What shall I do with this oak?

[Woodworks]

I am a member of this forum and am fine with felling but have very limited knowledge about tree management so thought it best to post here.

I am in the process of coppicing one of our farm hedges but we have a really interesting oak that I am not keen to cut down as we don't have many oaks on the farm. It is very one sided and slowly pulling the hedge apart but I would like to keep it but preserve the hedge. How would you set about pruning/cutting back this. I can climb as a rock climber but will not use a chainsaw up a tree but happy to use a silky. I can also cut from a safety cage mounted on the farm tractor that can reach about 3-4 meters up.

[geoff]

this will have the wall out at some stage and be lost as a tree, no tension roots, same as atree on a bank, if no pillar root on compression side it will fail at some stage.

 

why not treat it as a headge pollard and retain it for another 100 years and get some logs from it?

 

Thats how I would go with it too.

[top-climber]

I agree with the above comments, like I said befor if your gonna you touch it then decide what it is your going to do, personnaly give it a framework to work with or just don't bother touching it at all, if man is going to touch it then it may aswell be done properly( likewise man has never done anything half hearted in nature befor?!?!) it is very much all or nothing as the only concern is the wall in this scenario not peoples safety so leaving it is best if possible if not you'll not be cold for a while Tom

[Jesse]

I agree, amazing tree. What end result are you looking to get?

 

Same, leave alone.

[Jesse]

this will have the wall out at some stage and be lost as a tree, no tension roots, same as atree on a bank, if no pillar root on compression side it will fail at some stage.

 

why not treat it as a headge pollard and retain it for another 100 years and get some logs from it?

 

Hello Tony, I,d agree but for the fact it looks like they have skanked out all the other trees for fire wood already, just thought it would be nice to leave one standing tree along that bank

[Woodworks]

Hello Tony, I,d agree but for the fact it looks like they have skanked out all the other trees for fire wood already, just thought it would be nice to leave one standing tree along that bank

 

Steady on

 

I am cutting the hedges back because they have been left too long for a healthy hedgerow. We started selling firewood because this work produced more wood the than me and the folks could ever need. Where we have nice standards we leave them and I started this thread because I care about trees. Please don't judge without knowing the whole story.

Edited March 3, 2013 by Woodworks

[richardwale]

Totally agree with tony. Whatever you do to the tree will promote new, obscure growth that will be manageable in the future so do what's best. I always think that trees, mature shrubs ALWAYS look better when cared for.

[C.J]

I would take some weight out of it - leaning side of course

 

I agree - don't do it all this year,give the tree time to adjust.

 

Best longterm solution for tree and wall

[Eddy_t]

Looking at it again, I would make a suggestion that you could remove one branch, it appears to travel horizontally into the field, as it appears to have no growth further in, it may either pull the tree, or fail due to a weighted end, and trim any stubs up, nobody likes a stubbly tree, doesn't look nice! Want a natural look, if you wanna leave em, have a go at coronet cutting, nice habitaty stuff!

 

 

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[treeseer]

I would take some weight out of it - leaning side of course

That makes sense to me.

[Gary Prentice]

this will have the wall out at some stage and be lost as a tree, no tension roots, same as atree on a bank, if no pillar root on compression side it will fail at some stage.

 

why not treat it as a headge pollard and retain it for another 100 years and get some logs from it?

 

This ones still standing:001_tt2: sorry Tony, I just couldn't help myself.