Author Topic: Cankered beech (Read 1910 times)

woodlotter · « **on:** June 03, 2011, 09:58:48 pm »

Hi all from southern NB Canada here. Have a small woodlot (83 acres) with a small amount of beech most of which is cankered. I have always left the cankered beech for wildlife trees when cutting firewood. Was looking around tonight and thinking there arent really anything using them. No woodpeckers or anything. Am i better of to use these trees as firewood and leave a couple aspen because everything seems to use dead aspen(popple). Is it because they are a softer tree?

thecfarm · « **Reply #1 on:** June 04, 2011, 06:39:02 am »

Woodlotter,welcome to the forum. I suppose you mean the bumps all over the tree. I was walking my lot and found a few,and I mean a few,with smooth bark. I really did not know what it was until I looked up. I would and have cut them down for firewood. Just splits hard,by hand. If I was sell them for logs,I suppose pallet wood would do it. I really don't know the market for them in my area.I have some big ones and it's very common for the middle to be hollow in them for a ways into the tree.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #2 on:** June 04, 2011, 08:19:10 am »

The only beech I would leave for wildlife would be a smooth barked one. Taking all the best beech out is just high grading the stand. There are always a few smooth ones, but very few are smooth in these parts. The cankered stuff should be removed or knocked down if too small. If you were ever thinking of thinning the stand under a pre-commercial treatment those junk beech could hinder the project. I have seen them so bad that they will never be anything useful and their presence was so abundant that it was over taking space where a nice sugar maple and yellow birch could be growing. Too much usually means a site will not qualify for pre-commercial thinning. Thinning is more than spacing trees it's the selection of quality trees to leave. Firewood lots around here are usually a haven of junk beech and because it's a slow paced thinning of the canopy, the beech will thrive and take over if not taken down. And the sugar maple seedlings get choked out by beech shade and the yellow birch has a hard time to germinate in beech canopy. Those old narley diseased beech, we call apple trees.

Ron Scott · « **Reply #3 on:** June 04, 2011, 12:08:06 pm »

Leave 1-5 selected wildlife trees per acre. These should include selected beech for mast and den trees along with any oak, black cheery, white ash etc if you have any. Some selected aspen trees can also be left for diversity, but they are usually short lived as wildlife trees.

KBforester · « **Reply #4 on:** June 06, 2011, 07:47:47 pm »

I wouldn't leave badly diseased beech for wildlife unless they were of significant diameter (14" +). Small "wildlife" trees are pretty useless. If their clean and smooth, leave them.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #5 on:** June 07, 2011, 04:46:37 am »

The trouble with the firewood lots is the mature beech is scattered in the maple, and only small hole in the canopy get created. The suppressed understory beech growing don't grow all that straight and there about 6-8" with a top that flattened out and the limbs sprawl like an apple tree. They seem to respond well to the opening and produce a lot of seed because of the stress from the disease and they will produce a thicket of beech regen. They may have some nuts for the bears and grouse, but they won't be den trees. Those understory suppressed and diseased ones will die a very slow death and get no size and never seem to grow up straight. They will kill out the maple regen.

Other than the white birch here, the overstory is sugar maple, the beech has been removed slowly for firewood for years. The canopy was suppressing the development of the maple regen, while the new beech germinates thrived.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech has taken over as regeneration.

Okrafarmer · « **Reply #6 on:** February 04, 2012, 12:28:29 am »

The canker hasn't taken over here. We have a lot of smooth-skinned ones, that look like beech are supposed to. Nice big ones, too, often to 24 inches or more. One day I would like to work on developing the market for it, as it sees little practical use in these parts. Any foresters or others know how far south the canker has progressed-- is it in my area, is it likely to reach us? Are there any specific markets for beech lumber?

ahlkey · « **Reply #7 on:** February 04, 2012, 09:47:07 am »

On one property that I own jointly we have a large number of straight Beech trees. We cut the poorer ones mostly for firewood but I do use the higher quality logs for flooring and some furniture applications. It is as dense and strong as Hard Maple & Oak, easily turned and bends well. It can also be sold for pallet wood or railroad ties but that is not something I do. I am on the outer edge of their range in Wisconsin. I have a decent market for it with speciality products. The deer and turkeys also seem to like the nuts so for wildlife it is plus. My biggest concern today is Beech bark disease but nothing so far. Attached is picture of one straight tree but 20% of the stand are large Beech trees.

Okrafarmer · « **Reply #8 on:** February 04, 2012, 11:23:19 am »

Does the lumber have a problem with splitting?

tyb525 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 04, 2012, 01:04:09 pm »

I wouldn't let a good beech log go to firewood. They make some pretty good lumber, I've never had a problem with splitting. It's some pretty hard stuff.

Okrafarmer · « **Reply #10 on:** February 04, 2012, 03:43:01 pm »

Good to know. Two friends have quite a whack of it down here, and maybe one day I'll buy some from them, or get some from other sources. No cankering here, that I've noticed.

tyb525 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 04, 2012, 05:24:18 pm »

It might have a tendancy to warp, but not much worse than any other species. If it is stacked good it should be fine

WDH · « **Reply #12 on:** February 04, 2012, 10:46:30 pm »

In the South, most of the big beech are hollow. The hardwood timber cruisers always banged on them with their cruising stick to check and see if they were hollow.

Okrafarmer · « **Reply #13 on:** February 04, 2012, 10:57:26 pm »

Good to know.

ahlkey · « **Reply #14 on:** February 05, 2012, 08:06:52 am »

We have a lot in the 20" - 26" range at breast level. I would agree you do find some of the larger trees to be hollow in the center of the butt log. I also put the lumber on the bottom of the stack (weight helps). They are normally not very straight but we have managed them for many years and have a lot of solid straight stock. The logs that I have milled made some very nice lumber and splitting wasn't a problem.

Okrafarmer · « **Reply #15 on:** February 05, 2012, 01:55:48 pm »

That's encouraging, it's some nice looking stuff.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #16 on:** February 05, 2012, 06:26:40 pm »

I did a management plan on a 50 acre lot that was surrounded by potato fields. The site was top notch for growing anything. There were a number of really old beech that were close to 40" as well as rock maple. The beech were all smooth barked and straight. The trees probably reached close to 80 feet. Sadly, as with many plans, the cruise data was picked from the plan and used to sell his timber to the highest bidder. The land was then turned over in farm field for more taters. That was the only grove of hardwood with smooth beech I ever saw around here.

A lot of fellas got a wake up call when McCain cut everyone's contracts by 30 % after clearing all there best woods and building new sheds. I remember that old McCain, who was a little tight from the booze, stood in a crowd at his annual picnic for employees and stated that DNR can keep all there trees in Fredericton. That's what they think of the woods.

tyb525 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 05, 2012, 06:32:14 pm »

We don't have any beech canker here that I've seen, yet. They're all pretty smooth

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #18 on:** February 05, 2012, 06:34:26 pm »

I do see individual ones that are smooth and then the rest around it will all be diseased and crooked

thecfarm · « **Reply #19 on:** February 06, 2012, 07:37:02 am »

How right you are SD. I was walking my lot and came to a Beech tree that was not diseased,I did not know what it was at first. Good thing it had leaves on it,or I would of had a picture on it here and be asking what it was.

Only one I have on 150 acres,I think. But the ones that do have the Cankers grow tall and straight here.

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Author Topic: Cankered beech (Read 1910 times)