Nice dodge Steve.
Looks like it snapped at the base.
Was it dead or heart rotten?
We had no power down here all day which means no water from the well (no flushing a toilet) and no heat,(electric driven forced hot air with an oil burner)
We walked the woods tonight in the dark and came across a few small blow-downs but nothing major.
Scott
Well the stiff, rigid pitch pine holds up pretty well in storms like these. We got hit hard on LI too, I didn't lose power but alot of people, mainly on the north shore, did. Alot of white pine trees (as usual) fell onto power lines in those areas. Another reason they should've planted pitch pine instead. Even though the east end is more exposed, the power outage and tree damage was much less because the tough pitch pine and oak are made more to withstand high winds.
Never heard that term but I suppose that is what it was. There was no outward sign of decay that I recall but looking into the stump I could see it was decayed.
It was an Alanthis(sp?) and I'm not too sorry to see it go. As tasty as the Mulberries are I kinda wish it was the Mulberry tree that fell. What a messy tree. My dog is always coming in the house with purple feet. Maybe next time.
"Heart rotten" seems to be the norm out this way.
Crispy on the outside , most & chewy on the inside.
I wound up with a few nice chunks down in my backyard.
Power out all day this way did kind of stink.
From what I can see though we got off easy.
That's one of the largest ailanthus trees I have ever seen. Most people would cut them out as saplings.
Here are some useless tidbits from my forestry days at Rutgers.
Most of the time you see ailanthus in dense clusters growing around spoil piles or other ground disturbances, similar to sumac clusters.
I don't have to tell you they are a pretty crappy tree with prolific seeds that actualy smell.
The wood is soft and weak, so the heart rot just helped it fall a little sooner.
Just like starlings, the ailanthus was brought here from another country (China) a long time ago and they really took a foothold.
Scott
It was small compared to the one we took out when we first moved here. And you're right, they grow like weeds. I'm constantly pulling them up and they have a peppery smell.
We used to have a huge ailanthus in the back of my property when I was growing up. We cut down most but this one survived. I remember my Dad used to call them weeds. As a kid I thought they were callled Atlantis trees. I figured they must be able to live underwater.
As I was leaving for work this morning I ran into a tree guy that was looking at the tree. Happens that I know him from school days. He looks over the situation and tells me he doesn't wan to get involved in it because he would have to get a crane in there and is worried about collateral damage.
I was coming home from work yesterday in Haddonfield and had to detour because the lights were out at Kings Highway, and I was forced to turn on Warwick. Just then a township car with sirens passed and pulled over up ahead and there was a giant tree uprooted and leaning on a house. But it was stopped from crushing the house by a branch that was hooked to the large electric wires on that road.
My cable went out just after I got home last night so I did not have internet access until now. We watched videos since the TV was also down. We had it easier than Pestletown
i'm not sure about the bigger ones (since i've never seen one that large), but back in the day i tried to chop a few of those to make walking staves out of, and the insides are always soft and chewy. I don't think ailanthus trees ever have a solid core.