Just About Heartbroken....

Xpraetor · Friday at 10:24 PM

Wow, pretty wild.

Xpraetor · Saturday at 6:41 AM

C.W. Richter said:
'Have had similar in the past, but your story is the "Best!" in this regard. In the NE, walnuts (locusts, willows) just LOVE water (well drillers and those looking for springs need only find a line of 'em,) but the big boys get so heavy after a torrential (hurricane season or heavy ice storm) event that they simply topple over when in perfect shape. I used to drive around with my son when the utility companies were clearing roads and we'd "cherry pick" the finest segments of black walnut. 'Had a local mill saw them into ~48" x 4" slabs (some on the bias) and they've been stacked for drying in a basement for years. I've had what happened to you occur MANY times, but all I wanted out of the big fallen tree was the firewood (we have 3 places, all heated to differing degrees by wood-wood furnace, woodstove, fireplace.) We just cut a bunch of walnut, oak, maple, cherry and ash deadfall last weekend and here was the one new thing I learned....

We in the NE have major problems with the gypsy moth caterpillar (now they've made the name more PC-spongy moth...we still call 'em gypsies!) They wreak havoc with oaks and fruit trees on average about every 4 years, but sometimes for years in a row. When we have heavy rains, it's not a problem (always in Spring/early Summer.) However, the log splitter had a flat, so I fixed it via SlimeTM and took it for a victory lap around a planted field to get it sealed really well and only because of that did I notice a small walnut completely devoid of leaves at the very beginning edge of a hedgerow. It was covered with white caterpillars and large clumps of caterpillar larvae where branches met the trunk and I thought it was strange for caterpillars to be causing issues at this time of year. The Walnut caterpillars (they eat related species Walnut, Hickory and Pecan-TX is loaded with the latter! We don't have 'em up N.) So miraculously I found the first affected tree on the property, went to sleep, came up with a plan and the next a.m., 3 trees were infested....I was able to treat most via soapy water, but i cheated using that 30' stream wasp/hornet spray on the highest clumps. I did notice the birds doing a fine job on the outermost leaves, and they apparently favor young trees and have little or no effect on older ones (as the fruit/nut is already formed) but I took no chances because I was more concerned with a huge grove of hickory trees <100 yards away.

In a past life I work as a Livestock Insp. , the Enviro. Services (crop cops) division handled invasive species, & the gypsy/spongy moth was on that list, if I recall correctly, Malathion - ULV was the primary insecticide used against that pest. Most Feed & Seed supply stores will have that on the shelf. It is the oil based version, as it has a longer residual effect due to not evaporating off the leaves & bark. You might call your local State Agricultural Dept. , most states have an eradication/abatement program and will implement a treatment plan to help the land owner.
Pine beetles & Ash borers wiped out several stands of Yellow Pines & Ash Trees in the southeast during a exceptional drought in 2023 which stressed trees in the area. It was 100% kill of old growth trees in 90% of tree stands of old growth in northeast Louisiana. But the spongy moth has not been detected, yet.

Wyatt Smith · Saturday at 2:49 PM

Altitude sickness said:
Most Black Walnut here is burned. People think they will retire on cutting a Black Walnut tree. Very few are made into veneer or lumber

An old logger here said that if walnut trees were women, the veneer grade logs are as rare as playboy centerfolds.
If I had a nickel for every time someone has told me “there’s a thousand dollar walnut log in that tree.” I could probably afford to date a playboy centerfold.

Bob Nelson 35Whelen · Saturday at 5:18 PM

steve white said:
Decades ago, I kept my wife home with our preemie baby by cutting walnut trees into gun stock blanks. My head was on a swivel looking for larger trees. One, in my own neighborhood, was growing at a 45 degree angle over a gazebo. It had a massive crotch, no rot or broken limbs to lead to such, and the angle coming out of the ground meant the root wood would be filled with compression fiddleback. I almost prayed for it to crush that gazebo....

Well, day before yesterday it did. And the owner said to me "cut what you want, take anything you want." I told her I had a doctor's appt. the next day, but would get with it asap 100 degree weather or no! I cannot blame her for what happened. From her perspective, it was a windfall....

Guess what? The city of Dallas cruised by, and for no charge lumped it all up into firewood size and hauled it off in less than a day since they were in the area doing curbside pickup. And it had an unusual light brown color. Never got to see if the crotch figure was large or small. Never even got to be there to have them cut out a section for me and let me haul it up to my house to rip it myself. Just GONE, like it never even happened. I felt like an alcoholic watching someone empty his booze bottle. And to add insult to injury, the city of Dallas just doesn't DO that for free--what are the odds?

I wonder how much walnut goes to waste just like that, or cleared out of drainage projects, etc. etc.? It for sure took 100 years to grow, never even started to rot from the inside, and now, after one gust of wind, it's in the Dallas landfill. I am at a loss for further words. Wood lovers join me in mourning!

@steve white
My aunty had a walnut tree that was well over a100 years old on her property. It was grown in harsh hot summers and cold winters and as solid as a group of rednecks.
When she sold the property I was tempted to cut it down and dig up the root ball but she said no. That tree is still standing and I would love to get hold of it as it would have some beautiful dense wood in it the way it was grown.
Bob

Safari Dave · Sunday at 7:13 PM

I used to be the Public Works Director for a local municipality.

We would never go on private property without permission to cut up a tree because of liability. If it was in the Right-Of-Way of a street, we would cut it to make room for motorists or pedestrians.

I had a "Consulting Forester," to handle timber sales or try to find a buyer for trees on "city" property.

He told me that he had once found a buyer from Lexus that gave over $10K for a Black Walnut tree.

Usually, we paid to have trees cut, sometime we got paid to have trees cut.

The market is constantly changing.

C.W. Richter · Sunday at 7:29 PM

Now, they've devised the clean-and-green bacterial caterpillar/moth spray BT (just a bacterium that kills 'em and nothing else. Some do use a petroleum based carrier and/or sticky additive, but it's fairly harmless as compared to most organo-pesticides and herbicides that kill EVERYTHING-including humans. I was shocked recently when I had a gov't. Forester come over, walk around for 4 hrs and give me recommendations for this and that, but in the convo he said the gov't uses shit-tons of our money to spray the nastiest chemicals on public land, which does help with issues (NOT the best solutions, of course) but it also lines the pockets of the political donor$! No kidding. You know this! Our Power Co. did it but then the users pushed back (NO chemicals on our ROWs we graciously allow you to use!!! and they knocked it out entirely for fear of lawsuits.) Problem solved. lol It's not so hard to profit from good things, but Industry just loves the chemicals to fix this or that, and then they're heavily invested in Big Pharma, so they'll sell you once again in the meds (that'll also kill you!) No kidding.

But, the world seems to be wising up against it as much as possible...Organic foods, alternative (natural) ways to avoid or cure the problems, etc. My job is similar, only I clean up the big spills made by 'em all in the course of production (at the industrial sources.)

Xpraetor said:
In a past life I work as a Livestock Insp. , the Enviro. Services (crop cops) division handled invasive species, & the gypsy/spongy moth was on that list, if I recall correctly, Malathion - ULV was the primary insecticide used against that pest. Most Feed & Seed supply stores will have that on the shelf. It is the oil based version, as it has a longer residual effect due to not evaporating off the leaves & bark. You might call your local State Agricultural Dept. , most states have an eradication/abatement program and will implement a treatment plan to help the land owner.
Pine beetles & Ash borers wiped out several stands of Yellow Pines & Ash Trees in the southeast during a exceptional drought in 2023 which stressed trees in the area. It was 100% kill of old growth trees in 90% of tree stands of old growth in northeast Louisiana. But the spongy moth has not been detected, yet.

C.W. Richter · Sunday at 7:38 PM

Industry/Politicians: https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/a7508c0c-a34d-4e00-b297-38d5da5df64e/gif#w1YQWjPa.copy

deewayne2003 · 2026-08-31T17:19:47-0500

steve white said:
Decades ago, I kept my wife home with our preemie baby by cutting walnut trees into gun stock blanks. My head was on a swivel looking for larger trees. One, in my own neighborhood, was growing at a 45 degree angle over a gazebo. It had a massive crotch, no rot or broken limbs to lead to such, and the angle coming out of the ground meant the root wood would be filled with compression fiddleback. I almost prayed for it to crush that gazebo....

Well, day before yesterday it did. And the owner said to me "cut what you want, take anything you want." I told her I had a doctor's appt. the next day, but would get with it asap 100 degree weather or no! I cannot blame her for what happened. From her perspective, it was a windfall....

Guess what? The city of Dallas cruised by, and for no charge lumped it all up into firewood size and hauled it off in less than a day since they were in the area doing curbside pickup. And it had an unusual light brown color. Never got to see if the crotch figure was large or small. Never even got to be there to have them cut out a section for me and let me haul it up to my house to rip it myself. Just GONE, like it never even happened. I felt like an alcoholic watching someone empty his booze bottle. And to add insult to injury, the city of Dallas just doesn't DO that for free--what are the odds?

I wonder how much walnut goes to waste just like that, or cleared out of drainage projects, etc. etc.? It for sure took 100 years to grow, never even started to rot from the inside, and now, after one gust of wind, it's in the Dallas landfill. I am at a loss for further words. Wood lovers join me in mourning!

I could tell you horror stories of what’s gone into burn pits while land clearing for construction sites; hell one contract we bid a single line item on the bid was 4,000ac of tree clearing for the building of a reservoir.

cwpayton · 2026-08-31T22:30:46-0500

steve white said:
Decades ago, I kept my wife home with our preemie baby by cutting walnut trees into gun stock blanks. My head was on a swivel looking for larger trees. One, in my own neighborhood, was growing at a 45 degree angle over a gazebo. It had a massive crotch, no rot or broken limbs to lead to such, and the angle coming out of the ground meant the root wood would be filled with compression fiddleback. I almost prayed for it to crush that gazebo....

Well, day before yesterday it did. And the owner said to me "cut what you want, take anything you want." I told her I had a doctor's appt. the next day, but would get with it asap 100 degree weather or no! I cannot blame her for what happened. From her perspective, it was a windfall....

Guess what? The city of Dallas cruised by, and for no charge lumped it all up into firewood size and hauled it off in less than a day since they were in the area doing curbside pickup. And it had an unusual light brown color. Never got to see if the crotch figure was large or small. Never even got to be there to have them cut out a section for me and let me haul it up to my house to rip it myself. Just GONE, like it never even happened. I felt like an alcoholic watching someone empty his booze bottle. And to add insult to injury, the city of Dallas just doesn't DO that for free--what are the odds?

I wonder how much walnut goes to waste just like that, or cleared out of drainage projects, etc. etc.? It for sure took 100 years to grow, never even started to rot from the inside, and now, after one gust of wind, it's in the Dallas landfill. I am at a loss for further words. Wood lovers join me in mourning!

Just consider it all a dream ,never happened. When my son was stationed in Kansas I helped him cut several walnut trees I cut out about 10-15 rough blanks and told him let em dry, well he got pcs, and said they all dried out and cracked. never saw them again.

uplander01 · 2026-09-01T15:23:48-0500

My Grandfather sought out and harvested every Black Walnut tree he could find in our county in Northwestern Iowa. He built grandfather clocks, gun cabinets, china cabinets, tv stands, lazy susans, a whole bunch of stuff.. He worked on these projects in his basement during the winter mostly when he wasn't doing farm work. I will never forget the way he had stacks of wood drying in his basement, the way it smelled, then he would finish the big items in his garage. He was a unique individual, only had an 8th grade education and no blueprints, nothing, pretty incredible guy, I wish I had more time with him, he died when I was in 3rd grade, he only made it to 73.

Challer · 2026-09-01T15:27:52-0500

As part of the shitificatiuon of the US, few care about wood and metal. I do. My M4s wear wood stocks. As do most of the others.

pilar · 2026-09-01T16:07:48-0500

In university I lived in a rental house that had a old black walnut tree, that the owner wanted gone, so I asked him if he would let me have it, my uncle & I had a friend who made custom wood stocks, came over and said I should dig it up with my trak hoe to get the best out of it , and he marked where it should be cut into hauling size pieces, and where the pieces were in the root ball
He made me some beautiful pieces for some Remington model 11’s &14 , and 2 blanks for future projects ( very beautiful pieces) and bought the remainder, he died one day and before I could get home his son eddy grabbed them and all the others and used them to fund his needle arm , my stomach has been sick about those two blanks for years now.
Walnut is very hard to find anymore around here ( but I do have an 50 ft pecan tree) and I don’t think I could afford the cost of a fine grade walnut. And real gunsmiths and custom stock makers are difficult to find anywhere these days.

Just About Heartbroken....

Xpraetor

Xpraetor

Wyatt Smith

Bob Nelson 35Whelen

Safari Dave

C.W. Richter

C.W. Richter

deewayne2003

cwpayton

uplander01

Challer

pilar

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