Is it worth milling ash with die-back?

[jfc]

Here's a weeping ash with Adb we took down and milled today. Looks pretty good I think, crown was 90% dead.

[Treepigmatt]

21 hours ago, jfc said:

Here's a weeping ash with Adb we took down and milled today. Looks pretty good I think, crown was 90% dead.

What sawmill attachment do you use? 

[jfc]

2 hours ago, Treepigmatt said:

What sawmill attachment do you use? 

Panther Mill, as supplied by Rob at chainsawbars.

[Welshfred]

On 19/10/2022 at 10:27, openspaceman said:

Recent research sees to suggest a tree grows up with the propagules of various fungi within it, just like we humans have more microbe cells in our bodies than human cells. These propagules then become active rotters when the tree is stressed or dying from an onslaught of spores like we see with chalara.

 

Whether it is these fungi within or just secondary infections you are seeing I don't know but previous experience from windblown beech some 35 years ago suggests there is a significant loss of strength within a couple of years even though the wood looks white still. Mature rees with dieback symptoms may have been repeatedly infected  over a number of years since 2012 to give opportunity for secondary infections to take hold.

 

Also I do not know if chalara itself affects the wood.

This ties in with what I was thinking. I think it is chalara I'm seeing as the mycelium under the bark and the brown staining in the timber are just like that I've seen in youngertrees which have succumbed very rapidly. Those trees at about 15cm dbh were brown throughout and saturated with water. Even when completely dried out the logs had no calorific value, they burnt without heat in the stove. 

This year's stuff is bigger at 20-30cm dbh and it was interesting how the fungus kicked off in the cut logs.

I'm still undecided whether it's worth milling, even though it looks ok fresh the fungus is in there. Lurking...

On a slight tangent, I've yet to see a mature tree completely break down and have a concern they will rot below ground and topple rather than break down from the top. I've seen young ones rot out at ground level but so far I've not felled a large tree with active fungus at the base. Although it is there as demonstrated by the cut logs.

[Welshfred]

On 31/10/2022 at 19:36, jfc said:

Here's a weeping ash with Adb we took down and milled today. Looks pretty good I think, crown was 90% dead.

Nice boards. Make sure you keep them very dry! Debarking might be worthwhile too. 

[jfc]

On 03/11/2022 at 08:18, Welshfred said:

Nice boards. Make sure you keep them very dry! Debarking might be worthwhile too. 

Client is keeping them, storage place looked nice and dry. Wish I had space to to store boards.j.