What am I?

[Peter]

Good stuff, thanks very much guys.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

this all sounds good as far as Im concerened, the fact its producing epi is a sure sign its got the guts and will to live through a retrenchment program.

 

the fact the tree is so healthy as you describe indicates that no significant root damge is occuring iether through fungal activity or through human activities. Loss of roots means that somewhere in the crown a branch or limb has to be suffering via its discontiuity with the root. So its all sounding good.

 

The key to the oak and the dryad living a happy and mutualy inclusive life style is leaverages, the oak can stand even with a TR of 0.1 as long as its crown is brought down, iether by natural retrenchment or via human intervention.

 

Short and fat tree in otherwords! the dryads feeding the tree as much as the tree feeds the dryad, it is a very different form of "symbiosis" its an "inclusional" relationship and one to be pervieved in such a way, rather than a detrimental way.

 

think about the trees structural integrity if its short and fat it stands little chance of blowing over, and if its short and fat if it falls apart it wont reach far anyway nor have such wieght of woody volume to cause much in the way of harm.

 

I have seen Oaks that have had dryadeus for so long, that the fungus has devoured the entire dead volume of wood and since past on itslef due to running out of resources because the tree got its second innings and went on to a new lease of life.

 

This is far from the end for this old oak, i envy you the task of resolving the issues on this one.