Butternut tree removal

[DonT]

Just wondering if other areas have the same restrictions as we do for the removal of Butternut trees.In Ontario, you MUST have permission(permit issued) to remove a Butternut tree dead or alive.I just recently did a removal for a client.They called I looked at the trees,identified them as butternuts for the client.A butternut health assesor must then be called.They asses the tree deem if it is retainable or not.If it is deemed retainable the tree can not be removed,a permit for safety reasons must be applied for to cut down a retainable tree.Of course there is a charge for the assesors time and travel.Even woodlot trees fall under this protection,so a landowner could face fines for cutting dead trees out of there woodlots.Butternut is on the endangered species list here as a result of butternut canker.Are the Provinces rules out of line with other areas.

[beenthere]

That kind of Gov't interference is out of line, wherever, in my book.

More Gov't funding and tax money (big Gov't) and less private rights.  Socialism? 

It just keeps happening more and more. The Gov't thinks others are too dumb to make the right decision. It comes with liberalism. IMO

Such a deal was quietly written into a zoning document about 20 years ago (Resource Planning Committee), with a short paragraph that no tree removal could happen without approval of the local county Gov't RPC officials.  It came real close to being included in this liberal forward-thinking document to control every detail of our private lands.
It is steadily happening, like now.  (is that a conspiracy?  ;D )

[SwampDonkey]

No restrictions here Don on private trees on a woodlot or building lot out in the country. Only restriction might be in urban areas for safe removal. There are quite a few butternuts around here. Most people wouldn't know one unless they were in the woods business and still some don't know, they think it's ash. They've cut butternut trees around here over the years. Don't know what others used them for, maybe pulp. I always had them sawed. There seem to be young butternuts coming back where the older ones have been cut. I see one fellow a few miles south of here planted a few along the edge of his lawn. There is one old butternut in town with 3 stems that has been there since before I went to elementary school.

[Ironwood]

Nothing here in my part of PA. that I know of. I did just down a dead one for a friend. Dont know what I'll do with the stuff, had a fair bit of rot on the main log, uppers much better.

Ironwood

[woodmills1]

they are all dying here

[JimTwoSticks]

Policies like the one described are trying to preserve the genetic diversity of native butternut. Butternut canker is one component of the problem but another problem to consider is the extensive hybridization between butternut and japanese walnut.
Ontario's policy (though I'm sure it's well intentioned ;D) sounds a little overboard to me too beenthere. Most state agencies that manage forest resources within the range of butternut already have some sort of guideline or policy (or should adopt one) with regard to harvesting the trees in timber sales based on level of disease. A tree riddled with canker is of little value commercially but if healthy enough to produce pollen or seed could produce offspring able to tolerate the pathogen.
Got to love the "Of course there is a charge for the assesors time and travel"...ah, government - pretty soon they'll be charging us for parking in the post office parking lot

[DonT]

There is a butternut recovery program in place in ontario.The concept is that as many butternut trees as possible are evaluated,located by gps,and charted.Landowners are encouraged to call the program if they have butternuts to have them assesed.The goal is to find trees that are resistant to butternut canker and develop a native strain that is resistant.Butternut is listed as a "species at risk" by the province.In theory it sounds like a great concept.Some problems however do  a rise in the real world,such as the the one i described above,a hazzard tree that needed to be removed was delayed because of beauracrcy.I have been on the list to become a butternut health assesor for two years,but it appears govt agencies are given priority.Even a  tree that is in the highest risk category to fail posing a threat to person and property must go through the assesment process.As well there is a fear by many woodlot owners that by having there trees assesed they would not be able to remove them without permission($$$)even though they where already infected with canker,so the recovery program is unable to look at a large number of trres that go un-reported.Not sure what the answers are,i am all in favour of a butternut recovery program but thinnk an injection of common sense is needed,in the management of this species at risk.

[forest keeper]

Don, sounds like the recovery program your describing is a pretty good thing. We need to protect the biodiversity of our local environments. Some folks like to politicize these types of things but it's just good stewardship. i used to come across Butternuts when I did tree cutting up near Boston, but since I've been tree cutting on Cape Cod for the past 9 years I dont remember ever seeing one. We are having a problem down here with the Pine Bark Beetles killing off the Pitch Pine and the winter moth are just weakening the Oaks and Maples like you wouldn't believe. Dead trees everywhere!

[SwampDonkey]

The feds here were asking for any location of butternuts woodlot owners knew of. They wrote a report on their decline that no one (<1%) of woodlot owners ever heard of, and that was the end of that. The vast majority of woodlot owners are not even on a computer, let alone internet. Most those scientific studies are published in science magazines that most no one outside that field ever sees, knows about, thus never read. They need to be vocal and publish these things in magazines the majority of folks would read, and omit all the scientific jargon, if they expect to get anywhere.

[jayves922]

I am barely new to this industry and though I do not have much experience to boast, I don't think that we have such interference by the government here in my area. As soon as I've read this post, I researched a bit and found none similar to your situation. I would have to agree that this kind of interference by the government is out line. It makes you feel that there's not much to do.