Oak Wilt

GMan5465

5 year old buck +
A large section of my property is oaks. It's not too thick but could be thinned a bit to open up the canopy. I have some leaner trees that I'm planning to drop as well as some that have wounds at the bases. My plan is to drop them this month before any risk of oak wilt implications. Once the snow melts and I can get the tractor in, I was planning to cut it into firewood and haul it out to the farmhouse. I believe that is safe and poses no threat to spreading oak wilt. Any thoughts or perspectives?
 
You have the right idea. In WI they advise not to cut or prune on oaks from April 15th thru July 15 when they are likely to be actively growing. Oak wilt is considered to be more of a problem in lighter sandier soils. Family members have some property where it is a problem. Clumps of black oak have died off cause if they grow close they can root graft and spread underground once one tree is infected. Trees on the other end of the 40 separated by a grove of pine are still hanging in there.
Oaks in red oak family are more susceptible and die much quicker than whites. So depends a bit on what kind of oaks you have too.
 
Yep, most are red oaks with some white mixed in. And yes, sandy soils. So, no problem bucking logs in the summer months that were previously dropped in March?
 
Oak wilt in firewood can be a problem if still around the next growing season. Advice is to completely cover if wood is not burned up the winter after bucking. Doesn't leave a whole lotta time to season though. Believe this is directed at those who might move firewood to a new location and burn it later. If you let it dry out by where the trees died, it's already in that area anyway would guess. I would let it season over 2 yrs in that case before moving however.

Think I remember reading that certified wood they sell at gas stations and the like has to be kiln dried or let season over two years and documented as such. That apparently is long enough to no longer be a problem
 
Thought I would share the following link you can use to determine the risk of Oak Wilt:

Oak Wilt Vectors Emergence Thermal Model

It only applies to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

In the discussion, the DNR Forestry guy said it was OK to buck downed oaks into firewood during the summer as long as you drop them in the low risk time period. He said "Yes, cutting winter-cut oak logs in the spring and summer poses no risk for oak wilt. After they’ve been cut, they can’t be infected AND spread the disease to other oaks. They’re a dead end to disease as long as they never were infected the prior summer/fall."
 
If you cut now and let lay and then cut up the firewood at a later date…you are fine…unless you damage a living oak in the process of your removal…you may open it for the possibility of damage. The one you fell isn’t the issue, it’d be the one you bump into retracting the downed firewood. Worst case, always seal the wound of a tree you want to survive so that the bugs can’t get into the open wound.
 
We had numerous large wind storms the past few summers where many of my oaks were damaged. Now, I’ve got this going on with the oaks, see pics. I'm assuming this is oak wilt. Thoughts?

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