What trees grow in your neck of the woods?

[Jim Becker]

On our property here in SE PA, we have a good representation of species...black walnut, white ash, green ash, American elm, hackberry, dogwood, red oaks, white oaks, tulip poplar, holly, sassafras, Norway maple, other maples, pear, crab-apple, one lone American beech, one hemlock and likely more I have not been able to identify. This is not including ornamentals around the house.

[glenn bradley]

It's discouraging when I see everyone talking about the truckloads of free wood they bring home from just down the street.

I feel your pain. In SoCal boat-loads of variety but, all brought in and usually privatly owned and we have very little woodsy areas that aren't protected. Upside - you can buy almost anything you want. Downside - no one has ever called me because they are about to clear out a stand of maples.

[Gary Herrmann]

In my yard, we have some domestics and some imports.

Siberian Elm
Norway Maple
Silver Maple
White Pine
Bald Cypress
Pin Oak
Northern Red Oak
Japanese Maple
Ginko
Green Ash
Crab Apple
Dogwood
Yellowwood
Sand Cherry
Kwanzan Cherry
Yoshino Cherry
Red Bud

Uh yes, we like Cherry trees...

I know the Yellow Wood is native, as I believe the oaks, maples, pine and ash are.

And we cut down 3 big sweet gums, pretty trees, but man those gumballs are annoying. 'Course this was before I started turning, dangit.

[Art Kelly]

In Central Florida there's lots of mockernut hickory. I have a loft full of rough-turns like this one:



Harvest in the winter to ensure the bark will stay on--I used CA anyway.

In Central Florida and Georgia, there's chickasaw plum. It grows wild in thickets. This is from the rootball of a tree in my front yard that was murdered by hurricane Charley:



Podocarpus (an ornamental--I think it's a variety of yew--check the chatoyance), but you may need a muffler on your chainsaw :



Troll around after hurricanes. Also, there are several tree services that are friendly. Near Orlando, try Sunstate or Mr. Tree.

Art

[Roger Bell]

Our situation on the west side of the Cascades is very different.

Our big-enough-for bowls natives include:

Big leaf maple...the most commonly available turning wood.
Pacific dogwood
Pacific yew - excellent
An odd species of cherry
Western red alder
Cottonwood
Oregon White oak
Pacific madrone - excellent but troublesome
Myrtlewood...one of my favs.

Lots of softwoods....western hemlock is sometimes ok. Alaska yellow cedar and Western red are ok as is Port Orford. Spruce. Doug fir and the various high elevation whitewoods don't interest me, nor do most of the the pines, except sometimes when found in very old and very dense snags.

In town and in the orchard country, you can find almost anything.....with walnut, cherry and the fruitwoods the most interesting.

[Andy Hoyt]

We have two varieties up here in the top right corner.

We have the kind that is spinworthy



and



Come to think of it, I guess we have just one kind.

[Bill Turpin]

Mountains of Western North Carolina:

Oaks, pines, cherry, lots of black locust, catalpa, Paulownia, hemlock, apple, Bradford pear, walnut, hickory, other fruit woods, ash, sassafras, sourwood, tulip poplar, persimon, chinese chesnut, red maple, and many others. Within twenty miles the elevation varies from 600 feet above sea level to 4500. Lots of mini climates with varied weather, trees, plants, and animals. We are at 2900, half mile away (1000' lower) they have songbird varities that we NEVER see.

Our county population of 125,000 has been discovered by the housing market. No slump here, there are 7000+ houses scheduled to be built in next three years. If you are in the right place at right time , you can get some amazing timber!!!

Bill

[Curt Fuller]

If you're in SE Idaho I can't be more than a couple hundred miles from you. And I agree with what you say about wishing there were more native woods in our area. But don't believe everything you read about the turning qualities of some of the local woods. Aspen can be incredible wood if you get into the knots and burls and the trees bent over by snow. It gets some wild color when it gets stressed. The Juniper (most people call it cedar) is beautiful wood too. Rather than cutting it live I go to the farm supply store and buy a cedar fence post for the juniper I've turned. And Cottonwood is great but don't mess around with green stuff. There's always a dead cottonwood laying around somewhere. Knots, crotches, and wood at the base of the trunk are usually the best. There's two kinds of cottonwood around here, the black cottonwood with the long narrow leaves isn't as pretty as the fremont cottonwood that has the big round leaves. Then the scrub oak (gambel oak) is pretty wood too and the big tooth maple that grows on the foothills and turns bright red in the fall has some nice hard wood. You can usually get a load of it if you find a site where someone is clearing it to build a house.

[Neal Addy]

Here in the Chicken Fried Nation we mostly have Mesquite, but I ain't complaining. Some Cottonwood, Pecan, Crepe Myrtle, etc.

Most of the other veggies in the immediate area (North Central Texas) are low-growing scrub and brush.

[paul ashman]

Panhandle of Florida here, and I can see pine trees and palm trees from every window in my house, and not much else.

[Jude Kingery]

As with Allen and Tyler, we're about 180 miles S. and S/E of you two
gentlemen, but close enough that our woods available here are the same or similar in selecton. West Texas is fairly arid, and not exactly "forrested." We cherish our trees for shade here!

We have lots of cedar, which looks beautiful when finished, but I'm highly allergic to it so never turn it. Even with a respirator and taking care to wash, shower, still breaks out my hands and arms. We also have lots of Elm, Juniper, Mulberry - none of which I like to turn (fibrous or pulpy, those three - Mulberry turns like celery on steriods). Redbud is ok, nice grain, fairly hard. A little to our north, maybe 100 miles, you'll see lots of Osage Orange, very nice to turn and extremely hard, bright yellow in color. With extremely sharp tools, good shear cuts, you almost don't need to sand it, no tear-out at all. Finishes great. Mesquite is plentiful here, fairly decent diameters, from little up to 2', 3' in diameter. It's my favorite to turn. Often trees will hollow or suffer grub damage and die, split. A big enough tree, however, can give you lots of good heartwood or some nice contrast between a dark coffee color with rich grain and blonde pith. Available from friends, neighbors, city park trim crews for free. As mentioned ranchers frequently drag or shred to clear it when it's brush, but wind breaks and fence rows have big Mesquite and hundreds. Brian, if you're ever through here, look us up, we'll give you some good chunks! Jude

[John Timberlake]

In the four acres of woods I own behind my house, we have two varieties of ash (can you say emerald ash borer), red maple, sugar maple, poplar, red oak, a little white oak, elm, smallist cherry, cucumber trees, couple of large walnuts, and witchhazel (too small for anything). Sycamores are also common around here along with locust and osage orange.

[Don Orr]

Here in NY state where the Mohawk and Hudson rivers meet we have all kinds of trees-hardwood and softwood. Maples, oaks, cherrys, elms, hickorys, catalpa, willows, walnut, butternut, beech, birches, poplars, apple, other fruitwoods, hornbeams, and on and on. Softwoods include pines, spruces, larch, hemlock, etc. I wish I had time to turn all the wood I have stashed! We are very lucky up here. I actually have to decline offers of free wood sometimes.

[Dominic Greco]

What trees do we have a lot of around my area? Cherry Burl and lots of it!

Serously, like Jim Becker said (since we live about 10 miles form each other) we are blessed with an abundance of hardwoods. While it seems that Maple, Ash, and Red Oaks dominate the landscape, we get a good amount of Walnut, Cherry, Hickory, Osage Orange, Pear, Apple, Dogwood, Sassafras, Sweet Gum, Sycamore, and Beech.

[Martin Braun]

To add to Mike's list - in the Phoenix metro area we get all sorts of stuff that people plant that are not native and some that are. Including:

Palm
Ironwood
Palo Verde
Palo Brea
Olive
Bouganvilla
Eucalptus (all sorts)
Citrus (just about everything)
Mystery wood (stuff people find in bulk trash)

Availability all depends on when you happen upon it being cut down or put out in bulk trash. I'm sure others down here can add to the list.