Can this tree be saved after severe intentional damage?

[Amy Foot]

Hi, wondering if anyone could help please. We moved into a new home January 2019 and between viewing and getting the keys, an opportunistic neighbor had attacked our tree (cedras atlantica?). It had been cut all around trunk with a chainsaw, and poison pellets put in above this. Desperate to save it, I removed the pellets and filled the cut with moss and taped around it. More recently we have filled the gap with pieces of a branch we trimmed. It seems to be shedding a ton of needles and looking a really sad colour. I would love to save it but I'm no expert. Is there anything I can do? Is it beyond all hope? Will it die? 

Thanks in advance for any advice. 

[Con]

Wouldn't it be nice, if when it failed, it landed on the summer house.

Looking at the balance though, it would need a bit of persuasion 

[Conor Wright]

Sorry to say, but it's not going to survive that. The trees ability to pass nutrients and water between roots and foliage has been literally cut off.
Excuse my language but what kind of dickhead would do that to someone elses tree?!
Risking going off on a rant here so I'll just leave it.
I'd advise removing the tree sooner rather than later.

[Dan Maynard]

That is shocking, absolutely shocking.

Assuming that's your fence line on the right it looks unbalanced as if it has a history of being trimmed away from the neighbours. Replant on the other side of the garden I guess, if there's a bright side that probably isn't a hugely old tree as they grow quite fast.

[oldwoodcutter]

Certainly not very neighbourly, I think I’d have to go round there and have it out with them.

[AHPP]

Fell it, pallisade fence the garden, inner perimter of pyracantha, small grove of eucalyptus in the middle, rent the house to cannabis growers, go and live somewhere with nicer/no neighbours.

[Amy Foot]

Thanks for the replies. I've used much worse language in many a rant! It's disgusting that someone would do that! I've been stopped from going to have it out with them. Doubt I have a leg to stand on in any legal way. They didn't even put towards new fence and have built a huge ugly summer house! 

Is there really no hope for the tree then? I didn't know if it could heal itself by bridging the gap? It still has some new shoots coming through. 

Why is it better to remove sooner rather than later? 

Thanks

[Steve Bullman]

Those new shoots are panic growth.

 

the reason it’s better to remove it now is because the longer you leave it the more brittle it will become and the more likely to fail 

 

and yes, there’s no hope for the tree, sorry!

[arboriculturist]

So is the tree in the background in image 1 the tree they poured the 5 litres if wood preservative around the base?

[Will C]

What a bunch of ...................................

 

I would be tempted to remove the smaller branches that will fall as it goes brittle, leave the trunk and larger scaffold limbs then paint what is left Bright pink and attach a sign to the top telling everyone that this tree was killed by local vandals at house number xxx  and now they have to look at it until they pay to have it removed and replanted with a semi mature tree.

 

it might not get you anywhere but it would give me some satisfaction .

[Treeation]

Trees been ring barked....I have seen aspen in the woods recover from being ringbarked... we used to ringbark them to leave standing deadwood for habitat, been amazed a few times when we have returned a few months later to see the tree has bridged the gap and carried on living.

 

Disgusting behaviour and Id be asking them to pay for removal. Surely that's tresspass as well as vandalism.

 

Tbh the garden would have become completely dominated by a cedar like this which is only about a tenth of the size that it could potentially grow. Its not a suitable tree for small gardens and is more suited to parkland, large gardens, arboretums etc...I think you probably would of ended removing it in the next decade or 2 once it started becoming ginormous