Pollards, the forgotten art-discussion

[josharb87]

out of intrest hamadryad, what do you do with youre tree waste?

 

i think swb was on the right track at cutting where easiest, but if i were to expand on his comment, i think that cutting large amounts of the tree off in times gone by, hard financial times i may add, 1, gave the (compared to todays times) un educated in tree bioliogy customer more satisfaction than having a tip end reduction, 2, it made more firewood, or PRODUCE, and 3, 100 years ago, we diddnt have the 020!

 

the history of urban tree work imo as i see it was 100 years ago they diddnt have the knowledge of tree bioliogy, or tools to fanny about on the ends of branches, so gave nice hard pollards, high pollards, and fells (and dont those pollards still look lovely?) and as machinery and kit progressed, and as people wanted to keep their favorite tree out front of their hoouse, we as tree cutters tryed to give the customer what they want, so started taking less and less off, charging more to do so, so the cutters could afford to waste the waste, rather than sell it to make ends meet, inner city stuff couldnt be shifted, so was distroyed, becomming a new practice. then the brainy ones came allong, and started applying science to our work, science started to take over, and all of a sudden, pollards were evil, big wounds, trees in shock, wont recover ect. science takes over, and the art of pollarding and big reductions is lost and is seen as a bit of a taboo (to some)

 

you say london and surrounding counties waste alot? well may i ask what the tree surgeons are to do with the arisings? is there a more cost effictive, ecological benificial way of removing large ammounts of branches and cord from the middle of a busy city than to chip, and dump? maybe its not the tree gangs you should be targeting youre opinions at, but the places they dump their 100% natural, biodegradeable, re-useable produce?

[geoff]

Nice bowl.

I think the way to go to would be to go down the line of the ancient crafts route, the pollard is and ancient craft like willow weaving and basketry, there is a few grants out there if you own or manage woodlands from the FC, and there is groups out there that are trying to promote and educate people and the goverment about the need to keep the legacy of incient skills and crafts alive for future generations. this might be of use or not?

 

Heritage Crafts Association

 

Forestry Commission - Woodland Management Grant

 

Good shout !

[geoff]

I agree with the crafts route and modern twist on pollard products, thats what i have been doing.. look at my website. BUT it costs, and as stevie says only rich people can be green / organic in this country. Until there is a change from the 'lets get it delivered to the door by tescos' rather than use the local shop then we are doomed, well not doomed but it is a very neiche market, and one that takes a lot of effort to work.

And its about education - people we work for need to know that to 'tree- cycle ' their tree into a peice of furniture is an option. Most dont know it can be done, cos the tree man wants the wood for his log delivery. The amount of people that enjoy the fact that the tree can been re used is up to us.. but it will only be the wealthy ones that can take it on board IMO. Councils etc should and could, we have done work that helped their crediability no end, but more could be done..

 

What if councils or contract managers had to be more aware of what happens to the 'waste', if they could get some new benchs for a park, or play stuff for a school, THAT is the future, then you can start doing URBAN pollarding and the likes, as people will see that the produce has been used and then they will get the picture.. IMO !!

 

[Mozza]

Im a fan of pollards, i think they can look really good

 

 

I think thats about as far as my input will go on this thread , Very interesting read tho!

[Stephen Blair]

i never saw stans post geof, yes a good one indeed, and i totally agree BUT the folk that do all the moaning and groaning and leter writing, walking through ticky tape and demanding to know why, who gave the permision blah blah blah are the toffs, who are out walking their ridge backs and vimeranas and have the brass neck to walk into our sites and give us abuse on how bad the tree looks, and then they head back home to call up their old chum who is a judge or lawyer on memeber of a board of something official, (toffs dont have mobiles by the way)then 10 minutes later we get stopped and told to give them a bit of a thin out, thats why if you look round all the street trees or park trees that have had remedial work done, there is always one half pollarded somewhere..But whats even better, they pop round again in the afternoon for more walkies and ask for the firewood, ha ha. they dont wan to give you a penny for it and make you feel as if they are doing you a favour. lol i would rather throw it on a fire or down a banking. So this also goes back to the days gone by where the workers morral on the big estates were all cap in hand bitterness, so when you got a chance to get one over on the laird they usually did.

[Stephen Blair]

Im a fan of pollards, i think they can look really good

 

 

I think thats about as far as my input will go on this thread , Very interesting read tho!

 

if you have a huge chipper and 3 workers then pollards are great, now that i have a 4 inch chipper, a van and 1 lad then its tickle tickle time:thumbup1:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Your arguments seem somewhat contradictory, earlier you where telling us that trees are "self pollarding" and now you are saying they need YOU to save them???

 

skyhuck, do not patronise the c--p out of me, youre a stick giver, and you KNOW exactly what youre saying when you say it!

 

whilst many trees fall apart and go on to live a long life, pollards have very different structures at the pollard head, collapse tends to be far more disruptive to them than an uncut tree.

 

and so what if i think i am THAT capable?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

i never saw stans post geof, yes a good one indeed, and i totally agree BUT the folk that do all the moaning and groaning and leter writing, walking through ticky tape and demanding to know why, who gave the permision blah blah blah are the toffs, who are out walking their ridge backs and vimeranas and have the brass neck to walk into our sites and give us abuse on how bad the tree looks, and then they head back home to call up their old chum who is a judge or lawyer on memeber of a board of something official, (toffs dont have mobiles by the way)then 10 minutes later we get stopped and told to give them a bit of a thin out, thats why if you look round all the street trees or park trees that have had remedial work done, there is always one half pollarded somewhere..But whats even better, they pop round again in the afternoon for more walkies and ask for the firewood, ha ha. they dont wan to give you a penny for it and make you feel as if they are doing you a favour. lol i would rather throw it on a fire or down a banking. So this also goes back to the days gone by where the workers morral on the big estates were all cap in hand bitterness, so when you got a chance to get one over on the laird they usually did.

 

so cynical! know where your coming from though!

[geoff]

Your arguments seem somewhat contradictory, earlier you where telling us that trees are "self pollarding" and now you are saying they need YOU to save them???

 

I may be wrong, but trees can maybe be capable of self pollarding.

but surely those that we have inflicted coppice and pollard upon through our endeavours,both past (for a product), and modern,maybe a row of street trees to be retained rather than cut down ,gives us an obligation to cary on our enforced relationship with these long lived trees!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

out of intrest hamadryad, what do you do with youre tree waste?

 

i think swb was on the right track at cutting where easiest, but if i were to expand on his comment, i think that cutting large amounts of the tree off in times gone by, hard financial times i may add, 1, gave the (compared to todays times) un educated in tree bioliogy customer more satisfaction than having a tip end reduction, 2, it made more firewood, or PRODUCE, and 3, 100 years ago, we diddnt have the 020!

 

the history of urban tree work imo as i see it was 100 years ago they diddnt have the knowledge of tree bioliogy, or tools to fanny about on the ends of branches, so gave nice hard pollards, high pollards, and fells (and dont those pollards still look lovely?) and as machinery and kit progressed, and as people wanted to keep their favorite tree out front of their hoouse, we as tree cutters tryed to give the customer what they want, so started taking less and less off, charging more to do so, so the cutters could afford to waste the waste, rather than sell it to make ends meet, inner city stuff couldnt be shifted, so was distroyed, becomming a new practice. then the brainy ones came allong, and started applying science to our work, science started to take over, and all of a sudden, pollards were evil, big wounds, trees in shock, wont recover ect. science takes over, and the art of pollarding and big reductions is lost and is seen as a bit of a taboo (to some)

 

you say london and surrounding counties waste alot? well may i ask what the tree surgeons are to do with the arisings? is there a more cost effictive, ecological benificial way of removing large ammounts of branches and cord from the middle of a busy city than to chip, and dump? maybe its not the tree gangs you should be targeting youre opinions at, but the places they dump their 100% natural, biodegradeable, re-useable produce?

 

some really good points there.

 

well i am in a semi rural area these days, all our chip goes to power plant at slough, rent on storage is even with returns so nothing major about that route to be said.

 

I do think your right about having some kind of system inner city especialy for making best use and not only value from waste but also best use in terms of carbon cycle and reduction of imports etc.

 

we do need to get back to a more local produce system, and i mean the world over.

 

councils are great at "new ideas" green things" and generaly wasting money, lets push and use this to our advantage and at least get them wasting money more effectivley and environmentally friendly!