Standing dead worth it?

[Ralphie Boy]

As stated before, if you decide to so much as touch that tree with a saw of any kind use great caution because standing dead trees are dangerous! Limbs break off and fall from the vibration of the saw and they don't come down the same way live trees do, they can be very unpredictable.

 

[bag of hammers]

Just too many bad scenario's possible when felling a severely rotten tree. If you can pull it over from a distance with a vehicle or come a long this would be a much safer plan.

+1. A friend has a long (100') steel cable and snatch blocks - it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation. Also have used a come along and a couple of long heavy tow ropes (keep these in the truck all the time) when the tree is too far in to access with the vehicle.

Woodpeckers don't care if the tree is vertical or horizontal when searching for bugs to eat.

they do when there's a 110 lb newf staring them down ...

 

[Thistle]

Roughly 80% of the wood I cut year round is standing snags & deadfall.Some is excellent,most is good to very good,only a small amount is marginal.Just depends on what kind of wood it is,where its at & how long it was dead or on the ground.All of it gets minimum 1 to 1 1/2 years in the stack,once its bucked & split.Some of the smaller rounds up to 6" diameter is dry enough to burn immediately,that is stacked separately.Most everything else that's larger needs split & time to dry.