Many people ask about Butternut, and while rare we find them several times a year. While marking a timber harvest in a woodland last week, I managed to take some decent photos of a typical medium-sawtimber Butternut tree, and two of it's pole-sized children. This is a good opportunity to see the differences in bark pattern between young and old butternut trees, as well as their crown shape and growth form. As you can see, there is a reason Butternut was never a dominant tree in our forests, it's just not as aggressive as our other species. This specimen will be protected from harvest, as it's ecological value outweighs any timber value.
