Another wind storm

Just a few minutes of wicked wind brought down more future firewood.  The biggest loss to the forest was a magnificent white ash.  The tree has been pictured on the blog before.  After losing a major branch a few years ago, a large scar developed, an area where the tree lost lots of support against west winds that dominate the hill during storms.  Here's a picture of the tree showing the upside down V broken trees become.

Many young trees, mainly paper birch, are part of the understory in this area of large ash.  Even though several babies were crushed by the ash, others will benefit greatly from the expansion of sun on their crowns.  The ash's crown blocked out lots of light.

Cutting the ash was a major project, but 22 pieces are now at 22 inches near the cutting site.  Note the spectacular diamond-shaped ridges in the mature tree's bark, one of several features making white ash a divine species.  The broken tree was about 15 inches in diameter at the ground.