dangerous yet? Question from the Czech Republic

[Dances With Snails]

Hello all, where to start? I'm looking for advice as to whether a tree in my garden is a present danger.

I'm English, living in the Czech Republic, in a rural area where very few people speak English. I don't yet speak enough Czech to have a complex conversation. Such as one about tree safety pluls local beaurocracy.

OK, we have a big birch in our garden, that started to lean over. It's leaning towards our neighbours house. My own feeling about it is that it has to come down now. But I don't know and accept I could be wrong. I'll insert some pictures and then write the rest.

 

here he is, leaning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there's our neighbours house that it's leaning towards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The garden was relandscaped maybe a year or two before I moved in. (I've been here about 4 years myself now). I'm told that the base of the tree grew from the level of the lower lawn here. Then the retaining wall was built around it and the trunk was encased with soil up to about 4 feet - which is the situation that you see here in the photo. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the trunk looks ok at the base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but higher up we have this wound

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and this old broken limb in the middle here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and recent winds blew some small branches down that look a bit rotten - as this one for example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall I can see no fruiting bodies anywhere on the tree.

 

OK, back to the situation...

I need the agreement of the local council to get this tree cut down - that's the law here about trees of more than a certain size. But in order to ask them I need first the agreement of the other flat owners in the block. One of these owners doesn't communicate. And of course, I need to do all this in Czech, which is fair enough, unless the tree falls on someone while I'm working on my Czech skills.

If the tree is dangerous NOW then the situation changes. I could simply have it cut down without any one's permission.

I had a tree surgeon come and have a look at it maybe six months ago. He said it would become dangerous but wasn't yet. The problem is that I won't know when it does become dangerous. I would have pointed this out to the tree surgeon, but that was beyond my language skills at the time. So I'm posting this to ask for general advice - for people's views - 

is this tree already dangerous?

If you feel that it is, please post to let me know. If I get a clear message from a few people about this then I'll feel justified in pressing for an immediate felling.

Many thanks in advance.

[Dances With Snails]

Mark J - holy s**t! how did you do that? Online? It's good. I think I owe you a slivovice :)

I think I will submit this. There might of course be a snag - the council might not accept the application unless I have the agreement of the other flat owners - which means the limited company who don't communicate. But who knows. I can try. It's kind of a perfect storm this situation ( hopefully without high winds...). But what I'm doing is basically jumping up and down and shouting at everyone I can see. I reckon that's the only chance of anything happening before the tree just drops. Today I see that the birch nearbye is greening up but this one isn't. That might turn out to be the solution. If it's dead I might not need permission...

 

[Dances With Snails]

1 hour ago, jfc said:

I don't think it is imminently dangerous. I am assuming the Czech system is a bit like it being in a conservation area, and will require an application to remove it. It would be same in UK, unless obviously going to fail very soon. Get you application in and wait the result. Would be a simple easy job to remove it, with rope and winch, fell it, chop it up, tidy. Couple of hours work.

Hi jfc, that sounds right - like a conservation area. Like I just wrote to answer Marc J though, snag is that the main other owner here mostly doesn't communicate, so it may not be possible to make the application properly - that is, in the name of all the owners. If it continues like that then it seems I have to wait for the tree to get to be imminently dangerous, and then get it cut down without the necessity of application. Question then becomes, how to know it's dangerous before it actually falls. Any thoughts on that???

[jfc]

Look at how the tree is weighted and which way is the prevailing wind and see which way it might fall. What is it going to land on? Don't park your car under it, or let kids play underneath in high winds.

[Mark J]

39 minutes ago, Dances With Snails said:

Mark J - holy s**t! how did you do that? Online? It's good. I think I owe you a slivovice

I think I will submit this. There might of course be a snag - the council might not accept the application unless I have the agreement of the other flat owners - which means the limited company who don't communicate. But who knows. I can try. It's kind of a perfect storm this situation ( hopefully without high winds...). But what I'm doing is basically jumping up and down and shouting at everyone I can see. I reckon that's the only chance of anything happening before the tree just drops. Today I see that the birch nearbye is greening up but this one isn't. That might turn out to be the solution. If it's dead I might not need permission...

 

My off and on lass is Czech. She broke my phone by standing on it so owed me a favour.

[Mark J]

At least if you submit a letter and the tree does fail, you've tried.

That's all you can do.

[Dances With Snails]

1 hour ago, jfc said:

Look at how the tree is weighted and which way is the prevailing wind and see which way it might fall. What is it going to land on? Don't park your car under it, or let kids play underneath in high winds.

Thanks

[Dances With Snails]

On 05/05/2019 at 09:58, nepia said:

Get a rope, a nice quiet hand winch and make sure the tree 'falls' the right way at 3am one windy night.  ?

 

Jeez, sounds like you have the worst of bureaucratic cowardice to live with in rural Czech.

Hi Nepia, this does give me an idea...

There's another tree, bit bulkier and bigger i'd say, a birch, away the other side of the dodgy tree. If I could secure a rope or chain around the leaning tree up around the crotch area, and around low on the base of the healthy one, it seems like it would stop the sick tree from being able to fall towards the neighbours house. I don't honestly know if I'd be able to do this, it's just a thought.

Appart from anything else I'm supposed to go on holiday in a couple of weeks and it would be nice to be able to go without having nightmares. Guess I'm looking to know if this is totally stupid. (And I am suspecting it is).

 

[Dances With Snails]

I thought I'd write a short update.

Wrote to co-owner (a limited company) asking for signature agreeing to felling of tree. Nothing.

Wrote to person who owns the limited company personally about it. Nothing.

Wrote to local council, with application - but without co-owner's signature. Nothing until yesterday...

Wrote to neighbour who's house is in path of tree. Informing of situation.

Finally yesterday I went to the local council and spoke (with help) to the mayor in person, who came with his son, who is a forestry professional. They concluded that the tree will be ok until autumn, at which time they will give permission for felling. Our next door neighbour, who happened to be there when they came, also agreed to this.

 

I then drank cider to celebrate this. 

Frankly, after a long time of sticking my neck out trying to get something to happen about this, I count this as a good result. The council and next door neighbour have now taken their share of responsibility. Of course, I hope the local tree surgeons are right, and that the tree will not fall until its felled in the autumn. But if it did fall, at least it would be clear that I have done everything I can.

 

Thanks for reading this. Just had to type it out somehow. 

And Mark J - thanks to your off and on lass for the text.

[Dan Maynard]

Thanks for the update, I think that sounds like a good result.

[Stubby]

Do you have all the above in writing ?