Standing dead trees

[Al_Smith]

I think the whole problem standing dead or live is timely splitting and stacking .All will degrade if left in the rounds .Red oak for example is really good firewood but will soak up water like a sponge .Soft maple will turn into mushrooms as will hickory .White oak , ash and black locust will stand longer but not forever .
I once cut into a white oak "cull log" left from a cut made in 1937 in the mid 80's.Just for my own curiosity.After getting through about 4 inches of outer rot much to my surprise within was good solid wood .So in all there was probably at least 3/4 of that log that could have been used had a person wanted to cut off the rot which I didn't .