I think that I shall never see...

[altivo]

...a thing as sad as a dead tree. If you remember the discussion a couple of months back about dead trees here, I finally got some photos that show the scale and grandeur of the most visible one. No, I really don't like it being where it is, as much as I loved it when it was alive. Now it's a serious problem. But there's no way we can afford to have it taken down right now, what with all the other expenses, so it's probably going to stay that way for a while, perhaps years or until it starts to fall by itself. Judging by our experience with other oaks on the property, rather than fall over all at once the branches will drop off one by one and then the upper part where the wind hits hardest will crack off and fall to the ground. The remaining trunk may stand for a long time if I can't find a cheap way to get rid of it.

	One Dead Oak I estimate the height of this burr oak in our front yard at somewhat more than 50 feet. It seemed perfectly normal last year, but this spring it turned out to be totally dead.
	Scale for Oak For those who wondered why we didn't just cut it down ourselves, here's another photo to give you some idea of the scale of the thing. Note one end of house and parked car visible in shadows, lower right.

Comments

[aerofox.livejournal.com]

Thats sad...
We have a couple very young Oaks on our property. One I really like next to the barn. It got well fertilized when Loriana's dog, Bee, was around, so it grew more than the other one.

I hope it doesn't die anytime soon :/

As for a cheap way to get rid of it? Anyone who burns wood in a fireplace or wood burning stove would probably take it down for the firewood. Oak burns long and hot, so its a desirable wood for burning.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We have a woodstove ourselves and could use the wood. Unfortunately, it would be very expensive wood. Because of the way this tree stands between several others just as tall, it can't just be felled. No matter how expertly the direction of fall was controlled, it would hit house, garage, another tree, or the power lines out by the road. It has to be removed piecemeal, probably by using a truck with a cherry picker to drop it branch by branch, and then section up the trunk. I'm guessing that the cost of that kind of job would run several thousand. Not happening. We have the frozen pipes under the barn floors to fix, our property taxes were raised again this year, and the price of hay for the critters is apparently going through the ceiling right along with gasoline prices.

[scruff.livejournal.com]

Mewp. Hopefully not phytophthora ramorum!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Whew. Thank goodness, no. Or at least, apparently not. We haven't seen any symptoms like that, and it's a good thing because about 70% of the big trees on our land are oaks. Mostly burr oak, but there's a good mix of other white oak varieties. The rest are hickory, soft maples, wild cherry, and a few box elder, aspen, elm, and other stray individuals. We have many, many that exceed 20 meters in height.

[songdawg.livejournal.com]

I find dead trees hard to look at but you know, they're extremely valuable as a woodpecker feeding resource. Especially the large trees.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I know that and we leave them standing in the woodlot for that reason. There are dead trees appearing all over the landscape here this summer, and I'm sure it's at least partly due to the terrible drought we had in 2005. Rain was back to normal last year, but the damage was done and just took this long to become visible.

This one worries me because of the potential danger from falling pieces a few years down the line. Thank goodness it isn't a cottonwood. Those are magnificent trees, and we still see them around here standing as high as a hundred feet. But when they go, it's all at once and potentially deadly...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Same thing here really, and there's some huuuuge gum trees about that I'm worried about. Which reminds me the tree people are finally coming in to remove some of our dead trees :(

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

It can't be all that weathered if it just died, I'd call a lumber place. I'd bet you could negotiate for them to remove it --and-- give you a few hundred bucks for the wood. At the very least, they'd probably remove it at no cost to you, calling it even because it may be a bit more time consuming than normal to fell.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There's no actual lumbering trade in this area, other than sale of finished boards from elsewhere. There are firewood dealers, and some of them may be equipped for the job. That's a possibility I'm considering. The professional tree removal services, though, are very expensive. They don't want the wood, and either charge to cart it away or else just leave it in a heap for you to deal with yourself.

[alaskawolf.livejournal.com]

too bad i cant send a friend down there to cut the tree, he does it for a living climbing up and carefully cutting them down as safly as possible.

that would be some good fire wood :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, the wood should be good right now. Some old oaks like that are hollow and rotten, but this one appears to be quite solid.

The old technique you mention, scaling the tree and cutting it away branch by branch, is a dying art. I can't even consider it myself, as I have zero tolerance for that sort of climbing and height. Using a six foot stepladder is about the extreme of my ability, and one of the fascinations of trees (or mountains) for me is the extreme heights to which they reach naturally.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

It's alive and well here :D

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

Wow, seems like there would be an opening for a sawmill operation then. This area has several small mills, despite not having all that many hardwoods. There's really high demand for even the non-planed lumber.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Most of the lumber market here is for kiln-dried pine and spruce of the kind used to build quick homes in developers' plats. They purchase by the flatcar load from bulk suppliers in the Pacific Northwest and couldn't be bothered with higher-priced small quantities from a local mill that would probably need seasoning before they could be used. At one time, there would have been a local market, but I don't think there is any more. The only local mills of which I'm aware process rarer hardwoods and sell them in small quantities to hobbyists and woodworkers.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Only tangentially related to anything, but Joyce Kilmer's ghost approves.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snicker*
I've always wondered if that was the only poem Kilmer ever wrote, or if the rest were so much worse that they were all consigned to the flames.