Trees already down for five years. Firewood or let it rot away?

surviverguy said:

I've got a couple big ones (oaks?) which have been down for several years. How to determine if its worth the work for reduced but usable btu's vs. let it rot? What do you guys use to make that type of determination?

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i'd do a few test cuts...up on the limbs, mid-trunk and near the base. if it less than 1/3 punk i'd cut it, split it, stack it and forget about it.

Whether to check it and/or grab it depends on how set you are with future wood stash. And on how easy it is to get & bring home. When we first started collecting wood, I'd have taken just about anything (and did). The exploratory cuts are a good idea.

If you have Red/Black Oak, the sapwood will rot pretty fast but the heartwood will be good for many years. If I have some big rounds I'll split it down, then split off the sapwood (using a power splitter and not being too precise.) You get a lot of solid wood from a big round. If the sapwood is still pretty solid but not perfect on these reject splits, I'll give them to some folks I know that are not yet ahead on their wood supply. The thing about stacking punky wood is that it will absorb water, so I would top-cover it.

A lot of times you can just chop into the wood with a hatchet and get a pretty good idea of what you have. Limbs and trunks that have a lot of fungus formations growing out of them are usually going to be marginal.

I have processed red Oak that was down for three years and only the bark and first inch or so of 20" rounds was soft. Most of that fell off during splitting anyway. Red Oak will last a long time on the ground.

The only thing to determine is how it looks. There will be some punk on the outside for sure. It it is only an inch or two then there is no problem. More? Then determine if the heart is still good (but cutting through) and then determine if the work is worth it for the amount of heat you will get.

I mostly cut standing trees . . . but when there is a downed tree and I am pondering whether to take it or not I simply start cutting and usually can get a pretty quick idea as to whether the wood is solid, too punky or somewhere in between.

show us some pics, we can probably tell. I have some Oak that has been dead for 20 years that is still great, especially the stuff off the ground.

It's amazing how standing dead oak trees can last DECADES AND DECADES (some even longer), but when those same trees fall to the ground they can and will get punky (esp. the sapwood). I cut up two standing dead white oaks over the winter that I am sure have been dead for 20 to 30 years, wood was bark-free and amazingly ready for the stove. I used that wood the past two months. Then there is stuff that falls to the ground and after only a few years it is really bad on the outside, but the heartwood is still good (albiet very wet). So just as the others stated, test cut that stuff in several places. You will have sapwood rot, but the heartwood is probably still in great shape. It'll probably need a couple years to dry out, if it has been laying on the ground that long..