Slashing up an old Oak

[gibbon]

I'm not sure why its dying back. No external signs and no major changes on site. The LA boys felled a similar sized one right beside it which had more dieback.

 

I can see why some people may not agree with the approach. The LA gave the spec and asked for a 5m reduction. I went for this type of prune for 2 reasons. 1) I didn't think I could reduce it by 5m without it looking topped. 2) Regardless of how its pruned it will more than likely continue to continue to die back. I hope it will look more natural like this than like a half dead hat stand.

 

1 advantage of this type of pruning over reducing and "shaping", is that by approaching a non-convormist shape you can leave long healthy branches almost intact and shorten declining limbs without have to fret too much about uniformity. I hate reducing the few healthy branches on a sick tree just for cosmetic reasons

[gibbon]

I took these this morning whilst setting up some more work on the same site.Its a similar reducion on another old Oak that we did last week. It was reduced by 3-4m (no before photos). Full of cavities/cracks all could be retained by slashing up the ends of the limbs to simulate natural failures.

[David Humphries]

Must have some amazing tension roots, sat on that bank.

 

 

 

 

 

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[combined tree services]

nice to see that not everyone feels that tree reductions must leve the tree looking like a lolly pop (not a dig at anyone on here) i personally like to keep the tree looking as un uniformed as possible . on this job i think the corronet cuts are well chosen and really finnished the job off well .

 

Great work guys!!

[Andy R]

not a fan of it tbh. Alot of time spent on "arty" aesthetics when (imo) it should have been spent removing that ivy and performing a more traditional reduction/risk removal/thorough inspection. Can't all be positive replies though eh?

[onelab]

Wow! I'v never seen that done before.

 

Hi Gibbon. Im new here.

I can see the benefits of that type of reduction but some of the people i work for would have a fit if i did that

 

Does the job take much longer doing it that way as opposed to the "traditional way"?

[gibbon]

Another Oak slashed up.

 

This one had 2 declining stems overhanging the lawned area of a block of flats. The stems had Laetiporus sulphureus and there was some honey fungus at the base. The tree shed a 2nd major limb in the summer.