To Coronet or Not to Coronet, now that is a question

[Turbo Badger]

We have done a fair amount of this work at our company for the last 10 years, and it has even taken us as far a field as Sweden. I prefer the term Natural Fracture pruning, as i think the idea is to mimic nature rather than create what usually ends up looking like a meat tenderiser.

The way it was explained to me, is it is niche work and has to be used in moderation for the right situation. You are pruning with nature conservation in mind, and it is still a developing side of modern arboriculture....so you can't get it wrong.

[Danavan]

We have done a fair amount of this work at our company for the last 10 years, and it has even taken us as far a field as Sweden. I prefer the term Natural Fracture pruning, as i think the idea is to mimic nature rather than create what usually ends up looking like a meat tenderiser.

The way it was explained to me, is it is niche work and has to be used in moderation for the right situation. You are pruning with nature conservation in mind, and it is still a developing side of modern arboriculture....so you can't get it wrong.

 

Top words & sight into the future of arb work in the making:thumbup1:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Top words & sight into the future of arb work in the making:thumbup1:

 

Ditto and welcome to the AT forum badger:thumbup:

[biglog]

The coronet cuts I have seen in this thread are 100 times better than any I have ever seen in reality. The ones I have seen look awful! I'd imagine it takes a lot of skill and artistic flair not possessed by all to make them look any good at all. I personally would not do them by choice. What sort of chardes do people put on this work? Id imagine it's considerable compared normal finishing cuts?

[armchairarborist]

I was going to have a bash at skydiving, better hurry up or there will be a coronet or two near every landing..

[David Humphries]

This had been bugging me for a couple of weeks, so as we drove past on another errand today, I pulled over, dusted off the old "howards" and gave these two branches a tickle

 

Story is that this cycle path has just been re-layed by contractors, and someone (I know not whom) reduced these two branches for plant clearance.

 

Me not likey the finish, so coros became the order of the day.

 

.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

good stuff david, liking the monochrome.

[chris cnc]

i am a big fan of coronets/ natural fracture pruning, when the cuts are made to look natural i think it looks... well... natural. which is good. and of course the wildlife benefits are obvious.

 

my question is concerning the annual inspection and maintenance of these habitats.

 

what is the average lifespan of one of these mono's, in say a public park or well- used woodland?

 

am i right in saying that at around the time which the mono has to be removed due to safety risk, is probably the same time it reaches its peak in terms of habitat value? ie the more decayed/ dangerous it gets, the more diverse the habitat?

 

what are your thoughts on creating a habitat like this, considering that you will inevitably have to destroy it a couple of years down the line?

[David Humphries]

Really good question Chris.

 

i can only comment on my own site, but for me the key is knowing what came before, what you've created & what you may possibly need to create in terms of SDT's (standing dead trees) in the future.

 

My Monos are plotted & inspected annualy, and if needed, due to deterioration or access change, are reduced or removed accordingly.

 

We're just about to instigate an invertebrate survey on a selection of different age, sites & species, and I'm constantly recording what i come across ( like the Fomes fomentarius I found on a Birch sdt couple of weeks back)

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/12214-beauty-standing-deadwood-6.html

 

Or this Beech mono, which was created 5 years ago, reduced last year & found Ganoderma pfeifferi on last week.

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/tree-health-care/6708-return-jaws.html

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/fungi-pictures/558-tis-season-see-fungi-fa-la-la-la-la-81.html

post 804

 

 

Time scales are different for different people & different sites, for me I'm actively involved with one site (HH) for the last 25 years & may well be here for another 25 years.

If not, the catalogued work will be handed over to my successor, so it would be up to them and/or the mangement stratergy of the site in the future.

 

 

Continuity being the real key.

 

 

This is very mugh a work in progress, and will be refined as we go.

 

 

D

 

 

.

[chris cnc]

thanks for the reply monkey d, really interesting

 

sounds like the whole place is on a constant, flowing management plan.

 

as you are quite obviously keen on creating these monos for habitat, do you ever feel guilty about destroying them?