Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - A dying tree quesion

We're loaded with oaks of various kinds, and we're clearing out some of the agonal ones. Several have new healthy shoots out of the existing roots, and here's my question. Will that shoot be healthy, or should I just cut it down too and plant a new tree? Either way, we probably won't live long enough to see them at their full size. The last tree I cut down was right at 60 yo.

Thanks, Al


One of our larger dead oaks that my neighbor's cutting down.

Same here. I missed those because I had a 4 year gap between beavers showing up. All the newer trees have the T post and fence already. I did have to cut the chicken wire off 3 of the older trees, as they were a tad to tight, and I was afraid they'd girdle the trunks.

Rod, I've got no clue how many beavers, nutria, and otters I've whacked over the last decade. If there are water rat heavens, then they are there. I'm setting up 4 conibears and 3 racoon traps on my hatchery pond tomorrow.

Just drilled a Siberian Elm tree at our farm to move a game camera.

Water/sap actually spouted from the hole! This is common during the spring and summer for these trees, which are also called "piss elms".

However, the sap should be in the roots now, since we have had multiple hard freezes.

I think the trees' "will to live" is possibly the reason. We have been unseasonably warm for about four weeks and have had an 11" snow and a 1.25" rain. I think the trees have been trying to pull in that moisture to recover from our 3-year drought. Very impressive survival skills! (Even though I hate these invasive elms. Hopefully our desirable trees are doing the same thing.)

P.S. Our creek has also started running again. It did not start running due to surface water flows. Instead, the pools began rising from below with the increase in the groundwater level. They have coalesced over the last few days and the creek is now flowing. I hope the ground moisture stays around for our trees to access for their spring growth next year.

I hope they don't have oak wilt in Texas. I know it is a major concern in Michigan. We have special precautions in place for moving oak firewood and for when (and when not!) to trim any oak branches or cut any oak especially red oak.

Once the fungus gets in the roots it spreads underground from tree to tree, pretty bad. It travels overland through a beetle that carries the fungus. To play it safe we really aren't supposed to make any cuts at all on a oak tree till it is cold enough to have no flying insects (Dec, Jan, Feb and maybe part of March)

In the state managed land they take your standard vibratory plow and go about 50 feet around the base of the oak trees and try to cut all the roots in a big circle and then do the same for all the adjacent trees that are affected to stop the underground spread. In some places they use excavators to dig trenches between sick and healthy trees to try to stop the spread.

If you do have to take an affected oak wilt tree down then they have to chip it, bring firewood to a spot where it can be covered completely down to the ground level and sealed so bugs can't get into the cut logs (this is how folks transport it to a new spot by transporting firewood), and then the stump has to be ground out immediately. If a stump has to remain it has to be painted with tree sealer paint as do the cut end of the logs.