Is this ash dangerous?

[sandspider]

Hi all

 

A not great photo of two ash trees attached. One has only a few leaves, generally looks a bit thin and sorry for itself, whereas the one next to it looks pretty healthy. I'm guessing the sickly one might have chalara? (Can take closer photos if necessary).

 

Secondly (and I appreciate this is hard to tell from a photo) is it likely to be dangerous? It's still alive to some extent, but not looking great. It's over my drive and probably within range of the house, just about... I'd guess it'll be OK for a year or two more, and will lose the odd (dead) branch before it (dies and) falls completely, but is unlikely to recover? I'm waiting to hear back from a tree surgeon to come and have a look at it, but thought I'd ask here in the meantime.

 

Finally, can anyone estimate a price to take it down? Arisings can be left on site, I'll chop the wood up small for my log burner and can use the chippings too. It's between a main ish road and a private driveway, access is OK though not for anything bigger than a Luton type van...

 

Thank you.

 

[Mick Dempsey]

You clear it up (meaning everything, I’m not stacking, cutting on the deck or helping you in any way once my sainted feet touch the floor) I’ll do you a favour Saturday morning @£300.

 

(no £50 notes please, the pub does not take them)

Edited August 2, 2019 by Mick Dempsey

[Mark Bolam]

You see what I mean?

 

I would have done it cheaper than Mick if you'd said earlier.

[sandspider]

1 hour ago, Mark Bolam said:

You see what I mean?

 

I would have done it cheaper than Mick if you'd said earlier.

Can you do it last week for £200 then?!

[sandspider]

Thanks chaps, I didn't think it looked good.

 

But is it likely to be dangerous, and is it likely to fail suddenly or gradually, branches first? I guess it can't be too bad as long as it still has some live leaves...?

 

I.e., should I have it down this week, this year, next year...?

[Mick Dempsey]

Not suddenly (impossible to be sure)

 

But I’d be keen to see it out before wet ground and high winds.

 

‘pinions vary of course.

[Mark Bolam]

Aye, probably a bit early to hit the panic button but I’d be looking to get it down before the back end of this year.

[Gary Prentice]

There are reports gathered from some of the early experiences of contractors/LAs dealing with Chalra/ash dieback infected trees that deadwood on them is extremely brittle, more so than usual for ash and that some trees even with mostly live crowns are suffering from basal decay (particularly on sites with very wet ground conditions). 

 

I think that the jury is still out as to relationships between the various fungi involved, but it sounds frequent enough to be worth closer attention.

[aspenarb]

As above get it down as soon as possible, if the client leaves it any longer walk away. I recently mulched out a very large compartment of failed/failing Ash , most of it shattered as soon as the machine touched it. I would not be happy sending any of my climbers up dead or dying  Ash.

 

Bob

[swinny]

10 minutes ago, aspenarb said:

As above get it down as soon as possible, if the client leaves it any longer walk away. I recently mulched out a very large compartment of failed/failing Ash , most of it shattered as soon as the machine touched it. I would not be happy sending any of my climbers up dead or dying  Ash.

 

Bob

Theres a lot to be dismantled in a domestic setting though Bob. I've to look at some this weekend and taken a few down allready

[Mark Bolam]

Good point Swinny.

I reckon chalara will boost sales of tracked MEWPS in the next few years.