Oak don't Grow on Trees

[wkpoor]

All I here people talk about on here is Oak this Oak that. Well I live in the heart of midwest forest country and Oak is the hardest firewood to get. The trees live long and people don't just cut them for firewood very often. Mostly they go to lumber. I do get an occasion to get some but for most parts its pretty scarce. To hear some people talk thats all they burn.
Now Ash, Maple, Boxelder, OO, Cherry, they are plentiful. I own 5acres of woods and I've never cut an oak yet.

 

[oldspark]

So your little part of the world is the same as ours? :cheese:
I will tell you my Oak story, most of the wooded areas around here are Burr Oak and they are thick enough to kill off some of the trees due to lack of sunlight, I can cut all the Oak I will ever need as a friend of mine has some 100 to 200 acres of Oak timber. There is a bunch going to waste due to some logging and the tops being left lay on the ground. Hard to imagine you not being able to find some oak if that is the main wood in the forrest land around you. Been burning mainly Oak for about 30 years and I am not putting a dent in the supply around here.

 

[wkpoor]

We have oak trees but unless they die on there own nobody cuts them. And since they live so long its not an everyday occurrence to get them. I'm am going to cut a big oak tomorrow for a friend. Don't know what kind but its about 36".

 

[oldspark]

Your Oak timber is not thick enough to kill off the smaller trees, I would say up to about12 inches in diameter, I can find all sorts of dead oak on the ground in any Oak timber I go into.

 

[Grannyknot]

we only fall an oak tree if its dead.

 

[chinkapin_oak]

There use to be lots of oak in my area 200 years ago, but due to heavy logging there is now mostly sugar maple and poplar on the uplands, and ash + boxelder on the bottomground. Very little oak to be found anymore. For yard trees most people plant silver maple and tulip poplar because they grow fast.

I've been removing the boxelders and trying to replant with burr oak on my land, but its hard work and slow going.

 

[Thistle]

Parent's have 10 acres +/- mostly Oak/Hickory timber.Pretty much evenly divided 45% each with about 10% other species like Black Cherry,Mulberry,American & Slippery Elms,Hackberry,Hophornbeam/Ironwood,Silver Maple,Eastern Red Cedar, & a handful of Basswood & Black Walnut of varying ages.

From what they told me years ago - the property they bought almost 31 yrs ago was originally part of a Century Farm - in same family since the 1860s or so.The older couple they bought it from who since have passed on & children moved away - lived 1/4 mile south on same road & owned a total of 160 acres pasture/cropland with 40 acres of Oak/Hickory in 1 main plot & 3 smaller 10 acre parcels adjoining but fenced off separate.Originally the 4 - 10 acre plots were woodlots for each of the children for the original settlers to heat their farmhouses with.

Most was logged last in the early 20th century,easy to see from all the stump sprouts.I burn roughly 3-4 cords a year (cut 10+ cords of snags & deadfall since April 2011 in my spare time,finally almost caught up). I cant walk hardly more than 10 ft without hitting either a Red Oak or a White Oak lol.Smaller amounts of Bur,Black, & Northern Pin Oak mixed in throughout the entire property.Plus literally thousands of new Oak saplings in varying sizes to renew what's died and/or been logged off. Its very thick.

 

[Gary_602z]

Just talked to a mill here yesterday and he was telling me that Ash is getting a higher price then Red Oak. He figured that we had about another year before they would be to bad for lumber.

Gary

 

[woodchip]

I'd never kill an oak tree, they are our national tree.

However, we do have a lot of them, and they do die back at times, and the current sudden oak death disease which is in some areas means that trees are being cut down.

And they do take longer to season than any other tree, so if I had a lack of space I'd avoid oak.

As it is, I'm a wood kleptomaniac, and will collect anything that's down ;-)

 

[Wood Duck]

I am sure this doesn't help your situation, but not everyone has a hard time finding oak to burn. Around here (this applies to pretty much all of central PA) oak is the most common type of tree. The ridges here are 3/4 oak, with White, Black , Chestnut, Northern Red, and Scarlet Oaks. A lot of this forest used to be American Chestnut and Oak, but now the Chestnuts are all but gone, so it is mostly oak. There are other types of trees, of course, but oaks are common everywhere and in many areas of forest are by far the most abundant tree. In the valleys there can be more variety of tree types, but oaks are quite abundant in the valleys too. In town oak of one kind or another is common in most older neighborhoods and neighborhoods where the trees were saved by the builders. Oaks are planted as shade trees, but they are only maybe 20% of shade trees. I can't recall being anywhere in Pennsylvania in the forest where oak wasn't pretty common. My firewood stacks are mostly oak. The wood I have is mostly from storm damaged trees, but it isn't rare for people to cut oak trees for firewood, clearing the yard to allow sun, worried about the tree falling on their house, etc. I get the impression that timber operations are cutting mostly oak here (not that there is much choice since in most places there are tons of oaks.)

 

[Woody Stover]

I've heard mentioned here some type of Oak wilt or blight and we must have had it here. Right now I've got three big Red/Black Oak that have blown down in the last few year. All had the cores rotted out at the bottom. There are also quite a few dead standing. White Oaks here are healthy so I don't get many, but I did see a decent-sized blow down that I'll grab soon.

 

[Thistle]

Oak Wilt is pretty common statewide,affects mostly Red & Black Oaks.About 70% of the wood I cut is dead Red/Black Oak,with the remainder dead White/Bur Oak & Shagbark Hickory.

Gypsy Moths hit a lot of White Oaks here some 20 or so years ago,they seem to have recovered pretty much.

In my city,especially in older neighborhoods near & around me,Bur & White Oaks are predominate,with a smaller percentage of Red. Some very large at 3 to 4 ft diameter & estimated age 300+ yrs.

According to the Iowa DNR,Bur Oak Blight is now affecting older trees on properties,especially when they're found in large groups or clusters such as older homes with larger lots,golf courses & private commercial buildings like churches etc. Scattered single trees which are more common in heavy forest cover & woodland/pasture edges are not as susceptible to the disease apparantly.

 

[stejus]

I live next to a state forest in south central MA. The forest has most Oak (Red and White), Pine, Black Birch, White Birch and Cedar. Recent storm damage has downed several Oak's. Not sure why, but the other species are still standing. Not a bad thing for me as I scrounge them up.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Back about 20 years ago one could get some good money for a good oak. Today there just is not a market. One good example is a friend who has 80 acres of mostly oak. He would like to thin them but can't even get $100 per tree. 20 years ago he may have got $1,000 for some of those trees as another neighbor sold a few trees and averaged over $1,000 per tree! Yes, they were some very good oaks. The market right now is really down about as low as I've seen it. The prices today rival the prices of the 1950's.

 

[firefighterjake]

There are very few oaks on the family land where I cut . . . part of the reason I've been planting acorns in the area after I've cut there . . . and part of the reason why I leave any oak tree I find regardless of size since they are far and few between.

 

[Fifelaker]

I have burned mostly oak Since I moved here in 78' I did skip a few years. The wilt has killed 1000's of oaks up here. I can look out my windows and see 5 dead oaks 2 are around the 30"-36" dbh. If I could figure out how to post pics I would

 

[Constrictor]

All ive got is oak, 15 cords except for the hedge i guess another 5 cords of that.

 

[Wood Duck]

I live next to a state forest in south central MA. The forest has most Oak (Red and White), Pine, Black Birch, White Birch and Cedar. Recent storm damage has downed several Oak's. Not sure why, but the other species are still standing. Not a bad thing for me as I scrounge them up.

We had an early snow storm a few years back that damaged tons of trees. Oak, Pignut hickory, and ornamental pear (bradford pear) were the trees most heavilty damaged because those were the trees that still had their leaves in late october. maybe your oaks were damaged for the same reason.

 

[quercus_kelloggii]

Burn mostly oak here on in the Sierra Nevadas. California black oak. National forest you can cut standing dead and/or down oak. There are other oaks like live, canyon, valley, blue but at the 4000 foot or so range it is mostly. Black oak. There is a tan-oak, and the other species around here include Ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, incense-cedar, big leaf maple, ca dogwood, and along some roads black locust. Around here though oak is what most people burn. Sometimes folks who buy will get almond that comes up from west of Sacramento. Further up the mountains there are no oaks though and jeffery pine, lodgepole pine, some poplar, few really old juniper, white fir. There are others but they escape me at the moment

Oak, I burn 90% oak, some Doug-fir and some "cedar".

 

[pen]

Oak seems to like to be elevation dependent around here and where I cut wood is a hundred or 150 feet too low. You wouldn't think that'd make a difference but the local forester was spot on when I HAD to find white oak leaves to make up a batch of "gravid juice" to trap mosquitoes (that's a whole 'nother story).

I do have oak on a piece of my family property but it's so damn steep I'd need to chain the trees to the front of the tractor before cutting and follow it down the hill to cut it up and bring it home. I risk enough on a tractor, not pulling that stunt. I'll be happy burning the other hardwoods around (and occasionally softwoods for the fun of it)

pen

 

[weatherguy]

Oaks grow like weeds here, people are always having them cut down because they drop tons of acorns and get in the way, lucky for me, I keep my ears and eyes open and have scored tons of oak for next year and the year after, the downside is it takes at least 2 years of seasoning.

 

[JBinKC]

Like it or not oak is about all you get in the Ozarks. I think the lowest percentage of oak I have ever had in my woodpile in a given year was 50%. Lots of dead black oak on the woodlot I have access to but lately scoring more dead white oak in residential areas that are in closer proximity to the woodlot. For the 2011-2012 year I have about 70% oak with scarlet and white oak in equal quantities.

Sunday I will start working on my 2013-2015 wood supply.