Would you remove this willow?

[Carlo]

Would you recommend removing this willow? It is about 18 metres high and 12 metres from the house.The residents are concerned it may collapse into the garden or onto the house. In the pictures you can see a bark wound at the base of the stem with the timber decayed to about 100mm deep. On the other side there are about 30 growths from the base up to 3 metres high. I gave one a kick and it came off quite easy leaving a cone shape recess 50mm deep.

 

 

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

pollard it, the growths are nothing to worry about, theyre just nodules of bark

[sean]

as hama said.....that ree has yonks left in it......just keep it on a cycle of pollarding.

[Tony.Price]

Heavy reduction will only invite large cavities at the knucle points and so a weakened crown is created and costly to maintain due to the rapid growth habit (Anual Polarding).

The close proximity to the wall is not ideal.

My advice would be to budget for the removal of the tree and replant in a more suitable place prior to a costly wall repair and in the meantime a suitable crown reduction to reduce sail and retaining a good crown appearance/shape.

It would also be advisable to look at the soil type and local services being only 12m from nearest building prior to the final descision being made.

[Tony.Price]

The gowths shown in the pics are dormant buds or burs.

A bur results from a tree undergoing some form of stress. It may be caused by an injury, virus or fungus. Most burs grow beneath the ground, attached to the roots as a type of malignancy that is generally not discovered until the tree dies or falls over.

Such burs sometimes appear as groups of bulbous protrusions connected by a system of rope-like roots. Almost all bur wood is covered by bark, even if it is underground. Insect infestation and certain types of mold infestation are the most common causes of this condition.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Its already a pollarded tree, re pollarding is the retention option, reduction might not be sufficient to stop torsional moments placing shear stresses on that decayed trunk or old pollard points.

 

Personaly i would fell it for the same reasons tony gave, but its not my tree, and generaly I assume if somone is asking "would I fell something" they are really looking for reasons to retain, because they can see the reasons to fell. Its easy to make a fell call, much harder to justify retention.

[RWTS]

I can see both points of view. My initial opinion is that it is too close to the wall and so will only cause problems in the long run so be cost effective to fell now rather than pollard then fell at a later date.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Please remind me - aren't these heavy drinkers? And if in clay soil really bad news? Dist. from house seemed small

[Carlo]

Thanks for all the advice Guys, to be on the safe side I will advise the resident to have the tree felled.

[VEG]

I agree.