Tree failure

[RobRainford]

Got a call out to this Lombardy Poplar yesterday. It didnt want to be a tree anymore so had a lie down on this familys conservatory, highly inconvenient!

 

After looking closely at the stump, is this a shear bomb crack? the crack is perpendicular to the direction of the fall. Quite a good failure!

 

it seemed a healthy tree, my idea is that it was a right force in the wrong place and it caused it to fail.

 

would it affect the dynamics of the trees around it? it was growing on just inside a group of similar sized poplars, i have picked out a couple others in the group i would recommend out, although i dont want to take one out for it to leave another vulnerable to windthrow.

 

edit: pics on the way!

[RobRainford]

pics here

[MattJordan]

Christ, everyone okay?

[RobRainford]

you can see the ceiling fan on the table that had just been set for breakfast! he was just stirring his mug of tea before he sat down and smash!

[Matthew Arnold]

Not a seperation crack. Just a poor growth point (possibly canker) and right wind speed and direction and bang over she went. The top looks like it was dead judging by the break at the crown.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

i see nothing in these images that suggests anything other than a natural failure induced only by force and a slightly poor slenderness ratio.

 

an unusual situation.

[RobRainford]

Not a seperation crack. Just a poor growth point (possibly canker) and right wind speed and direction and bang over she went. The top looks like it was dead judging by the break at the crown.

 

the break at the top did intrigue me, but the branches had been cleared before i was there so could not assess them, the rest of the stem seemed healthy enough, even when i was cutting it off the roof. i couldnt find any decay.

 

the crack in the stump (which is about 10" high) i could trace down, which indicates a shear in this and that induced a failure. Thats how i see it.

[White Noise]

Wow Rob bit of a job there . Did the removal all go to plan ?

[RobRainford]

Wow Rob bit of a job there . Did the removal all go to plan ?

 

nice and simple, most of the tree was on the ground, i released it at the point where it curved back up to the roof and then just before it was in contact, then i just used a stepladder and used a 200t to piece of the last bits, one roof panel fell in as the weight shifted a bit but other than that it went as i had hoped.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

the break at the top did intrigue me, but the branches had been cleared before i was there so could not assess them, the rest of the stem seemed healthy enough, even when i was cutting it off the roof. i couldnt find any decay.

 

the crack in the stump (which is about 10" high) i could trace down, which indicates a shear in this and that induced a failure. Thats how i see it.

 

No, it isnt that simple rob, the shear bomb actualy releases tension and rarely extends, and it certainly was not the cause of this failure, if it was the failure would have been via a total split almost clean in half with a sharp point to the remaining stump.