Marks in wood: dead oak >> Opinions !!

mdvaden

Last Friday, I removed 3 dead oak trees near the east side of Medford, Oregon. Due to how dry the wood was, and how the wood broke on one in-felling, I'm certain they have been dead for at least 3 or more years. One year old home, new owners.

No history to go on, other than they are in a fenced off area that is mostly grassy, where water drains down a ditch. Not exactly raparian, but isolated between homes in a cyclone fenced strip like riparian would be.

So, these are in my camping firewood pile now.

There are several attachments too

There are these marks in the wood - very distinct, and they are virtually on the same growth rings, at some points for the tree's life.

Can't tell in the images, but each growth ring is about 1/8" thick. The biggest trunk piece would be about 100 years old. Each dark mark is about 3 to 5 growth rings deep, and about 5/8" to 3/4" wide - not including the small "thorn-like" dark part that projects toward the exterior.



With no history on the tree, what do these kind of marks tell you, indicate, or mean to you?

From looking at the pile, it seems that the marks were in at least one 4" diameter limb, and at different heights up the trunk. I think the marks may be from one tree. Didn't really catch my attention on the site.

I don't recall seeing this in trees I've pruned or removed before.

This is not a test. I have no idea what it is, but am very curious due to the distinct pattern.

The only tree disease of note in our area, and not quite to our area yet, is Sudden Oak Death, more common in California, and I hear, just started to pop its head up 2 hours west at the coast by Brookings, Oregon, in Azalea Park there.

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treeseer

I'm guessing insect attack

mdvaden

You just brought something else to mind, after I noticed that a couple of sets of marks on one piece were on the same side of the trunk...

We have quite a few wood peckers near here.

Could a woodpecker cause something like that? Or insects along with woodpeckers?

Sean Freeman

They do like remarkably like the dissections of trees with injection/implant wounds in Shigo's A New Tree Biology Fig 40-7 pg527, so I would quess if no such treatments were undertaken (which I think is a pretty sound bet!) then woodpecker is a good candidate..all around the same time too.

Eric Frei

Pretty odd, woodpeckers eh.

Why do they peck the heck out of trees anyway?

Might have been something that year they liked.

Look like spike marks, but they'd not be so consistent horizontally, be more of a track vertically.

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