Cutting down trees in winter

[RyanH0802]

I saw on the tv show Yukon Men that one of the guys strips the bark off the tree at the base completely around the whole tree. They said that it makes the tree die and it will season still standing and the next year he is able to fell the tree and split and burn right away. Not sure on the truth to this. I'm very new to this as we just installed our wood stove and started using it this winter. We have been noticing stuff bubbling out from the ends of the splits we are using. I just got a moisture meter and our wood is right around 20%

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

It is called 'girdling' a tree. It is both unsafe and ineffective. You create tons of standing dead and rotten trees that are storm hazards. For wood to truly dry and season, it must be cut, split, and stacked.

 

[gerry100]

nks Kerry

Thanks gerry100. I assume this applies to white and black birch? I'm down to my last white birch, and it is about to go as well. The previous owner threw sticks and leaves into the middle of the three old beautiful white birches that were planted together at the entrance to the driveway, and over time the bugs and rot damaged the trees to the point of no return. I cleaned it out when we arrived, but too late. The first one fell two years ago, the second last year, and the last one, any day now. Once that is done, I'm out of the white birch business, but my woods are full of black birch, and it'll be my main wood (along with tulip poplar) for years to come.

My experience is with white birch, black birch somewhat different I think

 

[TheAardvark]

This cutting trees in winter thing made sense to me when I thought about it. Today made me question that though. It has been below freezing at night and it was about 35 degrees today. I cut 3 more Norway Maples down today. Some of the branches had water literally dripping out when cut. The trunk wood was also very wet. After I bucked everything you could see the water starting to seep out the ends.