Tree failure on site last night

[Gareth Dalzell]

We were greeted by this on site this morning. We'd actually gone down to do some heavy shrub pruning but this blew over last night at the front of a hotel at around 9pm - in not very strong wind. We'd noticed this fungus below in October - the culprit? Diameter at base + 1m would be 30"

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2012 by Gareth Dalzell

[RobArb]

Was that path new, in the second pic? Looks like the roots were "removed" to put that path in:001_rolleyes:

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

[Gareth Dalzell]

Was that path new, in the second pic? Looks like the roots were "removed" to put that path in:001_rolleyes:

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

 

The path was put through this area in 1994 just before the hotel openned. It's not visible from the photographs but there are some massive roots that are still sound running below the path - including two big ones around 200-250mm in diameter. Certainly this didn't help the tree but I,m not sure how big a contribution they had the tree falling. I think the ground level may have been increased slightly but again only 4-6" max.

My photo editing/detailing is not very good but in the last picture I'd tried to mark in red that the center of the main stem is mush - about 300mm of the center, this extended up the main stem decreasing as it rose to about 5m high

Edited January 13, 2012 by Gareth Dalzell

[Mark James]

Where's that at Gareth.

[Gareth Dalzell]

Where's that at Gareth.

 

It's the ClandeboyeLodge Hotel Bangor. There's another Ash adjacent which we are going to drop today which is showing numerous signs of rot and basal decay.

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

That's a close call considering the amount of public access.

[Gareth Dalzell]

That's a close call considering the amount of public access.

 

Absolutely frightening - it's one of those situations that doesn't bare thinking about

[Fungus]

this blew over last night at the front of a hotel at around 9pm - in not very strong wind. We'd noticed this fungus below in October - the culprit ?

 

Gareth,

With rusty brown spores ? If so, Pholiota squarrosa, which is quite common on ash and often with these alarming results, because of total decomposition of major roots and/or the trunk's base.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Fungus

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Gareth,

With rusty brown spores ? If so, Pholiota squarrosa, which is quite common on ash and often with these alarming results, because of total decomposition of major roots and/or the trunk's base.

whilst I agree with gerrit that this is most likely p. squarosus I do not think it was a rotten root system least not significant enough to cause the windthrow.

 

shallow root depth and slenderness ratio was principal factor in this case IMO

[Gareth Dalzell]

whilst I agree with gerrit that this is most likely p. squarosus I do not think it was a rotten root system least not significant enough to cause the windthrow.

 

shallow root depth and slenderness ratio was principal factor in this case IMO

 

Thanks guys for the ident - I,m just starting to get my head around sorting out the different fungi around us and that was one of my reasons for posting in the hope that you two would "hop on" and give me a heads up::Many thanks.

 

There certaining is a fair amount of internal rot- probably 30%, but the stem still seemed to be functioning properly. what alarms me is that the rot plate and main roots seemed sound and solid. ? As you mention shallow root and slenderness ratio is looking plausible. Certainly scared the b'jeesus out of the hotel staff.