In praise of the box elder tree

I have box elder trees on my property.  Lots of them.  Most everyone considers box elder to be “junk trees”.  I know I did.  They sprout everywhere, the grow incredibly fast, the wood is too weak to do anything with, if you cut them down they sprout right back, they aren’t good for firewood…  On the other hand, the problem is the solution, right?  So, I gave this a little more thought.

If I could name the one thing that has had the most impact on my food forest and my gardens, it would be wood chips, hands down.  That single thing has made an enormous difference in the amount of soil I am able to build, and the amount of healthy food I can grow. The best wood for wood chips is ramial wood.  It has the perfect ratio of green to brown and doesn’t need anything added to compost well.  You probably know where this is going.

Box elders sprout up everywhere, and cutting them down doesn’t hurt them…  Sounds like pretty much the ultimate type of coppice tree.  And since coppicing makes the best wood for wood chips, box elder may be a very worthwhile tree after all.  I started cutting mine at about 3 feet above the ground.  In no time, many, many new branches sprout and quickly grow to the ideal size.  I cut them when they are about thumb sized.  Smaller and it takes too many to get many chips, and larger, you start losing the perfect green/brown ratio.  So, for me, thumb size is ideal.

Another great use of box elder is hugelculture.  The wood rots fast with ground contact, and so should be productive in hugelculture sooner than wood that takes longer to break down.  The wood “sponge” will be ready after the first year I would think.  You could coppice your larger trees for hugel beds without harming the tree, and they spring right back.  It’s also very easy to start more of them if you like.
It seems like this tree that everyone considers a weed tree may just end up to be one of my most valuable trees.

I think they can also be tapped and maple syrup be made from them.

Thanks for putting such a positive spin on this tree.  I don't personally like them at all, and I would not import them to my property.  But I agree with all of the statements made, and think that anyone with a population of box elder could use those ideas.

I wonder how they would work for goat fodder?

We have a lot of soft maples that fill a similar niche to box elder.  The trees on my property that I dislike most are the aspen/poplar trees.  They grow big and fast, then die and fall on fences and buildings.  I have them cleared back far enough from my house that they are no threat to my home, but barns and outbuildings are at risk.  I try to fell them when they are around 6 in diameter, as they are manageable.  Much bigger than that, and I have a hard time controlling where they fall.  I feed the aspen branches to the goats, and I have thought about building raised beds from the poplar logs.  We burn them for heat, but they burn fast, so you have to "gopher" a lot of wood.  

I like box elders for all the reasons you mention, and they are native to my area.

My favorite tree in Missoula for a long time was a box elder that was given the "club cut" where it was topped about 12 feet up, and then for many decades all the water sprouts were trimmed off in late winter. Over time the trunk became so knobby and gnarly, it was truly a work of art, and when it leafed out out in the spring and started pushing out new water sprouts, it looked like a huge fuzzy bottle brush.

Thomas Dean wrote:I think they can also be tapped and maple syrup be made from them.

Thanks for putting such a positive spin on this tree.  I don't personally like them at all, and I would not import them to my property.  But I agree with all of the statements made, and think that anyone with a population of box elder could use those ideas.

I wonder how they would work for goat fodder?

We have a lot of soft maples that fill a similar niche to box elder.  The trees on my property that I dislike most are the aspen/poplar trees.  They grow big and fast, then die and fall on fences and buildings.  I have them cleared back far enough from my house that they are no threat to my home, but barns and outbuildings are at risk.  I try to fell them when they are around 6 in diameter, as they are manageable.  Much bigger than that, and I have a hard time controlling where they fall.  I feed the aspen branches to the goats, and I have thought about building raised beds from the poplar logs.  We burn them for heat, but they burn fast, so you have to "gopher" a lot of wood.  

Other than the beetles, I love box elder trees. "The poor man's maple," lol. I've tapped them and couldn't tell any difference in the syrup from a sugar maple, and my extremely picky dairy cow would eat the branches or sprouts, so I'm sure a goat would, too. I tried growing mushrooms on the logs, with no success, but I didn't have success with any other types, either, so I blame myself and not the logs.

Only have one box elder on the property.  Seedlings and sprouts are probably grazed off.  I did prune it last year and feed the trimmings to the animals without incident.  If I recall correctly, it is listed as toxic in some places.  Bradford pears and privet are our weed trees/shrubs.  I’m starting to coppice them for animal feed and biochar feedstock.  Red maples also grow vigorously on our property.  I’m doing the same with them.  They make okay firewood, a notch better than yellow poplar, but still lighter than yellow pine.

Box elder discussion was the cause for my first post on Permies many years ago:  https://permies.com/t/21785/Boxelder-Trees

Had to post the photo below of the gnarly old tree that had a tree-fort in it when we purchased the property.  It's lost many limbs over the years, but is still hanging in there.  It laughs at the flood waters that touch its main trunk each year.  Here in northern Minnesota as with many other regions we've lost scads of elms and now are concerned about ash diseases and pests taking out that species.  The high water table and clay content of the Red River Valley tends to be unkind to the roots of many other trees that otherwise would be able to withstand the harsh climate swings from summer to winter.  Have yet to hear of anything threatening box elder and it grows like a champ in this region.  Also, although as a firewood it's not great, it's also not the worst stuff I've burned in the stove.  It is an 'untapped' (har-har) resource to be sure.....but the sap is worth tasting if you have some on your property.

Gray Henon wrote:Only have one box elder on the property.  Seedlings and sprouts are probably grazed off.

Is yours a male, perchance?  Male trees do not make samaras (helicopters) and therefore don't reproduce all over the place.

Thomas Dean wrote:

Gray Henon wrote:Only have one box elder on the property.  Seedlings and sprouts are probably grazed off.

Is yours a male, perchance?  Male trees do not make samaras (helicopters) and therefore don't reproduce all over the place.

Very possible.  I just identified it last year, so I’ll keep an eye on it…

A quick picture showing how well these coppice. This tree was cut by the county crew last year.

I have had box elder trees along a hillside on my property overhanging a railroad track. They drop leaves, seeds, and branches frequently but they still are there!

They are a big reason large parts of the hill are not eroding. I have a different type of maple nearby and realize that with the other maple it had a solid canopy but the box elder allowed dapple sunlight to reach the ground. I have a lot of seeds that grow well in semi-shade and not many in full shade.

The suckering if you cut a tree to a stump can't be understated. As previous commenters have shown, they can be pretty tenacious in their growth.

When we were growing up our front yard boxelder was our jungle gym. I can still remember the smell of the tree and the boxelder bugs with their orange racing stripes.

i think they are also an important tree for wildlife, especially birds. their “fruit” or seed stays on the tree sometimes throughout winter providing food that is otherwise scarce. i disliked them because of the bugs, but have come to appreciate them and glad others are too. tapping them for syrup is genius!

I can talk about boxelder all day long! And the sap appears to be high in antioxidants as it continues to cook to a light syrup throughout the season, indicating the sap is not hosting a growing bacterial population (Why syrup is darker as the season progresses). You can blend it with your darker syrups to achieve premium color, which is one of the criteria for grading syrup. Decades ago I was visiting on a farm in North Dakota with multiple wind breaks of boxelder. They could have hooked up a milker to pump the tap from the trees through tubing and had an added income. They even had the necessary freeze thaw cycle to work with. They weren't persuaded.

Box Elder makes a great carving and wood-turning wood. Very easy to carve!

I read that they have edible young leaves.  Anyone tried cooking them?  I need to hunt around to see if I have any now.

I call them Hydra trees; you cut one and seven more grow back. In my situation on a one acre plot I'm not a fan of Box elders!  Maybe if I lived with more acreage, I could learn to love them....

Besides syrup and heating wood for our masonry stove, they can make nice shade trees if given enough space and no competition. Squirrels love the seeds, and some folks make beautiful things like turned bowls out of the wood that has been infected with a fungus? that turns the interior red. They are native to our area, and if you call them the Manitoba maple they might get more respect.

My neighbor, who cares for horses, told me that box elder is toxic to horses.  I knew that black walnut was, but had not known that about box elder.  I'd feed it sparingly to any animals to start, to be sure it won't harm them, before making it a regular feedstock.  It may be something they eat sporadically, like the cow mentioned earlier, to cleanse themselves of parasites or whatever.  Black walnut hulls are anti-parasitic, so perhaps something about the box elders is as well.  Definitely worth more research if using them as feed is being considered.

I have a huge old box elder tree on my property, and lots of younger volunteers.  (As well as hordes of the bugs each year that sun themselves on the south side of my garage!)  I do need some mulch, so I'll inventory the smaller ones to see if there are enough to rent a chipper and make mulch out of them.  

I also just might see if the large one would be appropriate for a small tree house that I can live my second-childhood dream in!  Lots of good ideas in this thread, thank you!

Outside of the practical uses mentioned in this thread, I was recently reminded that a multi-trunked box elder was my first climbing tree when I was young. I used to scale the trees with ease, much to the worry of my mother.

Memories.