Managing Trees with Decay & Dysfunction

[David Humphries]

10 hours ago, Jake Andrews said:

Monolithed this sycamore yesterday at an estate we manage.

On the other side of the hedge is a busy A road and a not so busy footpath adjacent. Prevailing wind heads towards the road and the site is very exposed.

The tree had been vandalised around 3 years ago and the bark peeled off the lower trunk on the right hand side. Flammulina velutipes has colonised the dysfunctional trunk with Armillaria sp. also present but the species unknown.

 

Due to the dysfunctional trunk, the tree has gone into severe decline on the right hand side of the picture and so the decision was made to remove the sail area, although the tree was not a stability risk.

Hopefully the trunk will remain standing for quite a few years to come.  

Very good management Jake, like that 

[sean]

10 hours ago, Jake Andrews said:

Monolithed this sycamore yesterday at an estate we manage.

On the other side of the hedge is a busy A road and a not so busy footpath adjacent. Prevailing wind heads towards the road and the site is very exposed.

The tree had been vandalised around 3 years ago and the bark peeled off the lower trunk on the right hand side. Flammulina velutipes has colonised the dysfunctional trunk with Armillaria sp. also present but the species unknown.

 

Due to the dysfunctional trunk, the tree has gone into severe decline on the right hand side of the picture and so the decision was made to remove the sail area, although the tree was not a stability risk.

Hopefully the trunk will remain standing for quite a few years to come.  

Good work and great to see.

Edited January 17, 2018 by sean

[Jake Andrews]

12 hours ago, David Humphries said:

Very good management Jake, like that 

 

12 hours ago, sean said:

Good work and great to see.

Thanks guys. 

[David Humphries]

Sycamore with a long term colonisation of Kretzschmaria deusta (first noted it in 2008 but the buttress morphology suggests that it has been within this tree for 'much' longer.

 

Fine habitat tree with numerous cavities and cracks that has been home to bats, wood peckers and other assorted feathery things.

 

We reduced the sail by 2/3 meters in 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The canopy has filled out again in the following 9 years so we have just reduced it again to manage the sail in terms of wind load.

Although the core is decayed, the Ketzschmaria appears to have been largely compartmentalised as the buttresses remain intact.

 

Following images are from today.

 

Rob (Dendrophile) in the saddle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gary Prentice]

1 hour ago, David Humphries said:

 

Sycamore with a long term colonisation of Kretzschmaria deusta (first noted it in 2008 but the buttress morphology suggests that it has been within this tree for 'much' longer.

 

I’ve never seen that adaptation in sycamore, in mostly urban situations. 

 

Could the lack lack of environmental stresses be a significant decider between adapting or dying?

 

 

[David Humphries]

3 minutes ago, Gary Prentice said:

I’ve never seen that adaptation in sycamore, in mostly urban situations. 

 

Could the lack lack of environmental stresses be a significant decider between adapting or dying?

 

 

Or perhaps adaptation manifests with good soil quality and good soil moisture level?

[Aliza29]

Sonic Tomograph or Electrical Impedance Tomograph is very useful to detect decay in trees. The Electrical Impedance Tomograph can be used in conjunction with the Sonic Tomograph to provide even more accurate analysis, helping to analyse the type of damage, with the potential to distinguish between cavities and ‘wet’ diseased wood; it is also possible to detect the early stages of decay in the tree.

[David Humphries]

Currently on our 12th annual week trip to Burnham Beeches to help manage the very old lapsed beech pollards.

 

This year we have a friend from Catalonia  joining the team to help us with the work.

We met Oriol in the Basque last year whilst working on the pollards there and invited him over to see how we do things here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday saw us host a field day for Arborists & Ecologists to have a look at the work and discuss the management and condition of the trees.

 

 

 

 

Mixed views ranging from doing too much reduction to not enough.

 

The most interesting point was how variable the growth conditions for old beech trees are across the South & East of the UK.

 

What you can get away with at one site doesn't necessarily mean you can duplicate that as a prescription at different sites with differing climate & soils even from a relatively local UK perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gary Prentice]

Some terrific trees & photos David 

[David Humphries]

Roadside veteran beech pollard that we reduced by high line three years ago due to extensive Kretzschmaria & Ganoderma colonisations and associated soft & white rot.

 

 

Even with a very thin residual wall the tree has put on a lot of extended regrowth over the last three growing seasons and required another cut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We set up the ultra static high line again on a couple of adjacent oak and beech maidens.

 

Rob (#Dendrophile) in the saddle on his last climb with us before heading back to Denmark on a new adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're hoping this second cut will limit the apical growth and stimulate extension in the lower stunted epicormic shoots.