Downed trees

If you really are in wood working and if you have the time to mill it there is nothing like free wood.’
I used to have free wood in France.
I still have free wood here only because I use crates and palettes.
You could look into buying a small portable sawmill or even make one yourself.
There are tons of free plans on the Internet and on Youtube.
Dead trees are perfectly acceptable to use to build furnitures
If I had access to free wood, I would build one in a heart eat.

Every cut tree is dead. I’d say give it a go. Like Frenchy said, nothing like free wood!

I would not think twice about the free wood.

If you don’t own a moisture meter, get one or borrow one, worth the expense if you mill your own stock.

I own an Alaskan chainsaw mill. This helps cut nice boards, and is great for “smaller” logs.

If the trees are laying on the ground, they might be partially or in the early stages of rotting, aka spalted. Spalted wood can be beautiful, but the spalting is caused by various fungi that you should not inhale. Take the proper precautions and enjoy your discoveries.

Thanks for the info folks. Nicky, an Alaskan chinsaw mill looks like just the ticket. I can’t get a vehicle into the woods safely so I have to carry everything out. The plan is to cut and stack logs in strategic places during the fall/early winter then wait for a good snowfall so I can pull them out on a sled. That’s going to limit the size of what I can haul out.
Art, thanks for the safety tip. I wouldn’t have thought of that.