A decade ago my grandmother, who lived near Traverse City, MI, went to
visit her sister in another state for Christmas. When she left... the
80 year old black walnut tree in front of her house was still living.
When she returned it was gone. The state police informed her that over
20 prime black walnuts had been stolen during the winter from her area.
The police assured her that the tree was probably on its way overseas
where it would fetched 5K +. The thieves did a great job cutting the
tree down leaving only an inch stump. Nice and flat too.
Fly-by-Night CC wrote:
> ...
>
> The 24" tree is more reasonable and usable, but not quite "there" yet as
> far as valuable Walnut is concerned. This one needs another foot of
> diameter to really become something. ...
In the meantime, black walnuts are really tasty. Getting them
out of the shell is quite a chore but with a reward that
justifies the effort.
-
FF
I never cut a tree unless I have to. There are a couple of reasons
why: 1) there is a lot of nice wood out there and there is plenty
ready to buy (for a price) that you can look at and choose the best of
the best. When you mill you own, you get what get; occulsions, knots,
pock marks, unexpected sap lines, hidden problems from old damage, etc.
and 2) I like trees. I live in a neighborhood, and the more trees the
better. I love a grand old hardwood tree, and the only way they get to
be grand and old is to be left alone.
If you HAVE to cut these trees down, try getting a good chainsaw and
cutting the small stuff into bowl blanks for all of us wood turners.
Sap wood, defects and all manner of problems are considered "the good
stuff" by us turners. Sealed on the ends, we buy it green!
Also, with the saw you may be able to the trees into manageable sizes
you could take to a sawyer.
Robert
[email protected] wrote:
> Thanks, for all of the answers. I have to remove these trees, I hate
> to, but have to, because of their locations. When they were planted, by
> the homes original owner, there was no consideration given to their
> future growth.
How are the trees situated on your property? In other words, are they
anywhere near a house/powerline/neighbor's property line, etc? I guess
what I'm getting at is that I, too, live in SW Michigan, and if
dropping these trees could be done safely by a TOTALLY INEXPERIENCED
person, one with NO insurance, bonding, license, etc., then I might be
able to help out for the wood.
However, if there is ANY chance that these trees could fall on
anything, then I would have to politely bow out.
Markem (sixoneeight) wrote:
> On 16 Oct 2005 17:33:58 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>
> >
> >Fly-by-Night CC wrote:
> >> ...
> >>
> >> The 24" tree is more reasonable and usable, but not quite "there" yet as
> >> far as valuable Walnut is concerned. This one needs another foot of
> >> diameter to really become something. ...
> >
> >In the meantime, black walnuts are really tasty. Getting them
> >out of the shell is quite a chore but with a reward that
> >justifies the effort.
> >
>
> Just run them over with the car while green, wear rubber gloves though
> when removing the husks.
>
That works because the shells are too hard a strong to be crushed
by the tires.
--
FF
On 16 Oct 2005 16:37:37 -0700, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
> I've heard all of the rumors, but need to know, from a reliable source.
> I have 4 trees, that I want to remove, all in excellent shape. 3 are
> 8-10 in diameter,
Let those grow for another decade or two.
> 1 is 20-24. I don't want to do it myself.
If it's straight, and problem free (not a yard tree, no metal) that
could have enough market value to pay an arborist to take it down. If
it's exceptional, you could turn a nice profit.
Maybe you could post on the craigslist.com site for your area?
"Fly-by-Night CC" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] wrote:
>
>> I've heard all of the rumors, but need to know, from a reliable source.
>> I have 4 trees, that I want to remove, all in excellent shape. 3 are
>> 8-10 in diameter, 1 is 20-24. I don't want to do it myself. Thanks, for
>> any and all help. Live in SW Michigan.
> The 24" tree is more reasonable and usable, but not quite "there" yet as
> far as valuable Walnut is concerned. This one needs another foot of
> diameter to really become something. Here in Oregon there are several 4'
> diameter yard trees I'd love to have - and am keeping a keen eye on any
> activity around them that looks to be on the order of removing them.
If the log is peeled or sliced, rather than sawn into lumber, it's worth a
lot. Whether it was always a "yard" tree with all the knife-damaging things
yard trees tend to accumulate may eliminate the first seven feet from
contention.
If you're in MI, contact your extension agent and have the forester look at
your trees.
[email protected] wrote:
> I've heard all of the rumors, but need to know, from a reliable source.
> I have 4 trees, that I want to remove, all in excellent shape. 3 are
> 8-10 in diameter, 1 is 20-24. I don't want to do it myself. Thanks, for
> any and all help. Live in SW Michigan.
>
You would have to contact a copmany in your area (arborist, tree
service) to know for sure but I would say you would have a hard time
finding anyone that will _pay you_ to cut these trees or even to come in
and cut them for the wood. You may get lucky and find someone who would
offset some of the tab for the logs but that can be very tough to find also
If the 20-24 is actually in "great shape" it may be worth a little bit
but my guess would be it wouldnt even cover what a tree service would
charge you to cut them and haul them to the log yard. Walnut has a good
bit of sapwood so the smaller three trees wouldnt be worth anything.
Just for instance, if the larger tree produced a 30' dead straight log,
clean, with no limbs this may scale out to 300bd'+/- depending on what
scale the log yard uses and their particular scaling practices. Getting
a dollar a foot for walnut logs (around here, midatlantic region) would
be doing well. This of course can be much higher or drastically lower
depending on quality, grading, and the particular log yard its brought to.
Perhaps if you had a way to haul these three logs to a log yard you
could recoup some of your cost of felling them but that may be more than
you want to tackle. Other options may be to look into contacting some
local owners of portable band mills and offer them the trees for free in
exchange for getting them off the property. This would probably be a
great option if they are in an open area and easy to cut. If they are
near dwellings, powerlines, and so on, it may not be a possiblity and I
would surely ask for proof of insurance from whoever cuts them.
Good Luck,
Mark
On 16 Oct 2005 17:33:58 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>
>Fly-by-Night CC wrote:
>> ...
>>
>> The 24" tree is more reasonable and usable, but not quite "there" yet as
>> far as valuable Walnut is concerned. This one needs another foot of
>> diameter to really become something. ...
>
>In the meantime, black walnuts are really tasty. Getting them
>out of the shell is quite a chore but with a reward that
>justifies the effort.
>
Just run them over with the car while green, wear rubber gloves though
when removing the husks.
Mark
On 17 Oct 2005 19:23:22 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>Thanks, for all of the answers. I have to remove these trees, I hate
>to, but have to, because of their locations. When they were planted, by
>the homes original owner, there was no consideration given to their
>future growth.
Actually you might find an Arborist who has a large tree spade and
move them to a better location on your lot.
Mark
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] wrote:
> I've heard all of the rumors, but need to know, from a reliable source.
> I have 4 trees, that I want to remove, all in excellent shape. 3 are
> 8-10 in diameter, 1 is 20-24. I don't want to do it myself. Thanks, for
> any and all help. Live in SW Michigan.
Practically speaking, the ¾10" trees aren't worth the effort and loss in
cutting them. The sap wood accounts for about 2" or more of the diameter
and then you're left with the unusable pith area of an inch or so - that
only leaves 3.5" on each side of the pith.
The 24" tree is more reasonable and usable, but not quite "there" yet as
far as valuable Walnut is concerned. This one needs another foot of
diameter to really become something. Here in Oregon there are several 4'
diameter yard trees I'd love to have - and am keeping a keen eye on any
activity around them that looks to be on the order of removing them.
I hope you don't take my comments as a go-ahead to cut them down due to
worthlessness. Consider them as you would any asset with an appreciating
future value greater than today's. I would certainly like these trees
growing in my own property.
--
Owen Lowe
The Fly-by-Night Copper Company
__________
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
Corporate States of America and to the
Republicans for which it stands, one nation,
under debt, easily divisible, with liberty
and justice for oil."
- Wiley Miller, Non Sequitur, 1/24/05
On 16 Oct 2005 16:37:37 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>I have 4 trees, that I want to remove, all in excellent shape. 3 are
>8-10 in diameter, 1 is 20-24.
Still too small. A turner woud like them rather than using them as
firewood, but they're just not big enough to be worth anything
commercially as yet.
Trees are worthless, timber is valuable. Even at the price of walnut
timber, those just won't yield usefully sized boards.