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Wood products from dead or dying yard trees

Risky Business

Every type of wood has its good points and its bad points. Elm dries quickly, making it good for firewood; red oak works well for interior cabinets or paneling; white oak, a rot-resistant wood, can be used for boats, posts, or outdoor construction.

 Firewood

Firewood is a common use of dead or dying trees. This is a good idea if your trees are small, crooked, or you have leftover limbs and scraps from making other wood products. You should dry firewood before you use or sell it. Oak should be dried for two years because it looses moisture slowly. Elm needs to dry one year. The drier the wood the cleaner it burns.

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NOTE: Firewood cut from fresh trees or trees recently infested by insects and disease can contribute to the spread of pests to nearby healthy trees. Because of this, many communities have ordinances to guide you in storing your firewood. If your community has no ordinances, treat your elm firewood by (1) removing the bark while the log is still green, or (2) cut the tree into firewood lengths and stack so both ends of the log are exposed to good air flow for faster drying. For storing oak wood, totally cover and seal the pile with heavy plastic (4-6 mil) taking care to bury the edges of the tarp with soil. Oaks that died from oak wilt within the past year should not be moved, in any form, into areas where oak wilt is not found.

 Fence Posts

You can make fence posts from white and bur oak. When you cut logs for fence posts, include some heartwood (center wood). Heartwood resists rot and your fence posts will last longer.

If the log is over 5 inches in diameter it should be split into halves- bigger material split into thirds or quarters. Stack the logs loosely and dry them at least one year before using them. Wood dries faster in the summer and split wood dries faster than whole logs. Red oak doesn’t make a good fence post because it rots in the ground after a few years.

 Saw Logs and Lumber

Most large urban tree removals are a job for professionals and depending on the difficulty of the job, can be expensive. Also, most sawmills will discriminate against urban wood because of the risk of nails and other hardware that can damage the sawblades. So it is not often that that you will make any money from your tree. That said, especially for the carpenter who might like the wood from his or her own tree, there are options that make it feasible to consider.

Saw logs are large, straight logs that can be cut into lumber. They usually come from the trunks of trees. The minimum size for a saw log is 8 inches in diameter and 8 to 10 feet in length. You may be able to sell your saw logs- check with local sawmills or log buyers, or advertise in the newspaper. Some log buyers may prefer to cut the trees themselves. If you are doing the cutting, add an extra 3 to 5 inches in length in case the end of the log cracks while it dries. You can paint or wax the ends of the log to reduce cracking. Cut off the limbs flush to the log. If the curve of the tree (sweep) is great or the tree is crooked, it won’t make a good saw log.

You will get the best return for your unwanted trees if you use them to make your own lumber. You can haul your logs to a sawmill, but there are small, portable band sawmills that do custom sawing on location for reasonable cost. Once the wood is rough cut, you have two choices to dry it.

1. To air-dry your freshly sawn lumber, separate each layer of boards with stickers (one by ones, 4 feet in length). The stickers should be dried wood or they could stain your lumber. You should space the stickers every 2 feet, perpendicular to the lumber. Place the outside stickers as close to the ends of the lumber as possible and limit your pile to 4 feet wide. Store the lumber under a roof and air-dry it for two years, preferably on the south side of a hill or building.
2. Kiln drying will require transporting the wood to a drying kiln. Near the Twin Cities, there is one in Lake Elmo, and one in Jordan, MN. It takes about a month or more to dry. They can also then finish mill the wood into flooring, trim boards, or other finished products, for a charge.