For those in NE, KS, SD & ND, some questions

[tjg911]

I am directing this to folks that presently live or used to live in North Dakota, South Dakota and especially Nebraska and Kansas.

I have always pictured the Midwest as flat with some low rolling hills that are basically devoid of trees. Pictures of corn and wheat fields the size of Connecticut (!) have helped to convince me of that. I assumed that coal was the only heating option as wood was too scarce to burn. I suspect most heating is by gas.

From reading here I see that you do have trees (duh!) and do burn wood. Could you please tell me about your trees? What types of trees do you have and what varieties of trees do you burn? Do you have large tracts of forest or are the trees just scattered about in clumps? Perhaps only people with trees on their property have enough wood to burn? Excuse my ignorance, I've never been out there or spoke to anyone that was a wood burner from that area of the country.

All of New England is heavily forested, other than the cities of course, so where ever I go there are trees, lots of trees, good varieties of hard woods. Well, until you get into the northern 1/3 of Maine, then it's just various evergreens. IIRC, oaks and maples stop growing just above mid Maine.

Tom

 

[Mike Wilson]

I've never been there, flown over it a bunch, and it looks like mostly farming operations in KS and NE. I think the Badlands up in the Dakotas have trees, at least it looks like it from the air.

Here you go, Have a Look Around.

-- Mike

 

[bruce56bb]

[quote author="tjg911" date="1167424701"]I am directing this to folks that presently live or used to live in North Dakota, South Dakota and especially Nebraska and Kansas.

I have always pictured the Midwest as flat with some low rolling hills that are basically devoid of trees. Pictures of corn and wheat fields the size of Connecticut (!) have helped to convince me of that. I assumed that coal was the only heating option as wood was too scarce to burn. I suspect most heating is by gas.

From reading here I see that you do have trees (duh!) and do burn wood. Could you please tell me about your trees? What types of trees do you have and what varieties of trees do you burn? Do you have large tracts of forest or are the trees just scattered about in clumps? Perhaps only people with trees on their property have enough wood to burn? Excuse my ignorance, I've never been out there or spoke to anyone that was a wood burner from that area of the country.

All of New England is heavily forested, other than the cities of course, so where ever I go there are trees, lots of trees, good varieties of hard woods. Well, until you get into the northern 1/3 of Maine, then it's just various evergreens. IIRC, oaks and maples stop growing just above mid Maine.

tom, our area is not heavily forested but there is plenty of wood around to burn.lots of white oak,honey locust(thorny),ash,elm,walnut,elm, osage orange(called hedge here), cottonwood with others being not so prevalent such as hickory,kentucky coffeebean and red elm.
do a google image search of "flint hills" or a google map/satellite search of "66846" and that will give you and idea of what the area of kansas i live in is like.
thanks
bruce

 

[Jags]

Tom, I live on the top end of Illinois, not really the area you have questioned about, but it is considered mid west. You are correct that we have large tracts of fields, but we also have trees all over. They may be in fence rows, low land/wet areas or rolling along with a creek or river. Where I cut most of my firewood is a 40 acre patch (friends). They may only be in 10,20,50,100 acre patches, but they are all over. Most of the "forest" wood will be oaks, elm, hickory, maple, cherry, some pine and others. In the fence rows, it will most likely be the big old oaks or Osage orange (did you know that there is no word that rhymes with orange?) some maples and scrub trees.

 

[tjg911]

thanks bruce. i never did a google image search, what a great thing!

looks like kansas has a wide variety of topography. some of it looks like parts of new england, arizona and of course kansas! nice looking and not what i had pictured it would look like.

are tornados frequent dangers? we have had some in ct but they are rare. seems tx, ok, ks, ne, oh, ia, ky jeesh a lot of states suffer from them. that tornado alley area has to be a dangerous place to live! perhaps because of the wizzard of oz i think of ks as a state racked by tornados. frankly, i'd never live in ok, seems like a really tornado prone area. the thing is the mid west states are very large. i suspect many parts of those states never have tornados any more than here in ct. is that correct? how about in flint hills?

tom

 

[bruce56bb]

kansas averages 40 some tornados per year but, it is a big state and sparsley populated. i have lived in here most of my 40 years and have never seen one.

 

[Corey]

Over on the eastern side of the state, there are trees out the wazoo. Oak, elm, locust, and the most prized of all, hedge or osage orange. This all might have started out as prarie, but the climate is really good for growing trees as well. Generally, if a field hasn't been mowed or plowed it will become overgrown with trees simply due to seeds spreading by birds, wind, etc.

Think your image would fit the western half of the state where more of the huge agriculture is. The trees do tend to thin out a little out there partly due to less rain fall and party due to the fact that such huge tracts of land are planted in crops.

Now, Nebraska...that is just one big sand dune, right?

Corey

 

[Roospike]

Hahaha....... No , Nebraska isnt one big sand dune.

I've lived in Iowa for a little wile , Kansas for 10 years and Nebraska was born moved away and moved back ( 18 years total ) as well as living in 4 other South East states .

Nebraska , Iowa and Kansas are a lot alike except for the dunes of western Kansas are a little desert like . Not a lot of pine trees except where planted and a lot of hard wood. If you read this forum as well as others it always seems that the states with a lot of trees are the ones a lot of people cant find firewood and are always scrounging and also the fire wood is low BTU.
The midwest where you would think the lesser of trees are normally dont have any problem finding large supplies of firewood and hardwoods.
Living in the midwest I have never had a problem finding large supplies of trees and firewood but when i lived out East firewood always seemed to be an issue ( unless you like to burn pine and such woods )
I have a brother in Kentucky and he has to buy firewood because he cant find a place to cut his own , round'here in the midwest the landowners are almost begging for trees to be cut , you can also drive by field anytime and see large piles of wood all over the place that has been plowed down into piles as the farmers are updating there field and clearing drainage. I drove to a friends house in a different down 35 miles away and in the fields on the way i counted well over 25 large piles of trees in different field and all hardwood from what i could see.

Right now i have been cutting wood from railroad tracks that were taken out and the land owners want the trees out to level and make into field , as of now there is over 25 miles left of tree rows that need taken out , I've also had 4 other land owners ( under 30 acres each ) contact me to help clear/thin tree rows along there field and in the process i met a different land owner that said i can have all the tree i wanted off his property and he owns 660 acres.

"GOT WOOD"?

 

[Corey]

I guess my perception might be a little off after living through a sandstorm out in Alliance, NE last year!