Eastern Hemlock is no longer a commercially important tree. I expect it's left to stand in most situations except in hardwood lots where it's probably been previously removed to reduce competition.

In the case of conifers, in the east anyway, salvage has to be done very quickly. Hemlocks rot rapidly once they are dead, but I've not heard of any salvage efforts in HWA killed stands. The trees are probably more valuable left in the woods than removed.

The southern pines are another matter. Valuable dead timber is harvested quickly, as the wood gets infested with wood boring larvae. In the case of the large Okefenokee fire this spring, salvage logging of killed pines was occurring even as the fire was being fought.

I feel better now. Knowing that the those huge tree trunks weren't entirely a waste by leaving them lay. And to think that those old, long since rotted away trunks are still doing a job by supplying soil for future crops of trees. :-)

A bit shocking to see but a part of what built this country none the less.

Bill, this is a bit off topic, but do you remember the massive Boundary Waters blow-down in 1999? I think most of the trees that fell were Jack Pine, which had minimal timber value and were left to decay. Roughly ten years later a storm ignited the extremely dry wood and it burned over a 100,000 acres, which made it one of Minnesota's largest fires ever. Smoke and ash were visible as far away as Milwaukee. As bad as that fire was, it paled in comparison to the 1894 Hinckley fire that burned 350,000 acres and killed over 400 people.

Yes, and not so off topic, the Cloquet, Duluth and Moose lake fire of 1918 was even worse than those mentioned above and were essentially the end of Eastern Hemlock in Minnesota. The largest stand of Tsuga Canadensis located near Paupores MN was destroyed by this fire shortly after a state park was proposed to try to preserve this last remaining stronghold.

Interesting about the recent history of Tsuga in Minnesota. Is it your mission to restore it? That would be a worthwhile effort. :)

That Cloquet fire must've been terrifying. Fifty fires merging into a single event?! Minimal if any communications -- frightful.

' Is it your mission to restore it? '

Interesting question.... until a little over a year ago, I didn't even know what an Eastern Hemlock was and that they existed at all, let alone in Minnesota. I found out about them when looking up 'Native trees of MN' for my new yard where we moved in 2012 and have found my readings about them quite interesting and even intriguing at times. But sadly our climate here is a no go with low rainfall totals, poor soils and harsh winters.

Even at the Hemlock Ravine, next to Jay Cooke State park near Carlton, where it is prime country to grow Tsuga c., they have not seen any new propagation since raising nets to protect new trees from rabbits and deer. Not to mention in 2012, almost a foot of rain flooded that area washing away mature Hemlocks that resided along the steep banks of the ravine. Pictures of the 2012 Flood Jay Cooke state park.

So, no, to much overhead and not enough certainty to take on that kind of endeavor. Maybe if I lived in that area from Brainerd on east to Jay Cooke and north toSt. Louis county , I might consider doing a small parcel of land for this purpose.