Tree of Heaven - What is it good for

[Jere39]

Here in SE PA we have a serious pest problem with the Spotted Lantern Fly causing township by township quarantine on transporting any wood, brush, building supplies, any equipment that was used on field or wood (like any lawn mowers?), vehicles that have been driven on field, lawn or woods, . . . from one to another. Of course the quarantine is totally unenforced, because to do so would pretty much stop all commerce.

But, but, but - the Tree of Heaven, also an invasive specie is an attractant of the Spotted Lantern Fly. So, I decided to cut one down near to, and leaning over my equipment shed. I threw a guide line up and caught a bulge in the trunk about 40' up and pulled a static line up, tied it off and hooked to a come-along well down into the woods in the opposite direction. The tree is the one in the center of this picture, about 16" DBH, and green and growing last fall when I observed all the SLF around it.



With the guide rope set, and my son prepared to crank some tension on it once I opened the face cut, I started cutting and dressing up the face for a clean, directional fall into the woods. It didn't happen. I often post video of my cutting, and am usually happy with my results. Not this one:



This tree kind of reverse barbered on me from the face cut. Fortunately, the guide rope, and maybe even me yelling for my son to pull, pull, pull steered it to about 100° off my intended path, where it hung up in an oak tree. Better than 180° where it would have dissected my equipment shed.

I was very confused, my face cut was less than a third of the way thru the tree. Up close, I see the tree was only solid on the side I was cutting, and on the back side, where I intended to make the back cut the wood was dead, dry, almost crystallized. There was no evidence on the bark, or on the growth of the tree last year to suggest this.



Only a couple feet up the trunk, the tree is solid (at least as solid as this junk wood ever grows) all the way across:



I share the kind of embarrassing video as a reminder to always have your escape route identified, and plan for the unplanned.

It was easy enough, but time consuming to pull the tree down with the come-along and it landed in a convenient spot to cut it up.



Now I have a Tree of Heaven log, worth almost nothing. I don't even know if just being cut down and dead makes it less attractive to the Spotted Lantern Fly or not.



All comments welcome, including ones pointing out what I did wrong.

 

[Oldmaple]

Song about War comes to mind "what is it good for, absolutely nothing". As far as what was done wrong? Inspect for decay? Sometimes it just isn't visible and surprises us. They're just weak wooded trees. Didn't really like the standing on the unsteady logs while cutting but that didn't cause the tree to go where it did.

 

[farmer steve]

Jere i'd burn it all up asap.branches included. just in case there are any egg masses on that tree. the SLF is causing some serious problems in the agricultural industry here. for those of you outside of PA. http://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Plant...omology/spotted_lanternfly/Pages/default.aspx

 

[farmer steve]

egg mass pics.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Here is all you'll ever need to know about this tree. I have found it to be decent firewood and have made a few turnings with it on my lathe. The rings are VERY wide but the wood actually has a nice appearance and seems to be stable once dried.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_altissima

 

[Jere39]

Thanks folks. I've found many more egg masses, and scraped them off fruit and ornamental trees than I have on the actual Tree of Heaven. Maybe the SLF knew before me that the tree was dying. Unfortunately, my local township has a burn ban for brush. I'll have to expand my fire pit a bit and declare a massive ceremonial event complete with Yuengling and hot dogs to get rid of this much.

 

[Marley5]

I recently had a large Red Oak go off course. Found that a large portion of the core eaten by termites.

 

[rarefish383]

Jere, I was actually pretty surprised a couple years ago when I cut down 5 or 6 of them. Smaller than yours. I'd been splitting wood in the backyard, so the splitter was right there. Normally I'd have taken the Massey and pulled the whole trees down to the burn pit. Instead, the logs were the perfect size for my 4 way so I split them and stacked them in the wood shed. It did burn pretty good. The wood when milled, is quite attractive, Joe.

 

[Jere39]

Based on my pictures on another thread, a guy contacted me and asked what I'd want for the wood. I quoted a great - fire sale - price, and he came and picked it up. I sawed it to 18" for him, and whacked the rounds in half for ease of lifting and loading into his truck.




Took two truck loads...

This tree is gone.


I dumped 2½ gallons of properly mixed RM43 Total Vegetation Control, 43.68% Glyphosate, on and around the stump. I'd like to think I'll never see one again.

 

[capetrees]

Pure crap wood. Brittle and unpredictable when cutting it as you found out. Only use for it has been when an art class uses it to bake clay for pottery. It makes a lot of ash and apparently it burns around the clay and the ash retains or insulates the heat around the pot, cooking it to hardness.

Look around the area where that came from. There will be more. They are notoriously invasive.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I burned a bunch of it last year and was rather disappointed. Overall, it was no better than soft maple and not much better than poplar or cottonwood. About the only thing reaslly decent was that it was easy to split green and the bark was paper thin.

 

[stumpy75]

I burned a bunch of it last year and was rather disappointed. Overall, it was no better than soft maple and not much better than poplar or cottonwood. About the only thing reaslly decent was that it was easy to split green and the bark was paper thin.

I'm burning a lot of it right now. The neighbor took down a bunch of them last spring, along with a lot of mulberry. The deal was I could have the wood if I took everything, so I did!

I have to agree that it's quick burning and light, and seems to have a fluffy ash, but it beats snowballs, and it was free. It's heating the house just fine on this 20 degree "spring" morning...

 

[capetrees]

free firewood of any kind is always a good wood

I just hate working with Ailanthus

 

[Multifaceted]

Ailanthus is a pest (I refuse to all it "Tree of Heaven") - we've been fighting in ever since we bought this property. I've taken down about 3 large ones, considered large for the species... I have one more to go, but it's all choked up in wild grape, not sure how I'm going to do it just yet. My wife has the anti-green thumb and made it a hobby to eradicate them, slash and spray...

All in all, the wood is easy to work with, it just smells like someone pissed in the same spot on the ground for a week. When you fell them, the branches in the tops just shatter like glass when it hits the ground. The wood, unless knotty splits very well whether green or dry. I had almost a cord of it that I designated for the fire pit, then started using it as kindling because it split so dang easy and catches fire well. In a pinch this winter, I grabbed all I had left of it when I was running low on my seasoned hardwood and started burning it. Not bad, doesn't make a ton of heat, similar to Black Walnut. If it dries out for a few months it doesn't smell. To me, the bark is what really makes it smell, but when it's dry it's a non-issue.

If I come across it again without a lot of work, I'll process it to burn. My only grip is that it gets punky pretty quick.

 

[Wood Doctor]

"My only gripe is that it gets punky pretty quick."
------------------------------
Glad to know that and glad that all that I cut and split last year is gone. No better than soft maple in my book.

 

[Multifaceted]

"My only gripe is that it gets punky pretty quick."
------------------------------
Glad to know that and glad that all that I cut and split last year is gone. No better than soft maple in my book.

In others news, the sky is in fact blue...

 

[Wood Doctor]

In others news, the sky is in fact blue...

Good bump. I should not squawk so much. There are times when burning both cottonwood and poplar are fine -- whenever I'm trying to get oak and locust hot, for example. Tree of heaven helps do that also. It's kind of like the vermouth you need to add to a martini.

 

[Multifaceted]

Good bump. I should not squawk so much. There are times when burning both cottonwood and poplar are fine -- whenever I'm trying to get oak and locust hot, for example. Tree of heaven helps do that also. It's kind of like the vermouth you need to add to a martini.

Not hurting my feelings at all, my opinion is that the species is a pest. Since the topic of this thread is "what is it good for?" I posted my experience with the wood and how I've used it, rather than haul it away. It's good for the fire pit and as an auxiliary fuel wood when in a pinch

 

[c5rulz]

Glad to see you are OK, that could have been real bad.

I'll take a guess at the problem but would like a top shot of the face cut for better analysis. (I look over carefully every tree I fell to see what was right, wrong or could have been better)

You said the intended path was opposite of the natural lean of the tree. So by definition the side you put the face in was under tension. This side of the tree is much more important for keeping the tree standing than the side under compression. The compression side looks real punky thus lacking any integrity. Once the face was removed, nothing was holding the tree up, the rope pulling actually probably exacerbated the failure.

 

[rancher2]

Those tree of heavens are a pain around here too. Wind likes to break them off and put them threw pasture fences and sometimes buildings. I have had a few close calls over the years cutting them down too as the love to break off just like this one did. The last 10 years or so I have just pushed them out with the Cat so no one has to get close with a chain saw. I just push them in the brush pile and burn.