Scouting woods for dead and downed trees

[cutterboy]

The ground is too soft to get the tractor into the woods and I'm waiting for a part for my wood splitter so I decided to take the afternoon off and take a walk in the woods. Actually there was a reason for this walk. This fall and winter we have had a lot of rain and a lot of wind so I went looking for dead and downed trees that could be used for firewood.
These two aspens (popple) were uprooted. The larger one will be cut in to logs and milled. The really nice boards will be saved to sell and the not so nice boards will be sawed into strips and cut into kindling.


 

 
This next one is a difficult one. The top of this big ash has broken off and is hanging.


 

 
Here is a huge branch of a white oak. Really half the upper part of the tree. It's too bad because the tree is really nice, maybe 26 or 28" dbh.


 

 
 

 

A maple and a black birch


 

 
This ash or maybe basswood, I'm not sure, rotted at it's base pretty bad, fell and got hung up.

 

 

 
This maple below is beside a tractor path and has been rotting at its stump for a long time. Every time I drove past it I'd tell myself I should cut it down. Well, now I don't have to.


 
At this point the battery in my camera died. There were more trees down. So you can see there is plenty of firewood waiting for me if I can ever get back in the woods with my tractor.

Keep on cutting.....Cutter

[Magicman]

Never any snow but you reminded me of my property.  I will never have to fall a tree to get enough firewood.  It supplies itself.

[beenthere]

And enough firewood for MM is just one fallen tree.   

[upnut]

Sounds like you have a plan! Sounds familiar, scout with a small machine...


 

Open trails with the next machine...



 

Break out the tractor for lodged and big stuff...



 

Soft ground complicates things, but I'm sure you'll get there....

Scott B.

[Rhodemont]

I really enjoy the logging and sawing but it seems like firewood is the biggest outcome of my efforts.  I have a couple years of wood split and stacked for my own use, what to do with the never ending supply generated as I move forward with sawing and selling logs. 

[YellowHammer]

I identify dead trees for sawmilling by using Google Earth Satellite view.  They always seem to scan in 6 month maybe a year intervals and if the canopy is green then it was very easy to identify dead trees.  I just put in a Google pin and ride out in the woods right to the dead tree.  

[upnut]

I have probably a half dozen dead red elm I call standing inventory. They let me know when they're ready by tipping over, well into other trees. They can be miserable to wrestle down, but make good firewood....



 

Stinky John has been earning his keep lately.

Scott B.

[thecfarm]

My go to dead wood is EWP. Standing it will last for years. Even on the ground it will last. 
Now white maple will rot quick, 4-5 years and it's hard to pull out of the woods in one piece. Meaning I start out with something 50 feet long and by the time I get to the wood yard I am down to 30 feet. Then have to go back and get the part that broke off.
Red oak will last for years too. But don't get much that die. 
That EWP will die when it's more than 2 feet across.
But this is all OWB wood. That's the reason I got the OWB. I need something that would take a steady diet of dead wood without me getting up in the night to feed the fire.

[Al_Smith]

I seldom cut a live tree unless it's a hazard or a nuisance .With aprox 7.5 acres of woods I doubt I'll ever run out of firewood  just from fallen or standing dead .