Long story short, I have some large mature ash trees that are showing early signs of emerald ash bore and probably will be killed by it in a year or two. These are not yard trees, they were planted in the 19 teens by my grandfather as a generational investment and have been consistently groomed, quite a few have their lowest branches over 30’ up, many of them are close to 3’ across at chest height, a couple closer to five foot across. I’m currently in talks with my brother whom owns another planting a mile away, and a cousin who owns another one of the stands about going in together on buying a small sawmill and processing them out. I have no experience in taking a tree to aircraft grade wood, I/we never planned on harvesting them, they would be prime for the next generation, but that’s no longer an option. My first thought is to girdle them and let them dry standing but I think that will make them harder to cut, my brother thinks to cut them into thick (4” or so) slabs and stack them with spacers for a few years which I think is probably a good idea, our cousin insists that they must be “ponded” ( cut and put in flowing water for a year to wash out the sap). I really have no idea what to do, so I’m asking the incredible knowledge base here what is the best way?
