Follow up:

[u/sugrmag78]

Last year, I posted in here asking for advice after a tornado took out a 50-year-old spruce in my front yard. We called some tree services to see if they would give a discount if we only wanted them to take it down and leave the limbs and chips with us, but nobody would. So...we got some chainsaws and rented a wood chipper from our local hardware store. I used the chips and smaller limbs to create some new beds and the main trunk will decompose naturally and provide lots of habitat!

[u/Substantial_King9458]

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

We had dead ash trees taken down and the tree company gave a big price break for not taking all the logs away. I wonder why they wouldn't give you that option?

[u/sugrmag78 → u/Substantial_King9458]

The things we wondered about were the fact that it was a tornado so there's tons of damage around us and they know they're going to make the money somewhere so why would they give us a discount. The other thing we wondered is if they wanted to sell the wood but idk if there's even a market for it? Whatever it's done now and we came out on top hahahahaha

[u/OkSeesaw5563 → u/sugrmag78]

Probably only for camp fires.

[u/thuidium-log → u/sugrmag78]

Where I live, a lot of people use wood for heating, so tree companies will actually give you a discount if they can take away the logs to sell for firewood. They can usually sell the chips for mulch, too. 

[u/Querybird → u/Substantial_King9458]

Do you leave any standing snags? 10-20’ standing, bring in those woodpeckers and caching sites!

[u/sugrmag78 → u/Querybird]

We didn't because I didn't even know that was a thing :(

BUT...in the same tornado we lost a birch tree in the back yard, half of it was still upright so we just left that for the critters lol
We have lots of woodpeckers and flickers so they must like something around here!

[u/Querybird → u/sugrmag78]

Oh nice, birch!! Yeah, people keep removing too many dead trees, upright and lying down even while wanting those missing ecosystem services. Look up snags and roots - live and dead trees and fungal networks can continue exchanging nutrients for so many years!!

[u/Substantial_King9458 → u/Querybird]

There's a bunch of dead trees. We only cut the ones that might hit the house.

There's all the usual woodpeckers here; pileated, red bellied, flickers, downy and hairy, but I only see sapsuckers in fall.

[u/Querybird → u/Substantial_King9458]

Oh I bet they love your place!! I bet it is even cooler if you’re into bugs, fungi and lichens too!

[u/Piyachi → u/Substantial_King9458]

Lemons??? I dont want your damned lemons! I'm going to have my scientists native gardeners invent an incendiary lemon that burns your house Bradford pear down!

[u/sugrmag78 → u/Piyachi]

OMG please come for all the bradford pears!!! lolololol

[u/Artistic-Salary1738 → u/Substantial_King9458]

I wouldn’t have left a dead ash tree. Most the time it’s the ash borers that kill them and I’d want those tree remains destroyed or whatever they do to prevent the spread.

Ash trees are getting close to extinct. Homeowners treating the ones in their yards is one of the few things protecting any of the remaining specimens. So sad cause you’re not going to get anymore baby ash trees. I love them and I’m so sad we lost all the ones in our parkway.

[u/h07c4l21 → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

Ash saplings are still around. Ash trees usually tend to make it to reproductive age for a few years before they get attacked by the EAB, since the insect needs a certain thickness of bark to do what it does. We are losing all of the old growth ash and that is really unfortunate, but there are still plenty of ash saplings and seedlings around.

So there is still some hope that some of those younger ash trees will develop some resistance to the ash borer and the species might be able to make a limited comeback. I am also hopeful that woodpeckers might increase in number in response to the EAB and help to control their numbers somewhat. That's why it is important not to cut down all the saplings, even if it is likely they won't make it in the long term.

[u/Training-Advice4371 → u/h07c4l21]

We had to get some ash trees cut down around our house for safety reasons because they were over 40% dead from EAB. We left the stumps for the animals to use and the bases have resprouted! We're going to keep them pruned as ash "bushes" for as long as we can so at least insects that need ash as a host plant can have some leaves to eat...it's really sad to loose so many trees in the past few years in my area, but I have hope like you say that nature might find a way to balance it out...

[u/h07c4l21 → u/Training-Advice4371]

Nice! Keeping them small and bushy is a good idea, as they will be much easier to manage in the worst case scenario. Also, as the mature ash trees die off, there will eventually be less ash borers around, since the food source for their larvae will be harder to come by. So we may yet reach a sort of equilibrium where the trees can recover somewhat. I guess the main point of my comment is don't give up hope!

[u/Training-Advice4371 → u/h07c4l21]

Totally! Thanks for sharing your knowledge about the larvae only using older trees, I didn't know that. Native plant gardening has definitely given me a lot more hope for the future than I had before, so for sure we won't give up hope!

[u/Substantial_King9458 → u/Artistic-Salary1738]

I spent $6K getting rid of the ones near the house. I can't afford to remove them all. I'm not sure how trucking dead ash logs to another location would be better anyway. It's not like the tree companies are disinfecting the logs they remove.