White Ash/Edit

That looks like a pretty good sized tree.

If it's a nice tree, maybe leave it to propagate until you see signs of EAB?

Leave it for as long as you can Zap. You will know when its time.

Cut it lets turn some ball bats before its too late...lol I would look for smaller ash close by before droping.

I would think the first signs are borer holes. I'll look in my files, I think I have something on them

Watch the canopy this summer . Once they are in the tree you will lose foliage in
large sections. When the end is near there will still be a few leaf clusters left but
the bark will start peeling away on the main trunk. They cut down thousands of trees
around here to try & stop the spread 5-7 years ago, didn't work. We still have some
Ash trees doing good. The sawmills around here are still getting plenty of good lookin Ash
So, if you dont need it or dont want to sell it for handles leave it be ,they get alot bigger.

May want to consider selling logs if you have a bunch. The EAB WILL be there.

zapny said:

hoosierhick said:

Leave it for as long as you can Zap. You will know when its time.

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What are the first signs that EAB are in your area attacking your ash trees? I can leave it, we have plenty of wood down that I need to take care of. We have 9-10 Cherry trees down that I'll start on in the spring.



Zap

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Zap, here are a few trees that were attacked by the borer. They were still alive when the picture was taken, but barely alive. When the bark starts flaking off, that is a good time to cut. If you wait until they are dead they are really light and I don't think they burn quite as good.





Also, you will notice a lot of new suckers the tree tries to send out and a lot of these will be about at eye level or just above. I think that is the tree's response to the kill and it is trying to repair itself. It is all in vain though.

We have EAB here, and I think they have been here a couple of years at least. Lots of Ash are dying, but many are still doing fine. I would leave all the live Ash and let nature decide which ones you make into firewood. You'd hate to cut the ones that would have lived - not that you'd ever know that is what you did.

Like all invasive species, eventually the EAB flood will ebb and hopefully some White Ash will be left. Think about Elm - they have survived Dutch Elm Disease and now some are surviving Elm Yellows. It seems like there will be American Elm in the woods for a while longer. Gypsy Moths have been similar - they were a complete disaster in the '80s, but now are merely a severe pest. On the other hand, Chestnut Blight pretty completely destroyed the American Chestnut. I think the fact that EAB is an insect rather than a microbe or fungus makes it more likely that some form of control can be found to lessen their impact. With an insect there are diseases and predators to attack it. With a microbe the only hope is that there are resistant trees.

Some good information here Zap. I think it would be premature for you to start cutting live trees unless it's a part of a timber sale. The insect moves slow on it's own, so if there aren't any campgrounds in your area, or people that would bring infected firewood into your area, you may still have some time. Some of the symptoms as stated are crown dieback (upper center canopy starts losing leaves permanently), epicormic shoots (what Dennis referred to), bark splits (cracks in the bark revealing the cambium layer), woodpecker damage (indicating the insect has been there a few years). You may also see the "D" shaped exit hole that is about 1/4" in diameter. I know one group that would like to see it slow it's approach to your area, and that is Louisville Slugger. Apparently they get a lot of their ash for baseball bats out of your neck of the woods.

Backwoods Savage said:

If you wait until they are dead they are really light and I don't think they burn quite as good.

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I've noticed that if they've been standing dead for several years they can be a little lighter, if you catch them when they stop putting out leaves they still seem pretty good to me.

I say watch it and when the canopy has pretty much died back, take it down. The wood will still be good at that point.