Depressing score.

[bfitz3]

I had a load of beech (with a little birch) dropped off by a tree service. Got a cord for myself and gave a cord to a friend. Sadly, when talking to the driver... The Beech blight is in overdrive now. He thought it would be over in three years. Over as in all the big beech will be dead.

I can't tell you how many neighbors have piles of beech in there yards and how many trucks I've seen go by loaded to the hilt with beech. Truly sad.

 

[bfitz3]

On a related note... My friend brought his daughter to help load his truck. I bet her a nickel they couldn't get it all.

They used longer branches laying around to build a wall above the rails and stacked with intent. "I've never seen it bottom out before." Says my friend as the daughter smirked.

I lost my nickel. Best nickel I've ever spent if for no other reason than I learned not to bet against his family and got to witness the result of some damn fine parenting!

 

[DiscoInferno]

I had a load of beech (with a little birch) dropped off by a tree service. Got a cord for myself and gave a cord to a friend. Sadly, when talking to the driver... The Beech blight is in overdrive now. He thought it would be over in three years. Over as in all the big beech will be dead.

I can't tell you how many neighbors have piles of beech in there yards and how many trucks I've seen go by loaded to the hilt with beech. Truly sad.

Most of our beech in Munising that isn't already dead is covered in scale. It's slow but relentless. I'm trying to turn as much as possible into lumber and firewood before it's all mush. It appears to have a pretty modest economic value, my neighbor had to pay to have his logged even though they took the wood.

 

[Alpine1]

Interesting... European beech is considered among the best firewoods together with oak, and costs around 200€ per cord. Professional loggers here pay up to 40€ per cord of standing trees, incredible difference with your situation

 

[Sodbuster]

I had a load of beech (with a little birch) dropped off by a tree service. Got a cord for myself and gave a cord to a friend. Sadly, when talking to the driver... The Beech blight is in overdrive now. He thought it would be over in three years. Over as in all the big beech will be dead.

I can't tell you how many neighbors have piles of beech in there yards and how many trucks I've seen go by loaded to the hilt with beech. Truly sad.

Good grief, between the EAB, Oak Wilt, and now Beech blight, Michigan has had a rough go of it. I have 3 huge Oaks that have the wilt. Trying to time the felling to coincide with their prolonged seasoning time and my ability to store wood.

 

[Jeffm1]

On a related note... My friend brought his daughter to help load his truck. I bet her a nickel they couldn't get it all.

They used longer branches laying around to build a wall above the rails and stacked with intent. "I've never seen it bottom out before." Says my friend as the daughter smirked.

I lost my nickel. Best nickel I've ever spent if for no other reason than I learned not to bet against his family and got to witness the result of some damn fine parenting!

It's nice to hear about GOOD parenting these days!

 

[peakbagger]

We have had beech blight for a least 30 years in Northern New England. There is some natural resistance to it so some stands make it to maturity and many don't. The worst blight is in regenerating stands. I have several acres that got nailed by an ice storm in 1998 where most of the mature sugar maples lost their crowns. There were large beeches interspersed in the maples. Been will regenerate from the old roots of the big trees and usually crowds out the sugar maple in the regeneration keeping out the maples. My forest management plan has the standard recommendation to pick the best non-beech tree and then cut everything else within a 50 feet radius.

I expect I will have as much beech firewood as I will ever need just managing the blighted beech. Up in my area its too far north for any another mast trees so beech is an important crop for bears and other critters. I have multiple large beeches that are obviously used by bears as they are covered with claw marks. There is really no blight to speak of on theses trees but they are in mature stands without much understory. I suspect that since its a fungus there is some value in thinning the understory aggressively to allow air movement to dry things out.

 

[firefighterjake]

Friend of mine allows me to cut most of the beech off his sugar bush farm since many of the beech are blighted and compete with the maple anyways.

 

[peakbagger]

I had the management plan for my wood lot updated and was talking to the forester. The research on beech blight is ongoing but the current approach is that some trees are genetically partially resistant, the recommendation in clear out the blighted trees and leave the clear ones to encourage future resistance.

With respect to my ice storm damaged woods where the beech took over, the recommendation is small patch cuts in the 1/2 to 1 acre size where all the beech is cut out hopefully leaving some other trees like yellow ash and maple saplings. Then manage the beech aggressively (yearly) until the other tree types become dominant. I expect I will experiment with my really bad stand but unfortunately its too far back in to make it worth hauling out so there is going to be a lot of firewood left in the woods.