Black Walnut Wildlife Value

[bigboreblr]

Wondering if black walnut is worth it wildlife wise. I have black walnut bordering my neighbors property. The mature stuff is in poor shape, likely hollow in the middle. Poor timber value.

I got 10-12ft tall young walnuts all over my herdrow area. They need some vine clearancing.

Have some young spruce trees nearby. I know walnut makes that chemical that harms other trees. I don't think anyone will realize the timber value of a few walnuts here. I wont be around long enough for it.

 

[Foggy47]

IMO.....black walnut offers nothing for deer habitat. Squirrels....yeah....not much else.

 

[SwampCat]

I have a lot of squirrels and a few black walnuts. My squirrels dont seem to cut them much

 

[Foggy47]

My old home in Southern MN had a couple of black walnut trees.....and the squirrels would pack every cavity with walnuts. Back then we gave a few five gallon pails of them each year to my wife's grandfather. He liked to break them open with a hammer and pull the meat of of 'em. He spent hours doing this in the winters.

 

[b116757]

I do plant them but not for wildlife benefits my grandkids can harvest the logs someday.

 

[Brian662]

All that grows under my mature walnuts are some brambles, I have seen deer bed in there on occasion.

If we could ever get a frost I'll be getting 15 of them and some bur oak harvested this winter. Prices are crazy high right now. This first harvest will be a canopy cleaner for the next 50+ that need 10 more years. The two harvests will likely pay the entirety of my property purchase price.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I remember winke saying you could cut one black walnut and pay for an acre of land in Iowa in the 90’s. What is a tree bringing today, roughly?

 

[Brian662]

I remember winke saying you could cut one black walnut and pay for an acre of land in Iowa in the 90’s. What is a tree bringing today, roughly?

I remember him saying that too.

The logger told me earlier this week he did a job for a guy that had 16 walnuts, some of which he said were really nice ones and they fetched about $40,000.

My walnut contract is 70% goes to me and the bur oak is 50/50.

 

[bwoods11]

I remember winke saying you could cut one black walnut and pay for an acre of land in Iowa in the 90’s. What is a tree bringing today, roughly?

There’s some good walnut growing in Iowa ! We did a select cut a few years back. Made some $$. We kept some oak and walnut to make a bar in my man cave.

That’s the highlight of my house. At least according to me …

 

[Mortenson]

You want ones like the 3 monsters growing in this pic!

 

[Brian662]

Probably 10 grand or more sitting there

 

[Brian662]

There’s some good walnut growing in Iowa ! We did a select cut a few years back. Made some $$. We kept some oak and walnut to make a bar in my man cave.

That’s the highlight of my house. At least according to me … View attachment 61966

That's awesome

 

[Mortenson]

Probably 10 grand or more sitting there

Yeah at least. I'd assume quite a bit more.

 

[bwoods11]

Walnut log pics from Iowa.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I remember him saying that too.

The logger told me earlier this week he did a job for a guy that had 16 walnuts, some of which he said were really nice ones and they fetched about $40,000.

My walnut contract is 70% goes to me and the bur oak is 50/50.

That’s staggering. I have some on my creek. I’m about to go wrap them in bubble wrap

 

[bwoods11]

I’ve heard of walnut theft on public land. Read an article about how they caught a guy that cut one down and it was valued at over $8000?

 

[Brian662]

Castration is the only allowable punishment for that ^^^

 

[Foggy47]

Regarding walnut values......I can remember folks talking about a huge walnut tree on the Schell's Brewery property along the river valley in MN. It was said that that single tree was in the $100,000 range. Dunno, but it was huge. A logger moved into our area (from MO) in the 80's and started buying walnut logs. He operated a saw mill for other woods......but shipped the large walnut logs to Japan for veneer purposes. He became quite wealthy owned a super home and lots of property in the area.......and many say he scammed allot of farmers who had no idea of their timber value. I don't think those high prices are available these days.....but I really don't know.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I’ve heard of walnut theft on public land. Read an article about how they caught a guy that cut one down and it was valued at over $8000?

Funny I’ve heard of it around here on private land too.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

There are still some properties around that have crazy numbers of walnuts. A few months ago my wife and I made a full price offer days after a walnut filled property hit the market, but someone else made a higher bid and got it. There were probably only 50-75 trees ready for immediate harvest, but literally thousands of walnut trees that I thought could offer a great retirement income in 20+ years.

We've had a number of random straight line winds and big storms take down a lot of trees in our area the last several years, so the trees you save for future harvests are worth nothing until you cut them and get the check.