Tree ID and To cut, or not to cut

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farmboy05

farmboy05

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Jan 31, 2014
96
North Central Iowa
We had a blizzard come through this week and it took half the top off of a tree off. I'm not sure what type of tree it is. The best I can come up with is Butternut, but maybe you guys can tell from the attached pictures? Also, with half the top gone, is it just going to slowly rot and die and be best to cut down now, or should it still be good? I don't NEED the wood since I have plenty of dead standing/fallen to go through yet, but if it's best to cut down now, I will. It's 3ft diameter at about 4ft from the ground. Thank you in advance!!

Tree1.jpg Tree2.jpg Tree3.jpg Tree4.jpg
 
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That's a lot of wood, check with a mill, might make good planks:cool: my bad just looked at the tape again, thought it was larger;lol
 
I'm not sure, but the top two pics look like cottonwood.
If it is, then its lower on BTU's and hard to split. We have a lot of those around here.
On the other hand, its free so do it when you have spare time.
 
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The tape is a little misleading with how it and the camera line up. At that spot, I was measuring 3ft diameter. The tape is to show the size of the bark. I was thinking cottonwood for a while too, but I don't ever remember the cotton like stuff that cottonwood makes falling.
 
If its not cottonwood, I'm stumped. I'm not sure what else would have such deep grooves in the bark with such a light wood.
Either way, if the tree is in good health otherwise, it could last for quite a while. (but I could be wrong).
 
My 2 guesses, cottonwood or syberian elm. From the pic its hard to tell. Always easier to id in person :)
 
The wood in that broken pic doesnt really look like cottonwood, but the bark does, and the crooked growth reminds me f the cottondwoods in my area

Now you gotta cut it down and get some split so we can know for sure ;lol
 
Cottonwood.
 
Any tree with nut in it should be good firewood except coconut. Butternut is squash. Looks like cottonwood with the deep grooves in the bark. I would leave it alone.
 
farmboy05 said:
We had a blizzard come through this week and it took half the top off of a tree off. I'm not sure what type of tree it is. The best I can come up with is Butternut, but maybe you guys can tell from the attached pictures? Also, with half the top gone, is it just going to slowly rot and die and be best to cut down now, or should it still be good? I don't NEED the wood since I have plenty of dead standing/fallen to go through yet, but if it's best to cut down now, I will. It's 3ft diameter at about 4ft from the ground. Thank you in advance!!
Click to expand...

So long as you don't need the wood, I would not worry about it. It is common for cottonwood to break down like that so no problem. The biggest thing is, do you need the wood and you say no. I'd leave it.
 
It looks like Cottonwood or Siberian Elm to me. The wood looks like Cottonwood.

Is Butternut common in Iowa? It doesn't really look like a Butternut to me, but I don't see many.

I think that tree could last a long time despite its damage. I see no need to cut it immediately unless you want the firewood.
 
Thank you all for the help! Since the general concussions is unknown to cottonwood, I'll hold off until leaves sprout and I can tell more exactly what type of tree it is. I'll cut up the part that broke off in the mean time. I'm just starting, so I'm trying to make sure no really good wood goes to waste, and I do have plenty of other dead maple and ash (mostly maple) in my grove to work on. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't some super wood that was going to quickly die.

I was cutting up a maple that was dead standing and I cut down recently when this happened when I went to roll it to get a better cut:

maple tree.jpg

Self splitting tree ==c... Now if I could clone it ;) and it doesn't look rotten...
 
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