Fallen oak in field - advice please!

[CathB]

This 200 year-ish old oak fell in Cumbria in August '24, it was stag-headed and in retrenching phase but fell on a windless day. I'm been tasked with working out what to do with it and have read lots of threads on here re. fallen oaks & timber but am confused.  I just wanted to ask your opinions as to what to do. Leave it as dead wood, mill for boards, firewood...?! To a novice eye, it looks as though it's fallen in a way that won't be easy to deal with.. many thanks, I appreciate any input. 

[Stere]

Looks pretty easy to deal  with   as to what to do that depends what you want to do... if its your tree & field?

 

Do you want firewood or oaks boards or dead wood for bugs?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 27 by Stere

[openspaceman]

There's a bit of a balancing act going on between those branches supporting it and the rootplate, once you have that sussed without squashing anyone then it looks like you have a clean butt of 8+' and 30" quarter girth, 50Hft. In my day that would have been a week's wages for two men so worth dragging to roadside.

 

The only worry would be shake and pinholes and as it is a farm field ink stain and staples.

[marktownend]

Personally I'd love to see it just left as it is if there isn't any public access or risk to livestock. Would be amazing to watch it gradually return to the soil over the next few decades. However, depending on what the field is used for or how it would fit aesthetically with the location (it looks like estate land) this may not work. And whether you want to maximise financial return is another question. As other posters have said, the tree could be dealt with and the area cleared up relatively easily by someone with the right knowhow and equipment.

 

It could be used for art projects in situ, removed and made into 1000 chopping boards, burnt, hollowed out into a huge canoe, any number of uses but you'll never get a concensus of opinion on here and ultimately it'll depend on what the owner thinks best as to what happens to it.

 

If it's not creating a danger as it is then maybe leave it for a few months for discussion and contemplation time as it won't be going anywhere. A neighbour in our woods had a big ash tree that had fallen before he bought the plot and fairly quickly had it chopped up for boards and firewood and I know he has pangs of regret about that and wonders if he should have left it.

[Donnie]

I’d ring and split it depending on how far you are away from me. 😀

Edited September 28 by Donnie

[GarethM]

Obviously your not the farmer, they'd have been down there within 5 minutes of it being on the floor.

 

Cut off and use the limbs, plank the rest and don't expect any payout because Geoff down the pub says oak is worth a fortune.

[manco]

2 hours ago, marktownend said:

Personally I'd love to see it just left as it is if there isn't any public access or risk to livestock. Would be amazing to watch it gradually return to the soil over the next few decades. However, depending on what the field is used for or how it would fit aesthetically with the location (it looks like estate land) this may not work. And whether you want to maximise financial return is another question. As other posters have said, the tree could be dealt with and the area cleared up relatively easily by someone with the right knowhow and equipment.

 

It could be used for art projects in situ, removed and made into 1000 chopping boards, burnt, hollowed out into a huge canoe, any number of uses but you'll never get a concensus of opinion on here and ultimately it'll depend on what the owner thinks best as to what happens to it.

 

If it's not creating a danger as it is then maybe leave it for a few months for discussion and contemplation time as it won't be going anywhere. A neighbour in our woods had a big ash tree that had fallen before he bought the plot and fairly quickly had it chopped up for boards and firewood and I know he has pangs of regret about that and wonders if he should have left it.

what he said

[Steven P]

I think this was mentioned above, what is the land used for? Looks like grazing, sheep? or parkland? In which case perhaps the minimum you'd need to do is stabilise it so it doesn't fall and hurt anything (people or livestock - remembering children will climb and a sheeps ambition is to die as soon as it can).

[CathB]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond, it really is much appreciated. Sadly this is the second of two to go down in this field in the last three years (assuming side effects of decades of grazing), so it does need to move & have a life beyond. We will look to stabilise it, and then the question is, is there any financial return - mixed responses on the thread here?! Is it realistically worth more than 'wood for work', given it'll be tricky to deal with? Or pay to section it get it roadside (about 100m) & then try & sell the timber? 

 

Thanks so much!

 

ps.. must admit I didn't understand this from Vet Member from Surrey!? "The only worry would be shake and pinholes and as it is a farm field ink stain and staples." - new language to me!! 

[peds]

19 minutes ago, CathB said:

 

ps.. must admit I didn't understand this from Vet Member from Surrey!? "The only worry would be shake and pinholes and as it is a farm field ink stain and staples." - new language to me!! 

 

What openspaceman is saying is that when someone mills it, they might find fencing staples embedded in it, as farm and estate trees often have these, and other buried treasure, and occasionally a dark blue hue staining the timber as a result; and other undesirable physical attributes.