Tree worth much?

[3Ts]

The only thing they would be good for is firewood. For anything like a sawlog they would have to be straight and relatively knot free. Mills generally don't like houselot trees anyways, as they often contain nails, wire, dog chains, and who knows what other foreign objects.

I took down a tree at my FIL's place after he passed. It had a pair of pliers in it that the saw found.

I've checked with both big & small sawyers and none of them will touch a residential tree. Firewood seems to be the most likely outcome for your trees.

 

[2manyrocks]

I don't know what limits insurance companies put on loggers who harvest trees in the forest, but i suspect they won't insure them against dropping a tree on someone's house unless they pay the price for that kind of specific coverage. Tree service companies probably pay some stiff liability insurance premiums.

 

[Yander]

Here is the video. Just start watching from 8 minutes in until 24 minutes in.

It's very interesting something that you don't think about.

 

[Torvy]

Just plant replacement trees. We have a pine plantation, such as it is. Rather than clear cut, as is typical, we will select cut and replace every tree .

My plan is to get a small sawmill to process some myself. Wife is not 100% onboard yet.

 

[Yander]

Just plant replacement trees. We have a pine plantation, such as it is. Rather than clear cut, as is typical, we will select cut and replace every tree .

My plan is to get a small sawmill to process some myself. Wife is not 100% onboard yet.

This is certainly better than nothing depending on the type of tree you plant. But it's pretty tough to replace a 100 plus year old oak tree for habitat

 

[BnRidge]

Oak wilt has spread from western Wi to Se Wi here in the last 6 yrs. One or two oaks dead has become 5 to 10 a year. Looks like it's moving into your area by Knoxville. You may get many more dying in the next few years.
Sawmills generally want 40acres here, not 4 trees, no yard trees or dead and decayed ones.

Firewood is usually only worth the labor put into it. If you like doing it, and have a need, great. But a little may become a lot, and trying to make money on it could become a fools errand.

Habitat - depends if a large number of dead trees are tolerable either from an asthetic view point, or because leaving them is wasting good wood. Otherwise, hollow logs are premium habitat for wildlife.

At the rate the disease moves, you may have 4 more dead next year, then 10 more the next. The disease can kill very slowly at first - trees that die tend to have stunted growth rings for the last decade, branch tips that cease to grow or die back, then "it's dead", when the reality was that it was sick for a long time. Look over the others to see what the situation is.

Oak wilt