Standing tree ID

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

Anyone know what this one is? It's fallen over and starting to lose its bark. It could make some nice starter logs for next year (about 6" dbh). The woods behind us have about 50% red maple, 10% sugar maple, some ash, cottonwood based on some tree's I've ID'd in our lower Hudson Valley NY woods. It has thin flaking bark; not enough branches to check for opp/alt branching.

There's dozens of trees down behind us and I want to figure out what is worth cutting.

Thanks.

 

[Jason763]

Looks to be Elm

 

[baseroom]

Jason 763......That was my first thought as well. Looks like the dead Elm in back of my house. That is about as big as Elms can get before the Dutch Elm Disease gets them.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

Interesting. You guys might be right. I took a look at the leaves around and amongst the red maple and sugar maple there was quite a few ovular leaves with a jagged edge. It must be american elm. There must be many in the woods that are still standing. This elm leaf pic from online looks correct.



I was thinking those leaves were either Elm, beech or ash.

So worth it or too much of a pain to split? There's a lot of red maple that seems to split nicely and burns bright. It would be nice to clean up the woods behind us a little though.

 

[wooddope]

Could be elm but the fact it still has bark on and looks like the base rotted out strikes me as odd. Most dead elms here shed their bark and remain standing naked for quite awhile before falling over.Maybe the ground is wet there and caused that or maybe its a maple.

 

[English BoB]

Looks like elm to me

bob

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

The ground is very wet here and sometimes will be under a few inches of water after a lot of rain. There's also lots of vines that seem to damage the trees. Some of the red maples look the same at the top when they are covered in vines.

 

[aansorge]

My suggestion: Clear the bark off the bottom with your saw as well as cut a groove all the way around the trunk and let it sit for two more years. Elm dries well when standing and split much, much easier when allowed to dry.

 

[claydogg84]

It's American Elm, and I'd leave it right where it is.

 

[Jason763]

It's American Elm, and I'd leave it right where it is.

Does it split as rough standing dead ?

 

[claydogg84]

Does it split as rough standing dead ?

I've always found live American Elm to split better than standing dead. There have been some rare instances where both live and dead split fairly easy, but they were the exception. My first year of burning was nearly all Elm, now I won't touch it.

 

[Tar12]

Test cut it...if its solid burn it.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

X5 on dead elm. In my experience it's not bad splitting really once it's this far gone. I have one I've been waiting on for two years now. Rare 30"+, just starting to see the bark come off now. Prob take it next fall.

 

[Jason763]

I've always found live American Elm to split better than standing dead. There have been some rare instances where both live and dead split fairly easy, but they were the exception. My first year of burning was nearly all Elm, now I won't touch it.

Just curious, I fought with a half cord last fall, live and won't touch it again. I've split dead Siberia and it was great

 

[Tar12]

I guess it depends upon the size of your fire box.My splitter handles it with ease. Lots of times it doesn't need split at all. I don't turn it down.

 

[claydogg84]

I guess it depends upon the size of your fire box.My splitter handles it with ease. Lots of times it doesn't need split at all. I don't turn it down.

It has very little to do with your splitter, but rather your patience and sharpness of your hatchet. I grabbed this picture from a google search, but I can say I've had this happen to me personally dozens of times dealing with American Elm. There's a big difference between Red Elm and American Elm.

 

[Tar12]

I have been there before splitting by hand...never again.I don't hardly ever see it that big around here...and if I ever do it will stay there.The original post was dealing with 6 in dia. stuff.This is easy to deal with.I do find lots of smaller stuff of both varieties. My current splitter has a recessed push plate that will allow a complete split each and every time regardless of tree species but I wouldn't go out of my way to cut and split big elm. Once again I wouldn't turn down the smaller stuff.

 

[Dobish]

i burn a lot of elm... patience is a virtue.... so is a splitter

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

Curiosity got the best of me. I got a much closer look to the rest of the tree. I'm pretty positive this is Red Maple. The bark near the top was smooth and bluish grey with opposite branching stubs. The wood is a little bit reddish and it splits very nice and straight.

I bucked it up to 18". It seems nice and hard with a little bit of weight to it. They will make nice starter logs split into quarters.

Thanks for the comments guys. I think it is hard to tell without more info.

 

[TedyOH]

Yeah when it comes to maples, bark means nothing, it's all in the leaves.....I have big reds in my yard that people here would swear are hickory and sugars that have bark like red oak and beech.
This latest pic looks like the cords and cords of standing dead "toothpick" maples I have processed in the past. That could be sugar as well, the smaller ones will turn red like that.

 

[husky345 vermont resolute]

View attachment 192840

It has very little to do with your splitter, but rather your patience and sharpness of your hatchet. I grabbed this picture from a google search, but I can say I've had this happen to me personally dozens of times dealing with American Elm. There's a big difference between Red Elm and American Elm.

I've also had red that I couldn't split at all with the maul. It would just bounce off


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tar12]

Curiosity got the best of me. I got a much closer look to the rest of the tree. I'm pretty positive this is Red Maple. The bark near the top was smooth and bluish grey with opposite branching stubs. The wood is a little bit reddish and it splits very nice and straight.

I bucked it up to 18". It seems nice and hard with a little bit of weight to it. They will make nice starter logs split into quarters.

Thanks for the comments guys. I think it is hard to tell without more info.

Looks good!

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

I just got most of it split last night. Another plus: I'm measuring MC% at 15% on a lot of the pieces right after splitting!