Twin stemmed oak

[Dowie]

Hi,

 

I was asked to have look at this oak that is in a field owned by a friend of the family. She is worried about it as it shed a large limb in early spring. The oak is on the boundary of her land on the bank of a stream. It is twin stemmed has large sections of the upper crown that are dead, (see pictures). It is loosing bark around some of the root buttresses and has a cluster of fungus around one of the buttresses.

 

Two Questions:

 

What is the fungi ?

 

What would people recommend for this tree?

 

My initial thoughts were to reduce the limbs to leave a monolith for habitat, as you can see from the pics it already has some great fracture wounds. The owner is concerned because she wants to rent the field out and is worried in case anyone was to be near it if it lost another large limb.

 

Appreciate any help or thoughts and apologies for the pic quality as I only had

my phone with me.

 

cheers for you help.

Edited June 11, 2011 by Dowie

[Matthew Arnold]

The desicated bracket looks like Inonotus dryadeus. Might have some Honey fungus milling around in there too. I recon deadwood and reduce dying back limbs with coronet cuts where possible. The other option is to fence that area of the field off and let the tree get on with it.