I will start felling trees and buck them up for firewood as time allows. I don't like the sound of leaving dead standing ash trees in my woods. I guess it is not the same as waiting on my elm trees to dry standing.
Rob

Elms sluff off the bark so it dries in the air, if it does not the mold rots them in two years. The Btu fall from 120,000 to 70,000 / cu foot then to 35,000 the next year.

Cutting then down will open the canopy for some rapid growth next year, second year cut the side-suckers down

I planted an ash the year after we bought our house in 1976. The tree started showing decline 3 years ago. Last year about 60% of the branches did not leaf out. This spring the tree will be cut down.

Our son is part owner of a 10 acre woodlot with several very nice large ash trees. There are 3 families using outdoor wood burners with another 10 acre woodlot. Each year the ash are first to be harvested. Looks as if maple will be the regrowth as there are several of those and enough shade to keep other species at bay.

Bryce

Here’s some ash heading to the mill for flooring,
I’m getting 2-3 logs per tree.. once you get past that there dead, on the top..

Are those black ash, like the type they use for basket making ?
8 footers or 10, looks like 2000 board feet at least.

Just regular ash

That's a wee bit more than 2000 bd feet now as the pile grew.

I don’t know about 2000, I had around 2600 scaled on the stump, but I’m getting 3-4 logs per tree.. when i scaled them I only scaled the first two logs of the tree..
There not all out yet.... maybe it’s 2000bf.. if not I’ll just bring some more out... I do need 2000bf to get my 1200 square foot of flooring... well that’s at least what the mill said

If all the ash trees die, will the emerald ash borers die off too? Do they have another source of food? I know the ash trees throw up new sprouts from the stump. I am wondering if once there are no edible sized trees for the borers to consume, if the isolated trees will have a chance to make a comeback.

Keith