Pollards, the forgotten art-discussion

[skyhuck]

 

i aint a smart arse, and I have no education, so forgive my ordasity in having any attempt at an opinion!

 

I am most interest in your opinion, thats why I keep asking you questions.

 

But you don't seem to want to answer them

 

I have VERY Strong opinions and am always happy to explain and justify them

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Sky huck take no notice of me, i just get disspondant when i tried at the start to get this right but no one gets it.

 

I was trying to prove my point that pollarding is not a mystery, that men of old knew more about the decay cycle than we all give them credit for, that even our oldest and most revered pollards with certain techniques involving advantigous root encouragment could be carried over to the next millenia, (for history and learning and continuos habitat) that I KNOW pollarding is/wasnt done initialy with little 6-12inch wounds that these old lapsed pollards just need somone with some balls and experiance to get the retrenching back to a sustainable form etc etc etc

 

and I wasnt suggesting that anyone go HACKING, iether in burnham beeches or in a back yard in a urban area, so Huck, what did you ask me again? I am listening

 

and i cant be on here ALL the time! bear with me, a lot of people have posted!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Not sure the large Beech in my lake that failed due to giant polypore would agree.

 

O.k skyhuck. you asked me for answers to your posts, this one for a start, what do you want me to say to this?

 

go re read that which you think you know, i dont want to make anyone feel putt off posting but that is OLD HAT.

 

merripilus being a "pathogen" is something of much debate.

 

i cant say right now what actualy goes on with a beech infected with merripilus, but it certainly is not always terminal failure, at least not for a long long time, it can fruit on a beech for decades maybe a century before even if it ever does take over.

 

i have a photo of a tree, a beech overcoming ustulina and ganodermas. i wouldnt let it stand next to a house, but I wouldnt fell it iether.

 

i think Andrew cowens work is going to enlighten this subject greatly, we just dont know whats going on under there yet and we shouldnt make too many negative assumptions based on a few fallen trees.

 

come take a walk with me in \whippendell or epping and i will show you DOZENS that have had merripilus for decades.

 

the roots form a typr of structure that i believe has mechanical advantages via gravity, like that of a sitka wide flat, like a coat stand, stand on your hands and youll see what I mean.

[Darren]

Are you talking about the symbiont relationship between fungi and tree?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I think you are reading a little to much into this.

 

Man cut the top of the tree for many reasons. One was because that was were the timber was of the required size and easier to cut.

 

He also wanted regrowth out of reach of browsing animals, this regrowth was allowed to grow to the size required for the job it was going to be used for.

 

The tops were also cut of to provided fodder for animals.

 

He also topped them at various hieghts, some very tall pollards indeed. much of the re growth was for specific tasks, and was certainly grown with understanding of form and they knew how a tree would grow in a certain situation. if you pollard an oak high, it is free from influence of the valuable straight easily reached fodder pollards. ten fifteen maybe 25 years later that form has become one of a normal crown again, out of the influence of lower rgeular pollards, the ship biulder walks in spots the right piecses and the proscess goes again. all the while even annual pollard below with nice clean straights for easy storgae in the cattle sheds.

 

pollarding was more complex a system than I think we are led to believe, just that most have vanished, the actual layouts of the pollarded woods lost in fragmentation.

[Lee Winger]

I know loads of beeches that have been standing for years with merripilus its not news to me, the trouble with us humans we always need to find explanation to things always analyzing, sometimes we should just accept, well that's my opinion

 

Ancient man was far better at accepting............

Edited December 23, 2009 by Lee Winger

[MattyF]

And i know of loads that have fallen over!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Are you talking about the symbiont relationship between fungi and tree?

 

well that aspect too, but I am talking about fungi strategies of decay not nessceseraly being the "negative" they have been viewed as, and that they may be "helpfull" as a tree ages and vascular old age sets in. i mean that maybe Laetiporus, fistulina, etc etc have also a mutualy benificial life

[Lee Winger]

And i know of loads that have fallen over!

 

My point exactly

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

O.k, put it this way, what if fungi are not always if ever as aggressive as percieved, and that providing certain circumstances prevail, the fungi act as retrenchers?