Juglans Nigra - Black Walnut

The Eastern Black walnut is a species of flowering tree in the hickory family. It can reach heights of 98–130 ft. The wood is highly prized and used to make furniture, flooring, and rifle stocks.

The nuts drop around October in Ohio. Be careful of falling nuts when attempting climbs during that time. They can really hurt. I would recommend a helmet just to walk under the tree in the fall.

Not the best tree to have in your yard but great to have on the back 40. Not too bad for firewood and splits real nice.....Even better to have if you're getting bids to timber your land.

I had a chance to climb one so far.....

I have a beauty of a BW that I use for my climbing academy. True about the nuts. I was setting up for an open climb a few weeks ago and one of the nuts dropped 45' and hit me on the shoulder. I saw it coming and moved my face just in time.

In fact I just was up in it 20 minutes ago, hiking around. The squirrels are getting used to mme I think.

I forgot about the squirrels that usually go hand in hand with larger stands of Walnuts.

It's even worse when you get a cluster of nuts falling at once.

I have a family member that has a big Walnut near their house. In the fall the nuts fall on the roof and almost sound like gun shots. They love the tree too much to take it down. They had me remove a few branches that hung over the roof this year (nothing a large hand saw couldn't handle). This has been the one and only Walnut I've climbed so far. I think they'll be happy and the tree lives to see another day!

I know what you mean about the gunshots. We were up at Keuka Lake this past weekend. The cabin has some big chestnut oaks and a big red oak right next to it. The acorns were falling and it sounded like we landed in a war zone. Banging on the roof, the deck, the picknick tables...so much for a peaceful weekend getaway.
Still beats the usual noise that comes with living in town though.