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It's pretty good firewood. Be very careful cutting the trees down, the dead wood is exceptionally brittle. It does not make timber any more due to this. The vibration of a chainsaw can crack a big branch off & kill you. Do _not_ take this lightly. Also cabling them is difficult, as they will break as likely as pull over, and the different pieces can fly in all directions. The disease is a fungus which is carried by the beetles (Dutch Elm Bark Beetles) from tree to tree, or by roots from touching trees passing the fungus on. There is a very expensive treatment for the fungus which only lasts a few years. there is no good way to control the beetles. The bugs theselves do not harm the trees at all - unless the burrow in an infected tree & carry the fungus to a healthy one. The fungus fills up the sap runways in the tree & choke the tree to death, like blockages in our blood vessels. Bare elm wood does not spread the disease. However, dead wood with the bark on it will support beetles as they burrow & live under the bark, which then pass the fungus on to healthy trees. So, you do not want to store the wood with bark on. I've split a far amount of different wood in my day, and the elm wood we have here in southern Minnesota is by far and away the stringiest wood and most difficult to split. Perhaps your saplings haven't formed the stringy grains yet, or you have a smoother species. Rock elm is the worst of all..... The imported Chineese Elm can somewhat survive Duch Elm disease, but they may die a slow death one limb at a time, and end up being a carrier for the fungus. If you have any living elm left, get rid of all dead elm with bark on it. Do not allow a habitat for the beetles on diseased trees. If an elm starts wilting or an entire branch wilts & goes dead, it is infected & that tree is a goner. Cut it & peel the bark. We had it go through back in the '70-80s here, it sounds like another wave is going around again. Not many elms left here to infect any more. --->Paul
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