Chestnut oak timber value

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Do they have much? They have about zero wildlife value on my place but unfortunately I have a lot of them. Before o go girdling a bunch in the offseason i was wondering if I’m killing something of value. I swear I remember the guy doing my timber cruise say they weren’t worth much.

 

[yoderjac]

They actually may have more wildlife value than you think. Most years, they big acorns they drop just lie on the ground and rot. Deer and turkey just ignore them. I have found that they do come into play when we have a mast crop failure. Often when our other oak trees are producing nothing, the chestnut oaks are producing acorns. When deer get hard up for food, they will eat them. So, I see them as helping set a floor for food in bad years. I would not want them to be the dominant tree in my oak stand and I can see doing a selective cut that favors other oaks when timbering, but they are not a worthless tree for deer and other wildife.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

They actually may have more wildlife value than you think. Most years, they big acorns they drop just lie on the ground and rot. Deer and turkey just ignore them. I have found that they do come into play when we have a mast crop failure. Often when our other oak trees are producing nothing, the chestnut oaks are producing acorns. When deer get hard up for food, they will eat them. So, I see them as helping set a floor for food in bad years. I would not want them to be the dominant tree in my oak stand and I can see doing a selective cut that favors other oaks when timbering, but they are not a worthless tree for deer and other wildife.

Thanks,

Jack

Yeah I agree. I couldn’t eliminate them all if I tried so that wouldn’t be an issue. Just random sections where they have outcompetes red and white oaks. But more importantly have blocked the sunlight from getting to the ground

 

[j-bird]

I think chestnut oak is in the white oak family and from a timber perspective I would suspect they would be marketed as white oak....but you would have to talk to the timber folks first. If the trees are large enough and you have enough of them to make the effort worth it....you could be throwing money out the window. If anything I would suspect oak firewood may be of interest to some folks.... I wouldn't just kill them to kill them.... Why do they lack wildlife value? Are they too small...not producing mast???

 

[yoderjac]

I think chestnut oak is in the white oak family and from a timber perspective I would suspect they would be marketed as white oak....but you would have to talk to the timber folks first. If the trees are large enough and you have enough of them to make the effort worth it....you could be throwing money out the window. If anything I would suspect oak firewood may be of interest to some folks.... I wouldn't just kill them to kill them.... Why do they lack wildlife value? Are they too small...not producing mast???

Although they are in the white oak family, unlike most white oaks, the acorns have a high tannin content I believe. They are large, may be difficult for turkey to ingest. Deer do eat them when they are hard up, but they will eat them until food is pretty scarce. I would not say they have no wildlife value, but the wildlife value is certainly lower than most other oaks.

Interestingly enough, the swamp chestnut oak is very high on deer's preference list for acorns.

 

[OakSeeds]

Here's what your friends at QDMA say ..... "
When considering species to plant or encourage on deer hunting land in the Southeast, swamp chestnut oak should be near the top of your list. A member of the white oak family, swamp chestntut oak produces extremely large acorns that are highly attractive to whitetails.


Swamp chestnut oak is a native, medium to large (24 to 36 inches) mast-producing tree that can grow up to 100 feet tall. It is found in floodplains throughout the Southeast (see range map in the Gallery below) on moist, well-drained soils adjacent to bottomlands, small or big streams, or on the first terrace or ridge away from water. As the name suggests it can tolerate periodic flooding, but only for a few days or weeks during the growing season; however, swamp chestnut oak can also be found growing as high as 1,000 feet in elevation. Ultimately, its presence and the growth rate of each tree are greatly influenced by the site’s soil type (silty clays and loams are best) and drainage.


Swamp chestnut oak bark is thick, scaly, loose and light-gray in color. On mature trees the trunk is often free of branches for the first 20 to 40 feet, followed by stout branches that ascend at sharp angles to form a narrow but rounded crown. Swamp chestnut oak leaves are deciduous, simple, alternate, somewhat oval, dark green, 4 to 9 inches long, and smooth above and softly hairy beneath; they are short-pointed at the tip, tapering to round at the base, with numerous shallow lobes along the edges. They can be distinguished from other oaks by the nine to 14 lateral veins on each side of the midvein. Swamp chestnut oak acorns are exceedingly large (1½ inches long), mature in one season and are usually produced singly or in clusters of two or three; production averages roughly 85 acorns per pound. Trees typically begin to produce seed around 20 to 25 years and attain their optimal production around age 40, but production will occur much sooner with seedlings planted in full sunlight with good soil and growing conditions. Good seed crops can be expected every three to five years with poor to fair production the balance of the time.

Swamp chestnut oak acorns are very palatable and eaten by white-tailed deer, black bears, turkeys, red foxes, wild hogs, waterfowl and squirrels. Squirrels are perhaps the most helpful animals in spreading its seed because they hoard far more than they can actually eat. Nutritionally speaking, swamp chestnut oak acorns are low in crude protein (4.1 percent) but relatively high in fats (3.3 percent) and carbohydrates (56.1 percent)."

 

[yoderjac]

Here's what your friends at QDMA say ..... "
When considering species to plant or encourage on deer hunting land in the Southeast, swamp chestnut oak should be near the top of your list. A member of the white oak family, swamp chestntut oak produces extremely large acorns that are highly attractive to whitetails.


Swamp chestnut oak is a native, medium to large (24 to 36 inches) mast-producing tree that can grow up to 100 feet tall. It is found in floodplains throughout the Southeast (see range map in the Gallery below) on moist, well-drained soils adjacent to bottomlands, small or big streams, or on the first terrace or ridge away from water. As the name suggests it can tolerate periodic flooding, but only for a few days or weeks during the growing season; however, swamp chestnut oak can also be found growing as high as 1,000 feet in elevation. Ultimately, its presence and the growth rate of each tree are greatly influenced by the site’s soil type (silty clays and loams are best) and drainage.


Swamp chestnut oak bark is thick, scaly, loose and light-gray in color. On mature trees the trunk is often free of branches for the first 20 to 40 feet, followed by stout branches that ascend at sharp angles to form a narrow but rounded crown. Swamp chestnut oak leaves are deciduous, simple, alternate, somewhat oval, dark green, 4 to 9 inches long, and smooth above and softly hairy beneath; they are short-pointed at the tip, tapering to round at the base, with numerous shallow lobes along the edges. They can be distinguished from other oaks by the nine to 14 lateral veins on each side of the midvein. Swamp chestnut oak acorns are exceedingly large (1½ inches long), mature in one season and are usually produced singly or in clusters of two or three; production averages roughly 85 acorns per pound. Trees typically begin to produce seed around 20 to 25 years and attain their optimal production around age 40, but production will occur much sooner with seedlings planted in full sunlight with good soil and growing conditions. Good seed crops can be expected every three to five years with poor to fair production the balance of the time.

Swamp chestnut oak acorns are very palatable and eaten by white-tailed deer, black bears, turkeys, red foxes, wild hogs, waterfowl and squirrels. Squirrels are perhaps the most helpful animals in spreading its seed because they hoard far more than they can actually eat. Nutritionally speaking, swamp chestnut oak acorns are low in crude protein (4.1 percent) but relatively high in fats (3.3 percent) and carbohydrates (56.1 percent)."

Swamp Chestnut Oak is not the same as the OPs Chestnut Oak. The former is on the top of the deer preference list and the latter on the bottom.

 

[OakSeeds]

I don't believe anyone said they were; I simply posted the QDMA (and I appreciate the controversy over the organization and their elimination of the forums) information so folks not familiar with the distinction would know Swamp Chestnut Oaks are a valuable habitat resource. I believe we can all agree on that. Thanks for pointing out that distinction first, and for your response supporting that view.

 

[yoderjac]

I don't believe anyone said they were; I simply posted the QDMA (and I appreciate the controversy over the organization and their elimination of the forums) information so folks not familiar with the distinction would know Swamp Chestnut Oaks are a valuable habitat resource. I believe we can all agree on that. Thanks for pointing out that distinction first, and for your response supporting that view.

I agree. I was just making the distinction clear between Chestnut Oak and Swamp Chestnut Oak. The info you posted on the Swamp Chestnut Oak is spot on.

 

[weekender21]

Deer flock to the few Chestnut oaks we have. They also hammer the red oaks as soon as they drop. Interesting how preference varies across their range.


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[S.T.Fanatic]

$200+ per truckload for firewood


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[Hoytvectrix]

I'm going to hijack this thread. I am in MN (Twin Cities), and I believe I came across a Chestnut oak based on leaf and acorn ID. The leaves and acorn match pretty closely to what I can find online for a chestnut oak. When trying to ID this oak, I found several hardiness maps of Chestnut oak that show it not getting much more north than Illinois. Would some of you that are a little bit better at identifying white oak species mind taking a look at these? Could it be a hybrid of some kind of it is not possible for the Chestnut oaks to be this far north?

 

[Teeder]

Looks like chestnut oak to me.

 

[Teeder]

Yeah I agree. I couldn’t eliminate them all if I tried so that wouldn’t be an issue. Just random sections where they have outcompetes red and white oaks. But more importantly have blocked the sunlight from getting to the ground

I know this is an old thread, but hey, that's what people do on the internet!
I only have a couple chestnut oaks, but what I've seen is, they are very sparse in production. Also, I read a study comparing mast production of various oaks, and it listed chestnut oak as one of if not the lowest for lbs per canopy area.
I wouldn't cut them all out, but would certainly favor a true white or northern red over the chestnut if I had to make a choice.

 

[Angus 1895]

I am beginning to wonder if we are not “ humanizing” the deers palate.

Do deer actually find tannin content objectionable?

 

[Teeder]

I don't know about that, but they do have preferences, IMO.
I have something like 4 dozen english oaks at home and the deer absolutely zero in on a couple. The tree I call #2 is the most in the open and only about 20 from the road, but the deer walk past other oaks that are in cover to go to that one.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I have chestnut oaks where you would roll your ankle on acorns if you walked under. They will still be there in January. I find it hard to believe deer actually like them.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

This thread potentially saved me a few hours of time. I collected a few hundred chestnut oak acorns and was planning on direct seeding many. I will still grow a few up and see how they do, but I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Teeder]

I collected a few this year, but the tree's branches were intertwined with a white oak. I hope to get some Saul's oak hybrids.