Mindless tree vandalism

[Matthew Arnold]

Something I came across yesterday that annoyed me quite a bit,not quite the same but deliberate vandalism just the same. A fencing contractor recently put up a stretch of stock fence for our neighbour, just so they could keep the fence in a nice straight line they cut off buttresses from several ash trees. One of them is a lovely specimen with a trunk of 6' DBH

 

Had a local farmer do that to one of his oaks. He cut the butresses off as much as possible and then just ripped the roots out with a big swing bucket just so he could get the posts in the exact same spots. The tree is still standing but when we had the wind and rain you could hear it sucking clearly.

[sloth]

Something I came across yesterday that annoyed me quite a bit,not quite the same but deliberate vandalism just the same. A fencing contractor recently put up a stretch of stock fence for our neighbour, just so they could keep the fence in a nice straight line they cut off buttresses from several ash trees. One of them is a lovely specimen with a trunk of 6' DBH

 

Were they your trees, or tpo/conservation area? That is very poor

[Rebel_Commando]

Were they your trees, or tpo/conservation area? That is very poor

 

No not my trees, I'm not sure who the owners are tbh. The farmer who had the fencing done is a tenant farmer on the estate we live on but I think the hedgerow belongs to the farm the other side of us who have bought their farm from the estate.

 

I came across some other fencing butchery too not too far away, that was done around the same time (not sure if it was the same company) but they had cut a row of hedgerow trees off a breast height for about a hundred yards then put the fence up!

 

I think this is a bit of a grey area of when a hedge becomes a row of trees?

It was originally a hedgrow but when you have regrowth stems of 12" I'd say it's definitely a tree?! Plus this "hedge" borders a NNR so might possible have restrictions on it?

[Sam Thompson]

No not my trees, I'm not sure who the owners are tbh. The farmer who had the fencing done is a tenant farmer on the estate we live on but I think the hedgerow belongs to the farm the other side of us who have bought their farm from the estate.

 

If it's let on a Farm Business Tenancy then he could/should/will be in serious trouble under 5.6 (B) as long as his tenancy has that clause in, yet to see one that doesn't;

 

"The Tenant will prevent trees, saplings and hedges on the Holding from being injured by livestock and will not attach any wire to them or damage or injure them in any way. If any tree, sapling or hedge is damaged or injured the Tenant will replace it with equivalent stock on the first suitable occasion."

[openspaceman]

Perhaps not as effective as treating softwood then.

If you are using untreated hardwood (oak or sweetchestnut) then it wood provide protection above the natural resistance of the timber.

 

No but most treated softwood is done badly. The stake fails and gets abandoned or worse burned. At least chestnut degrades gracefully. Old chestnit fencing is also good firewodd as though it dries slowly it resists re wetting, so the above ground bit remains dry. I'm burning some old pales at home now. Surprising for a May bank holiday.

 

I reiterate charring is likely to reduce the life of the stake.

[jhonnyjigsaw]

I would beat them up if i saw them i would give em a good jhonnyjigsawing ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[treeseer]

Heat-treating seems to have merit, to disinfect and preserve. Cauterization. Not to the point of cracking or charring, though.

 

Live oak, q virginiana wood left exposed to the sun gets petrified.