Ash Tree Demise

With the anticipated disappearance of the ash trees in our country due to the spread of the emerald ash beetle, I'm wondering what society is doing with all the dead/dying trees. Is it possible to harvest the trees while they're still alive to make usable lumber out of them---Or at least make something USEABLE from them?? Or is the major portion of the trees just doomed to the land-fill??
I live in eastern Nebraska, and the beetles have not arrived here yet. On some of the streets of the city near here there are ash trees lining both sides of the streets that are 50 yrs old. And I am wondering about the potential use of all of that wood product. I have several ash trees on our five acres, but then we have 50+ kinds of trees here, so the ash demise won't affect us greatly. But I still have this concern-----

What I'm doing with all I can is cutting for
fire wood, about 60% of my supply this year
has been ash.. & They are dying in Nw Pa...

I've read that very cold temps set it back some. I believe that I read that if placed in a kiln of a certain temp for a certain number of hours it can then betransported and sold as firewood. Since the boer only affects the cambian layer I would think if kiln dried it could be used as lumber. I am sure someone who is able to paste a link here will either confirm my memory or confirm I am all messed up. lol gobble

sure you can use the lumber, before and shortly after it dies,..i have about 700 BF I had sawed right after it died. timber guys are cutting it here to try to stay ahead of the die off

Ash is a nice lumber, I saw it from living and dead trees and it is fine either way. We sell a bit of it and I have used it to build furniture and for sides on a dump wagon. Also have sold lower grade lumber for hay racks. It is also good firewood.
Zach

here in ontario canada we have had a lot of ash trees lost from the borer. lots of cities cut their trees down weather or not infected.
whole bushes were removed to the south to try and contain the bug. it was a mandatory thing the government did and the whole tree was piled up and BURNED on the spot. a very huge loss for the property owner. it has been devistating. they are saying that this winter has been cold enough to hopefully kill the bug. I have a lot of ash in my bush and have not seen any signs of it.
there is a law and fine if you are caught hauling any ash trees for fire wood from county to county.
they are really taking it seriously here. the ash make up a large portion of forest here and it is real good wood for lumber and fire wood. but if you have ash bore it ruins the log fills it full of holes, not usable for lumber.
All from a bug that was in a pallet or shipping box that came from Asia. and the government keeps on letting that crap be shipped here.

The EAB does NOT ruin the wood. It lives under the bark and makes geometric tracings and swirls in the living tissue that supports the tree. The heartwood is not affected. If you see bored hoes in the center of the tree then carpenter ants are the culprit but they do not wipe out the trees. A huge percentage of old hardwood has carpenter ants in the center around here. Saw a show about the Louisville slugger company and they said the logs are only good for making bats for a short window after harvest so they will not be stockpiling ash. Otherwise I would think you could cut it and dry it and use it for lumber? A lot of it here is being burned as fuel. If I could link you to Google Earth and an aerial shot of part of our woodlot it would give you somewhat of an idea of how bad it can get. There are plenty of standing hickory, oak, and sugar maple but the aerial view of a hundred or more dead ash trees laying on the ground is pretty dramatic. Understand, this all happened in a few years time. The trees have roots that do not hold up long after death of the tree so they fall within a couple years or the brittle wood shatters in the wind. Looks like the tree exploded. Good news is, it does not actually kill the tree. Hundreds of little ash trees come up around the dead stump. They thrive until 2-3" caliper and then it repeats the cycle and kills the tops. Could be one day a balance will be reached and some will make it.

In late 2011 here in Monroe County NY, the state contracted with a logging outfit to remove ALL the ash trees - most infested but some still healthy - along a 4 mile stretch of linear parkland. They harvested a couple hundred trailer loads of lumber quality ash.

My next door neighbor had a couple infested trees dropped last year. I'm now "disposing" that wood thru my airtight stove.

As Dave H points the emerald borer only gets into the bark and outer sapwood; the heartwood remains pristine - at least until until wood borers, ants, etc take hold.

Firewood. And you can't stop nature.

I restore antique gas engines as a hobby and use a lot of white ash for the skid/base under the engine. It is a beautiful wood. Very hard and I think it looks better than oak. It has a wider grain. The only problem is finding it!! It seems for every hundred ash trees I only find couple white ash. The rest is green ash. Has anybody else used white ash??

3 summers ago, we had 3 trees die. Thought it was the drought. Before we cut them down, the bark fell off. Under the bark, you could see the creaters eat the bark and bored holes in the log.

The only poor person I know that burns wood, cut the trees down and hauled it 40 miles away.

I still have one tree to come down. Need to wait for the lake to go down. I may ask my sawmill guy if it's worth making lumber out of it.

Sounds like the beetle is taking the trees down faster than they can regrow. That means sooner or later they will run out of food and die off.

If as they say the tree doesn't actually die, but resprouts from the stump, they'll eventually come back.

I read somewhere that recommnded a person to save some ash seeds in the freezer. After the bug goes through, you should be able to plant the seeds and replace the trees.

I've lost a lot of Ash over the past 3-4 years. I was talking to a forester on line and he was familiar with my area. Told me we didn't have Emerald Ash Borers here yet. Told me what someone else here mentioned, that they get under the bark and leave "tracks" in the wood. Now, I just cut and hauled in a good big dead ash today, not a sign of any "tracks" in the wood under the bark. This leaves me with what the forester told me- there are other "borers" doing the damage. I don't know what they are or if that's whats going on, but my ash are dying regardless.

Cut it for fire wood, mill it, use it up! they are all going to die from EAB. They are or did in MICH. They can try all they want to ban moving it or cut ahead of it but they will never stop it. the best bet is to get some use out of it. My BIL had some nice tongue and groove paneling made out of it.

If you cut the dead tree down and leave the stump, they will grow back. I had a beautiful ash tree in my front yard that died and after I cut the tree down it is growing back. But now I have an ash bush.