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Arb Student, identifying Fungus and health and safety implications


Mazzoo
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Hi everyone I'm studying Arboriculture level 4 online. I don't work in the Industry specifically but have studied horticulture level 2 and worked in garden maintenance. I also volunteer (to get more experience with trees/ woodland management)  and have seen this fungus in the garden where I'm volunteering on a Cherry tree. As I'm doing risk assessments and method statements at the moment on the course, I thought I'd choose this tree for my hypothetical subject. 

 

First of all could I ask for your thoughts on identifying the fungus? I was thinking some sort of Ganoderma. Secondly what type of action would be required (I was thinking tree removal?)  and what hazards would be present. Could this tree be badly damaged enough to make it unstable when working on it etc? Would disposal have to be very specific as the tree is infected?  It's close to a pedestrianised area so I'm thinking that would also be a site specific consideration. 

 

Thanks for any input!

20200915_150347 (1).jpg

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  • 1 month later...

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Yep looks ganoderma. 

Difficult to say cause of action but its not always a automatic fell, depends on extent of decay. We have many as highway trees, we try to retain as we can, we some times reduce the crown but that can make things worse. We do change our inspection regime to be more frequent.

Unlikely to be unsafe to climb but again without seeing it hard to say.

 

A photo showing the crown might be helpful to

 

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Just now, tree77 said:

Yep looks ganoderma. 

Difficult to say cause of action but its not always a automatic fell, depends on extent of decay. We have many as highway trees, we try to retain as we can, we some times reduce the crown but that can make things worse. We do change our inspection regime to be more frequent.

Unlikely to be unsafe to climb but again without seeing it hard to say.

 

A photo showing the crown might be helpful to

 

Thanks, not sure if I have photos of the crown. I will update if I have any.

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Firstly, assess the tree for further defects/features and general health, if the tree is already heavily in decline then I would suggest you could prescribe a "remove to ground level" given its in high occupancy area location poor health and presence of decay fungi in a structurally important part of the tree. It would probably be ok to climb but I imagine that would be more down to the contractors own preference based on their expertise.

 

If you wanted to go belts n braces on fungi id you could suggest taking a sample and sending off to Forestry research for an accurate Id (more of a model answer for purposes of assessment than a realworld answer)  but it does defo look like one of the Ganoderma

 

If still in good health - then you could specify the use of further specialist decay investigation techniques - resistograph or picus to assess the amount of sound wood left then a recommendation could be made whether its safe to retain (maybe refer to Matteck's T/ratio as a guide for safety). Also, a conclusion on the type of rot and significance would help to justify your recomendations along with a work priority i.e fell to ground level within 3 months etc...

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Certainly looks like Ganoderma but wouldn't jump in to remove it just yet - look at VTAing the tree and think about targets and likelihood of failure?

 

The only thing lacking is the years of looking and deciding, and making mistakes too, but learning by it.

 

If we were all that risk averse you could remove the digitalis plant on the left too, poisonus but very effective in slowing down a heartbeat in a medical situation...

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12 hours ago, Anno said:

Certainly looks like Ganoderma but wouldn't jump in to remove it just yet - look at VTAing the tree and think about targets and likelihood of failure?

 

The only thing lacking is the years of looking and deciding, and making mistakes too, but learning by it.

 

If we were all that risk averse you could remove the digitalis plant on the left too, poisonus but very effective in slowing down a heartbeat in a medical situation...

What is VTAing?

 

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