White Ash evaulation

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PMaine

Member
Oct 24, 2017
33
Maine
Afternoon All

I am trying to get a better handle on my property and part of that is finding trees that are ready for the firewood pile.

I have White Ash trees, some of which are losing their bark. No inspect sign. According to the state of Maine there is no emerald ash borer in my area.

What do you all think? Is this tree as good as dead? It did have leaves on it this past summer.

20220307_162154.jpg 20220307_162200.jpg
 
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PMaine said:
It did have leaves on it this past summer.
Click to expand...
Where, on the bottom? If so then the EAB already got it...sure looks dead to me....
 
Sure looks dead to me. If not will be soon. I have watched trees in the same condition deteriorate quickly. I waste no time in cutting them up and processing for firewood. Mine seem to get punky after a short time if I leave them stand.
 
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That's my main concern. If it's dead then I need to take it before it goes to waste.

I tell you the photos look horrible. Makes me wonder why I even asked!
 
PMaine said:
Can you expand your statement a bit? The canopy had leaves.
Click to expand...
EAB trees die from the top down...then toward the end they push tons of new growth toward the bottom.
I wouldn't worry about waiting a year or two to cut it down...I've seen dead/dying EAB trees go 5 years or more before falling over...they start dropping upper branches well before that time though...
 
It's just two photos. Working only from those, I'd say it will die somewhere in the next 1-6 years. I'm thinking cut it on your schedule, whether that's this year or three years from now.
 
to me if it had alot if leaves on it in the previous summer id prob leave her be but if the leaves were patchy / blotchy id say its prob best to drop it and tru and burn out the stump
 
You need to see the forest for the trees. EAB is coming from two directions in Maine, from the south and from Aroostock county. So you need to look at what your woods are going to look like in a future without white ash. The ash trees are still sucking up nutrients which is pretty well wasted so drop the ashes now and the sunlight and nutrients can get directed to other types of trees. Once you have the ashes out of the way, look around for trees with obvious defects and drop them. If its a unmanaged wood lot, usually the target is that over a couple of years its best to take out 1/2 to 2/3rd of the standing trees. If you do it right, the other healthy trees without defects will spread out their crowns to fill in the gaps. The biggest thing to worry about is if you have invasives in your area as they sometime will try to sneak in and try to get established in the gaps but normally once the overstory fills in they will be knocked back
 
Random thoughts . . .

You may not have EAB yet . . . sometimes trees, even ash trees, die from other causes.

It may not be dead yet, but it certainly looks like it is heading that way. In any case, it is not a healthy looking tree . . . I would cut it myself.
 
I appreciate everyone's thoughts.

Here is a neighboring ash I dropped yesterday it too had the bark issue.

20220308_102032.jpg
 
It's interesting; the bark seems to peel off only halfway thru its thickness, whereas the EAB affected ones I've seen loose all.
 
I'm not convinced this is white ash. Will someone educate me? Personally, I have trouble distinguishing between ash and elm bark, especially during winter with no leaves. My first thought seeing the peeling bark here, is that doesn't look like the ash trees I've seen killed by EAB, this looks more like the elm trees I've seen with dutch elm disease. The distinguishing characteristics I look for are the leaves and with ash with EAB I look for the insect tracts on the trunk, in winter I look for a branching trunk in elm trees . PMaine, how did you positively ID this as Ash?
 
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Tje point is that Ash can die from other causes, in particular when the eab is not there yet, as noted before.

See also the link provided by mcdougy
 
whatyousmokin said:
I'm not convinced this is white ash. Will someone educate me? Personally, I have trouble distinguishing between ash and elm bark, especially during winter with no leaves. My first thought seeing the peeling bark here, is that doesn't look like the ash trees I've seen killed by EAB, this looks more like the elm trees I've seen with dutch elm disease. The distinguishing characteristics I look for are the leaves and with ash with EAB I look for the insect tracts on the trunk, in winter I look for a branching trunk in elm trees . PMaine, how did you positively ID this as Ash?
Click to expand...
Do you agree that this wood that his neighbor cut is the same species?
See the center pith hole? That's ash...
1646829793170.png
 
stoveliker said:
Tje point is that Ash can die from other causes, in particular when the eab is not there yet, as noted before.

See also the link provided by mcdougy
Click to expand...
Yeah, I get that and realize this could be ash killed by something other than EAB. And yeah, no doubt it's dead or dying. I'm questioning the ID of ash and hoping someone could educate me what characteristics they see here in those photos that would distinguish ash from elm. The OP states it is white ash and I'm wondering how he determined that-was it the leaves or tree shape?
 
the wood doesn't look like elm but the bark on the cut wood looks like the elm in my back yard and the wood peckers did that to the bark. watched 4 of them go at the bark
 
So I had shown the photos to some nerdy tree people (you know, the kind that use scientific nomenclature, lol) and answers came back 100% Fraxinus Americana (with blonding from EAB). Someday I will get as good in ID'ing as you guys here .
 
Last edited:
PMaine said:
Not EAB, no sign of that. That is the easy answer, not necessarily the correct one.
Click to expand...
LOL, guess even the nerdy experts can be fooled and make incorrect assumptions. Reminds me of the saying, when you hear hoofbeats, don't always think horse, sometimes it's a zebra.
 
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