Horse Chestnut Management

[alliaria]

Hi,

Anyone out there responsible for managing urban Horse chestnuts that are showing signs of pseudomonas. I,ve surveyed hundreds with similar symptoms-exudate, partially occluded lesions, yellowing leaves, partial upper crown dieback etc. and left all but the most severe standing. Now one has failed and totalled a car, no big deal nobody hurt, but suddenly i,m negligent even though,as I pointed out, if I took out all similar trees I will be removing scores of them. So how do you lot manage your HC trees. Sorry about the rant but I,m genuinely interested.

Cheers

[toprotter]

Not sure the owner thought no big deal ! lol

If you had been monitoring the said tree then you are responsible did you have a monitoring schedule in place etc?

If you wrote a report hope you stated " No tree is 100% safe "

[alliaria]

I rated it as a possible failure and serious injury on our limited risk matrix, and suggested an annual re inspection. It failed, only limb mind, 2 days before reinspection date.

[toprotter]

Sods law !

Do you work for LA ?

[toprotter]

Hopefully it wont start a knee jerk reaction.

pm Austin pick his brain as its his bread and butter and he would tell you how he grades and covers his ass

[alliaria]

L.A.? Yes, knee jerk? possibly

[ukminch]

Difficult one, on my sites I'm keen to retain as many trees as possible, but in areas where cars/buildings etc I ask my surveyor to be cautious for exactly the reasons stated. If it's a fence/shed etc it's an acceptable risk, cars or people or property I would want to do something, which is often a reduction to reduce the risk of failure or unfortunately removal. If it is doomed then replacement sooner rather than later will provide a nice tree sooner.

 

R

 

ps I'm not a surveyor in any way shape or form but as the owner of the company ultimately the buck stops with me so thats how I see it.

[alliaria]

You,re right, problem with reducing HCs though, probably best to remove and replant,

Cheers.

[ukminch]

Whats the problem with reducing HC's? Unfortunately it's about managing the risk in a specific environment, trees left unattended will survive in the way they know best, unfortunately that may not be conjusive to an urban environment.

 

R

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

HC is not in even my top 50 urban trees!

 

They pollard just fine, better a reduction than a fell, but not as good as replacing with an Oak or a beech!