Dead standing butternut

[palal]

Hi ,all
I am recently retired an have started working my small 50 achr  wood lot, so I am loaded with questions !
The first is.... is dead standing butternut still good  to saw for lumber .
I live on saint john river valley and have surprizing amount with the crown dead .
And do I need to dry  the logs for a year or two before they are sawed ,I was told it keeps lumber from cracking ?
Thanks >
Alan

[Jeff]

Logs are always easier to saw green, lumber is always easier to dry than logs.

If the tree is still hokding on tobits limbs, id expect the trunk to be still sound unless it was rotten already as it died

[Don P]

It is sadly another species that may be on its way out;
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/butternut-canker/

Jeff is right, the sooner you saw a tree the better. A log or tree develops random checking that ruins much of the wood that would have dried crack free as sawn lumber.

I think I've seen some talk that the Buart, a cross between Butternut and Heartnut seems to be resistant. Apparently many trees identified, even in the wild as butternut are actually a Buart, they cross readily.

[petefrom bearswamp]

First, sir, where are you located?
Sawed a large dead one about 15 yrs ago, sawed just fine and got some nice wormy stuff from it.
Made T&G paneling for a customer. 

[chep]

This is in my kitchen. I found an old blowdown butternut on a lig job a few years ago. Looked like it might fall apart when I picked it up with the forwarder. Had been down for at least 10 years. Milled it out and dont regret it

[Klunker]

I just dropped 2 butternuts that had a couple of live limbs.
About 80% or more of it was dead. A small portion of the trunk was living.
Some of the wood was punky but the vast majority was good.
It always fun sawing boards and having ants running all over the place.

[wbrent]

Nice to hear from another New Brunswicker. Im from Hampton. Where are you? Butternut is one of my favourite woods to build furniture. Really nice to work with hand tools. Sadly I dont have any on my woodlot. I have bought from a guy above Fredericton a couple times. Be nice to have another source if you plan on selling. Stack and sticker it well. And make sure your 1" boards are over 1". by the time you flatten some boards for furniture you lose a 1/4" All the best.