Pragmatic approach to dealing with Ash trees

[Khriss]

Bit of a bandwagon. Lot of dead elms on my manor, but occasional vigorous specimen I clear all dead n leave him to thrive for Letterstreaks butterflies. One day they will prevail ? k

[MattyF]

I have never seen the Ash so far behind the Oak. I've watched them both most of my life, as my dad always used to tell the old "Oak before Ash and we're in for an splash, Ash before Oak and we'er in for a soak" ditty.

 

In my experience the Oak and Ash generally come into leaf pretty much together, sure I've seen them both leaf very late, but together or with a few days of each other. This year the Oak have been out for weeks and many Ash have nothing, others only just starting to leaf.

 

It is probably the driest spring I can recall, after a pretty dry winter and of cause the very dry summer last year. Don't think I've ever known the land so dry. I guess with Ash having very low water content in the timber, this dryness is having an affect?

Think that’s a good point , I was on a site the other day that the ash in wetter parts where out in full leaf or flowering and the ones higher up either to being colder or lack of water where not showing any signs , not even flowers but I’ve seen trees be a lot later than now over the last five years and mid summer look fine..

I think now is a critical time not to have a knee jerk reaction and fell trees off that they may potentially have chalara or even if they do be building up an immunity to it when we have had the driest spring and a load of other unsettled weather patterns over the last few years ... I’ve seen elms behave very peculiar and still survive and remain iconic trees in areas where if they had given them a chance in the proper DED felling days a lot more would still of survived.

[Woodworks]

 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, skyhuck said:

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It is probably the driest spring I can recall, after a pretty dry winter and of cause the very dry summer last year. Don't think I've ever known the land so dry. I guess with Ash having very low water content in the timber, this dryness is having an affect?

We have had loads fo dry springs in recent years. The ash is last out in all of them so not panicking about the fact the ash is late. They are now coming into leaf here but you can see the die back clearly now.

[Woodworks]

And anyone know why when I quote these numbers come up in the quote?

[Woodworks]

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Big J said:

 

 

If you're not allowing them to grow too tall then they aren't going to be a safety issue so I'd perhaps just continue on as you have been. 

Depends on what you call tall. Some are quite big enough that branches falling during felling could knock me into the middle of next week. I don't fancy felling trees that are shedding on me as there is nowhere to go when working on a Devon bank. It was the thread about using grabs on diggers to deal with dying ash that got me thinking. Quite happy leaving the younger smaller trees to see how they fair. Most of our hedges are on neighboring boundaries or the road so it all needs considering. 

[MattyF]

Another thing is a lot of ash for as long as I can remember especially road side trees usually due to root damage through ditching or agriculture have been manky half dead canker and inonotus ridden.. it’s only because people are looking for chalara they are noticing just how bad the older tree stock is.. again though they are important trees providing habitat to wildlife and fauna and should be managed appropriately with felling as a last resort.

[Stere]

Alot of the roadside trees iv'e noticed are definetely 100% dead not just late as all of the smaller branches & twigs have fallen off. ?

[Woodworks]

1 hour ago, Stere said:

Alot of the roadside trees iv'e noticed are definetely 100% dead not just late as all of the smaller branches & twigs have fallen off. ?

What part of the world? Drove up to east Dorset last week and plenty showing early signs beside the roads but no obviously dead yet. 

[Paul in the woods]

Well, as a pragmatic woodland owner with ash trees of all ages it's something I'm having to seriously think about.

 

Firstly, yes it would be great to leave all the ash trees to see if any have resistance but at what cost? Will the government help pay to remove large dead trees? Is it wise to leave large areas of mostly ash and then have to start from scratch when they all die and fall over? What about my firewood supply - like many woodlands honey fungus is everywhere so as soon as the ash develop ash dieback the honey fungus will soon make the wood useless.

 

So, last winter I decided to start removing ash that seemed to be affected. They were healthy trees a year or two previously (I have a fair bit of canker and other damage in ash so I know what that looks like). I'm favouring removing ash when thinning mixed areas and will start harvesting a few other ash trees to make room for planting up with alternatives.

 

 

[lux]

I’ve got 10 acres that is probably 60 to 70 percent ash. Lots of die back.
Leaf litter is a big problem as chalara remains in the petiole and as then will cycle back into the tree. There is no correlation in die back in the crown to any sort of chalara based damage at the roots so you only need to be concerned about falling dead wood etc. If you have a honey fungus present in the location it will attack the trees weekend by chalara so basal inspections are still important.
I have deliberately let some pollarded ash lapse. They were pollarded by the previous owner of the property and I’ve been here nearly 4 years now. The lapsed pollards couldn’t look healthier but the rest of the wood is all suffering. My assumption is it’s linked to the lack of leaf litter due to the pollard.
For me it’s just a case of working on trees near my house which pose risk. As for the woodland part of the garden I let nature take its course and deal with what comes which typically means clearing them after they fall.
I did investigate grants for replanting but you need a minimum of 12 acres to be eligible for the grant.