Oak wilt/oak decline question

[jdonna]

So I have been in desperation mode to get the wood supply ahead again. Friend called up and said he had 3 red oaks dropped and cut up in the cities for a guy, saw mill took the straight sections.

Loaded up about 3 cords worth of wood and brought it home with a big grin on my face, but then I started to think after awhile.. why were they cut down in the first place? I asked the question why were they cut down. I was told one was hollow in the trunk and all three were dropping branches. All three were on a hill and within 10 feet of one another.

It did not sound like a sudden death of the trees like wilt, but I have a hard time telling the difference between burr and red oak around here.

Maybe I am paranoid, but I do have 10+ mature ancient red and burr oaks hate to bring a disease on to.

I did some internet searching and they say to cover with air tight plastic for the first season. To prevent the fungus from beetle spread.

Unrelated, I am thinking as this ash borer problem turns into an epidemic the firewood police are going to be in full force. I have stayed away from any ash until my county is infected.

Counties have quarantines out in parts of the state.

Experts or others please chime in and maybe this will be informational for others. =)

Happy heating.

 

[bogydave]

Hopefully you didn't bring any unwanted oak disease home to your trees.

Hope for a cold winter to kill off some of the bugs, viruses, fungus & bacteria .

We (Alaska) had a stretch of mild winters in the 90s & the spruce bark beetle wiped out thousands of acres.

 

[Woody Stover]

I don't know how bad the drought was there, but it seems like the heat and dry conditions here took out a few Red/Black Oaks that weren't super-healthy.
And yes, I see a lot of the Reds that go down have the cores rotted out.

 

[Gasifier]

Do you have any asian long horn beetle out your way jdonna? Watch out for them, they will eat about anything.

 

[jdonna]

alb has not been a problem around here.

 

[Thistle]

I don't know how bad the drought was there, but it seems like the heat and dry conditions here took out a few Red/Black Oaks that weren't super-healthy.
And yes, I see a lot of the Reds that go down have the cores rotted out.

Most of the Red/Black Oak I'm cutting looks like that.

 

[billb3]

The hollow red oaks here were hollowed out by carpenter ants.
We're losing red oaks to a barrage of influences. They are struggling for sure.

 

[jdonna]

This summers drought has been tough on the mature trees. I have a 5 foot diameter red oak that was lost half its top in a 90 mph wind storm 7 years ago, looked at it the other day, wood peckers were doing a number on the base of the tree, guessing it is only a matter of time.

The debate will begin to mill it or cut for firewood.

Sad to see such beauties going.