The most valuable tool I have for inner timber plots is an ATV log arch. I have a personal sawmill and use the log arch for skidding logs. I can use my UTV to skid 32" diameter x12ft long logs. Dragging trees off to the side of a plot is a breeze. I also drag tree tops and debris into piles or strategically create pinch points or thick areas. It's not the typical habitat tool but man it sure is handy!
Improvement projects you regret doing?
- Thread starter Shooter77
- Start date
BSK
Well-Known Member
What a fascinating tool. Didn't know they existed.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I tell you what, after our 100-acre timber cut, I've got so many piles of leftover log sections (stuff not fit for the sawmill, but could be used for other things), I could keep someone who sells firewood busy for years.
Oh I bet! Cutting trees makes an awful mess. I've been dealing with ash trees lately, and boy they make a mess. All the dead standing ones drop branches so I have to clean up debris before I cut the tree, not after.
squackattack
Well-Known Member
Be careful cutting dead trees, the wood acts differently, because of a lower moisture content. Ash especially.
Yessir they sure do. I've been salvaging them for several years now, trying to outrun the dang emerald borer. Unfortunately they're killing trees faster than I can log and mill them. I've about got it licked though. Still a few dozen big solid ones yet to get but most of what's left is still alive. I think by spring I'll have salvaged what is salvageable. What's not will rot away. Such a waste.
BSK
Well-Known Member
What does ash wood look like? What can it be used for?
It ranges from boring blonde with no character, to varying shades of brown with blue hughes. It's great for barn siding and fence boards and woodworking. Lots of tool handles are made with it.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Interesting. Thanks Ski.
These pics aren't necessarily reflective of what ash typically looks like. It's usually a bit more white/yellow and bland grain. I have pictures of this stuff because of the exceptional grain and color. Ash usually isn't something you'd look twice at. Think wheel barrow handles or post hole handles. That's typically what ash looks like.
Attachments
Also a lot of baseball bats were made with Ash.
Yes I forgot about those. We're losing a lot if ash trees disappear. Fortunately it appears some are becoming resistant to the beetle. I've got several large, mature, healthy trees growing in the midst of otherwise devastated groves of ash. Hopefully we don't see it go the way of chestnut.
BSK
Well-Known Member
All so very interesting. Ski, do you sell milled wood or are you milling it just for your own uses?
ImThere
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
But I needed something to start the field on fire!Probably better to burn without leaving your truck in the field!!
That's great! I have 100% loss at my farm. I probably have 10 trees still standing but are dead. I have a spot about 70 yards that's hard to walk through because it's nothing but fallen Ash. The state forester said it all started in the Cumberland gap (VA/KY/TN) area when people brought wood in for camping that was infected. it's since spread over all of E. Ky, SW VA & NE TN.
I've never sold lumber. I really don't ever mill much aside from what's needed for personal projects. My sawmill is pretty basic, all manual, so it takes lots of elbow grease. Been milling up a lot of the ash because it's dying so fast, and rots away even faster. I don't want it going to waste.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Always wished I had some of my "extra" white oak milled. I'm not a woodworker now but have often thought of taking up the hobby. And we have some pretty white oak.
Mine is in southern Ohio, in the edge of the Appalachians. I think the reason I have a few doing well is because of the condition of the forest. There's a section about 40acres that is virgin, and it is absolutely prehistoric in there. Trees don't necessarily behave the way they do in a managed forest or regrowth. Everything grows ultra slow and has huge heart:sap ratios, hence the ash in the pics above being so dark. Once it gets so old it is almost entirely heart wood. I've got the state director of foresters monitoring it. He brings down college interns to show what the original oak/hickory dominant forests would have looked like. Apparently the state has a tract of virgin timber that the universities study, but it's beech/maple dominant. The ash borer problem is something they take extra interest in.
