Advise needed on Storm damaged tree, should it stay ?

[Wonky]

Good evening all.

 

as I'm sure there will be better peeps out there that know a lot more than I will ever know, I’m looking for some clarification on this tree, 

so storm Eunice is what did this, 2 large branches , the upper one being approx 16” diameter and the lower being 18” 

 

so the question is how safe is this tree now it’s lost about half of the main trunk, the tree is approx 70’ tall 

 

hopefully you can see from the  pics 

btw, that’s a 20” bar on a 036 in the last pic 

 

cheers

 

[Khriss]

Its not looking good, but you will get a better swing in yr driveway. K

[Dan Maynard]

Well, before you had a hidden defect with potential for failure, now you have an exposed defect. Arguably that's safer now because you can see what's going on.

 

Question to me is how much tissue the tree manages to put on before the exposed heartwood decays, if there aren't targets around I would leave it a year or two and see what it does before condemning. If it's by a public footpath then probably not a risk to take.

[Spruce Pirate]

It'll be fine.

[Mick Dempsey]

It should go even without the storm damage.

What possible purpose does a row of overgrown leylandii serve in that situation?

[Sutton]

21 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

It should go even without the storm damage.

What possible purpose does a row of overgrown leylandii serve in that situation?

Windbreak or screen for polytunnels?

[Mick Dempsey]

Why would you need a windbreak for polytunnels?

[peds]

29 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Why would you need a windbreak for polytunnels?

They aren't windproof, even expertly-made ones. An effective wind barrier can mean the difference between a 10 year lifetime and squeezing 20 years out of the polythene. 

 

Seeing as we've spotted the tunnels in the background, here's another reason from an organic grower's perspective... a nice thick bit of vegetation between you and the neighbour can provide a buffer for catching spray from application of  pesticides, herbicides, fertiliser, etc, and is occasionally necessary for organic certification, depending on the geography, topography, and of course, the neighbour. 

[Mick Dempsey]

Fair enough, every day a school day. 

[Wonky]

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

It should go even without the storm damage.

What possible purpose does a row of overgrown leylandii serve in that situation?

It was planted many moons ago, there are whole rows of them. They were and still are wind breaks, albeit overgrown now as they were left to do there own thing by the council when they started buying the flowers from Europe as it was cheaper. Etc…. Then it was given to a group for pepper corn rent 20yrs ago.

the way this whole group operate is they are on the boundary of each plot, so in effect nobody wants to deal with them 

 

there was a shed fire a few yrs ago and 4 or 5 got damaged, they stood there for quite a few yrs, then one of the plots became vacant, they then got felled. This was because the occupants on the other side didn’t want to loose 3k worth of poly tunnels, we felled them for them & got paid just to fell them. (Less than £200) because they are poor. Well they say they are etc.

At the time, I said they as a whole group need to look at this problem, because one day it will happen again. So here we are… we will see what gets said in there next group meeting,

 

now this storm damage tree is on a access road that has a lot of public and dog walkers etc.

 

Have look at these pics.😉  

the longer area marked in red is where we took out the 5 trees the smaller red circle is this latest tree 

the other pic is the dead trees we felled

btw the whole plot of land is certified organic..

I could add more but I will leave it at this for the moment 😉

cheers for your helpful replies. 

[peds]

Despite the politics you describe, that looks like a great growspace. I'm sure there's a lot of exciting things going on. Can I ask where it is, does it have a name?