Beach Blight is it still good firewood or is it too Punky?

[Jeff Lary]

Hi everyone I have not posted here in this forum for a long time maybe never. I have a question and thought that maybe this would be the place to post it. I have a 70 acre wood lot of mixed growth and I have beach blight in it. We solely burn wood for heat this fall like every fall while hunting I keep an eye out for a place to cut firewood this winter. I have seen a lot of my beach infected with this blight and I plan on cutting as much as I can of it each year for firewood. My question is once cut and I try to split it will I find out it is nothing but punk inside? I will post a few pictures of some I saw this am right close to each other beside a woods road of mine. I have some Beach that are 14-20" on the stump that are very large tall and healthy and I want them to stay that way as long as possible. I thought clearing out some of the infected growth close to them may help that happen. Thanks for you thoughts Jeff

 

[Jeff Lary]

Sorry for the dbl pictures if you can delete the last 4 that would be great thanks Jeff

 

[treeslayer2003]

hi Jeff. i'd say try some and see, i wouldn't think every one of those will necessarily be punky.
why do you want any to stay? they will never be grade and they will take over if you don't manage the lot.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Those are beech trees right, or is a beach tree something else?

I'd cut one down and see how it looks inside. I can say I learned something today, I thought blight was a disease potatos got, not trees.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Slayer;
I want them to stay for the Mast crop they produce ( beach nuts )a staple in The whitetail deer diet this time of year just as important as acorns. Plus it is hard work to find a better firewood in Maine. We don't have any Oak to speak of in my immediate area. I would love it if they took over but that is not going to happen. The disease is called" Beach bark disease " caused by some 1 1/2 mm long moisture sucking insects .I guess they make tiny wounds on the tree bark then some fungus takes over and when it matures it sends spores into the air and if it lands on another beach tree with this bake insect's on it starts all over again.
Valley;
Yes those are Beach trees they just happen to be infected . A healthy beach has very smooth gray bark .

 

[treeslayer2003]

ah, so not much hardwood to speak of then. in that case i would thin any infected tree and try and come up with a spacing that would discourage this problem if at all possible. local forester could be more help here.
far as fire wood.....just gotta try it.

 

[Jeff Lary]

yes I will have to try it, I just was wondering if anyone had dealt with this before that's all.
We have rock maple, red maple, black cherry,ash, yellow and white birch, gray birch.. ( not much good for anything) I try to cut rock maple beach and yellow birch and cherry we also have hornbeam / hop hornbeam/ iron wood but not in large enough quantities to use for fire wood. And of course all manner of soft wood which I would never use for firewood with all the hardwood available.

 

[mainewoods]

Looks just like my beech. None of it was punky at all when I cut them, and I have 5 cord of it sitting in my cellar. Great firewood, burns hot and holds a good fire. If you cut it now while it's still solid you will have some excellent wood. Eventually those trees will die and then they get punky pretty quick.

 

[mainewoods]

I have many that are still smooth, and many more like this classic example of another imported tree disease.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Looks just like my beech. None of it was punky at all when I cut them, and I have 5 cord of it sitting in my cellar. Great firewood, burns hot and holds a good fire. If you cut it now while it's still solid you will have some excellent wood. Eventually those trees will die and then they get punky pretty quick.

There that's the response I was looking for ! so you have split some that looks like this hua? I probably got 50+ cords of it out there standing and I am going to after it as soon as the ground freezes. Even good healthy beach will go punks fast if not split open to dry after splitting though I lasts for a very long time. I just bought a new Blaze King wood stove very happy with it next year it will feast on beach I hope.

 

[mainewoods]

Those scabs usually don't go into the wood very far, they just look ugly as sin. I just split about five cord this spring and every tree was infected. I don't give it time to see how long it will last c/s/s, but I have some that has been top (only) covered for 2 years, and it's still solid. I like beech better than red oak. Dries a lot faster and burns just as hot. I'd take it over maple any day.

 

[Jeff Lary]

yes I agree I also love yellow birch but I don't have as much of it . The way it looks I have plenty of Beach that need to go so I will get some of them first. I only burn about 5 1/2 -6 cord a year so I will be doing this a long time. The new stove is supposed to be super efficient and bur up to 1/3 less so if that is true it will take me the rest of my life to get through it all !

 

[madhatte]

Gonna move this to Firewood -- those guys are the real experts on that stuff.

 

[flotek]

Some of the best temperature readings I ever experienced in my furnace were from beech wood , it's just as good as oak or hard maple any day . Coals great it's dense and lasts a long time ..Wonderful firewood one of my all time favorites

 

[Jeff Lary]

I cannot compare to oak really as I have only burned a little but Beach is very serious firewood.

 

[Eric English]

Yep still good fire wood I have a lot beach that gets blighted and rots the center of the tree out to the bark on 1 side making C shaped logs the rest of the wood is still healthy and makes great firewood.

 

[mainewoods]

Depending on which BTU chart you choose, beech is one of the highest rated. Many charts have it higher than oak. I've been burning diseased beech for a number of years now, unfortunately, and I will take it any day of the week over red oak. It seasons much quicker, is slightly lighter and burns even hotter. I don't even bother with oak, unless it's in the way. Splitting it is another story, it's a "son of a beech". Thank God for hydraulics.

 

[fj40]

I love beech, It's my favorite wood. Unfortunately, once down it has the tendency to rot rather quickly. I've never burned Osage Orange or Yellow Birch, so I can not compare beech to them, but I've burned my share of oak, hickory, ash, maple, fruit etc.. and I still believe beech is superior. One thing though, when I begin burning beech it will impact my sinus's, after a few fires it goes away.

 

[treeslayer2003]

curious, when you maine boys say oak you mean red oak right? i take it you don't have white oak? i have always considered white oak the best firewood followed by hickory around here. i would agree that beech is about better than most red oak unless its rock oak.

 

[Jeff Lary]

We have both red and white oak up here,.. it is just common for people to rave about the benefits of beach. I have burned all the wood available in the area ( used to bring home oak from work we cut a lot of it roadside) I would rather burn Beach or Yellow Birch than anything else we have on my property.