Site Discussions

I found the first one this week. I have never seen this beetle before. I have a cherry orchard all around my house but also 60 year old fir trees. I am wondering what to do to kill the beetle but not harm my orchard. Also, if the trees are close to your house do you need to treat it, especially the crawl-space? Please advise! Thanks.

This illustrator is just awesome!! Absolutely beautiful drawings, an amazing talent!! Look forward to more by this young artist!!

I’ve been a woodworker for more than 40 years and have always worked with air-dried lumber (mine has been air-dried in an unheated garage for at least a year). My opinion is that it’s a waste to dry lumber to a moisture content lower than the level where it will stabilize in use. Drier lumber will absorb moisture from the air and will reach a higher moisture content than it had when it came out of the kiln.

You can demonstrate that for yourself—take a piece just out of a kiln weigh it and then let it set around for a couple of months (especially in the humid summer) and weigh it again. Use the same scale and test it both times by using something that can’t change weight—a large hunk of steel or a rock that won’t absorb moisture.

Thanks, Ed!

Hi Naomi, yes indeed, well written, very informative text on an eerie subject, natural resource extraction on behalf of a consumer addict western human society which will find reasons to justify just about anything.

Although these needs to consume are not based on any real thing, they have real bearing on the ecology of this more and more stripped bare planet of ours, yet we still have no other planet to go to when we are done with this one. There is a tomorrow at any rate, but instead of sleeping in a comfortable cozy bed, we might have to do with sleeping on some hard and rough floor. Wake up everyone, just do things as if you wanted a good tomorrow…

Hi Melisa,

Yes, and yes.

Sorry to hear this, Don. Value will depend on a number of factors, including what species and how big they were. A forester could look at the stumps and give you an idea of what you lost.

I am scouting my trees now just moved on 30 wooded acres…city girl going country….I have so many different maples. Can I just tap random maples, mix all the sap together and boil down? Some maples are also in swamp area, are those ok to tap as well?

Great article, Ben! I stumbled upon this after an evening spent researching the stone chambers so prolific here in Putnam County, NY. I love what a small world it is that my curiosity led me to such a well-written post by an old college friend.

I gave my abbutter permission to cut 7 trees on my property. He instructed his logger to cut 43 trees. All of these trees are proximate to my wife’s garden driveway etc.What is the true market value of these trees?

Do yourself a favor and pay the money to have the lumber kiln dried. If it is dried properly to approx. 6%, you shouldn’t have many problems with movement after you use it—for whatever. It is still wood, and there will be a little movement with the seasons, but kiln drying will alleviate a lot of that. I think you’ll be a lot happier with it-especially with all of the effort you are putting in initially. I love your ideas! P.S. I’ve been a buyer and salesman of hardwood lumber for 30 years, and a hardwood lumber inspector for 10 years before that.

Great article!  Lots of information I never knew.  Gives me a broader view of a critter I had seen as an unmitigated pest.  Hope I can see their nesting behavior next spring now that I know to look for it.

Wondering what effect the decrease in the blackfly population over the past few years is having on the flycatcher nesting success and population.  (Maybe the blackflies seem numerous in your area, but I bet you don’t find as many in your eyes, nose, mouth and ears as you used to!)

I have two dwarf Japanese Maples, one for only a year.  While the older tree leafed out a month ago (May), the other has yet to do so even though it has buds and is green beneath the bark.  Is there anything that I can do to stimulate its leaving out?

Sue B

Firewood: What a shameful use of larch!

I have been watching with interest the activity around a red maple which we felled last year. The tree probably would have survived, but I didn’t realize this process of what was ‘killing off’ the tree, fungus & borers, but this is a splendid creature & fascinating. Thank you for this information which was sourced by a member of our Gardening Group.

I use a handy reference book published by Reader’s Digest called Book of North American Birds. I have been able to recognize over 25 species using it. No more, “they all look alike” for me!

I struggle with this duality every day so am glad to see someone capture it, as I’ve been unable to express it coherently.

Today I left a badly high-graded Woodlot feeling sick from what I’d seen, but on the way home I helped a spotted turtle across the road into a pond and I found some peace of mind…“Domineering” when it comes to ticks and mosquitos and “a cooperator” in the case of turtles…thanks for your thoughts Dave.

Thanks for the informative article.  I’m surprised the writer didn’t mention ironwood or hop hornbeam, because it retains its leaves as well in the forest understory, much more so than oak, at least in Ontario. I tell hikers that if they see leaves persisting in the forest in winter, then the tree is either beech or ironwood.