Just one of those things

[Dan Curtis]

A month or so ago, I noticed a rather worrying crack in a veteran Oak pollard that is well known to me.

 

The tree has stood for at least a couple of centuries, and I'm lucky enough to have seen various photographs of it, and the changes in it's surroundings over the last fifty years or so. I have filmed a short climbing video in the canopy, on a day where temperatures dropped to -6! I have more than once been chased from the tree by resident stinging insects, more than once involving falling from it's lower crown! Recreational free climbing is always tempting on it! The tree has quite a drawing power upon me, and it holds quite a place in the arboreal section of my heart.

 

At the time I was debating what course of action to take;

 

Leave it to fail naturally and just tidy up whatever is on the floor

 

Get up there, reduce some weight and hope like hell...

 

Have the whole leader down (approx 1/4 of the canopy) and attempt to create as good a natural fracture as possible, so as to protect the hedgeline from a full failure

 

Fell the tree, sod the ecological value

 

My personal preference was always the first, though the owner was keen to minimise any damage to the hedgerow, if at all possible. I wasn't too keen on climbing and shifting it's natural weight, and MEWP hire wasn't an option readily available, so it was left as a case of watch, wait and see what happens. Thankfully this was an option as the tree stands on private land, with the few people who go near it well aware of what was occuring.

 

 

.

[Dan Curtis]

As time progressed I made regular visits to see if it had cracked further or failed completely.

 

Gradually the crack widened and became visible from both sides of the stem. A gap appeared in the canopy, making it just a matter of time before the limb would fail.

 

To give some scale, I last measured it at 1.97m dbh

[Dan Curtis]

Last Friday night, it came down. Today I cleared it up. Luckily the hedge hasn't sustained too much damage and the brash from the tree has been dead hedged.

 

The stem was severely decayed, brown rot galore! Lots of little Fistulina all over the piece that came down, with Inonotus dryadeus fruiting on the inside of the hollow trunk.

 

The lowest section of the stem, approximately 12ft long and 5ft wide at the bigger end, has been left in the woods adjacent to the tree for it's habitat value. Some of the larger wood will be milled in time, the remainder of the cord will be fire wood.

 

A sad series of events for me but at least the tree still stands.

 

It had been my intention to halo the smaller trees within the woodland so as to give a lateral a chance to get some growth on and leave plenty for the tree to retrench to. I've never before seen anything fruiting on this tree externally, though now I've been able to see inside and find the fruit bodies, I'm not so sure about that course of action! The lateral limb is probably getting on for a failure due to minimal attachment with a fair length and end weight, not to mention severe decay within.

 

Of the two remaining leaders, there is plenty of deadwood habitat, and little overextension/overweighting due to its own retrenchment process. It lacks however, much growth internally, so as it's bringing itself into a more compact size, it's seemingly running out of photosynthetic material, and hollowing as it is, much meristematic tissue.

 

So, courses of action to sustain this tree.....

 

Leave it and see

 

Retrench it with the intention of creating more internal, lower growth

 

Or the one from a rather enthusiastic Hatfield Forest veteran-tree worker "Get some sledgehammers up there, create some exposed cambium!"

 

Any thoughts?

[Jack Price]

Interesting post dan !

[David Humphries]

My thoughts would be retrench, but with a mind for planned future phased retrenchments.

 

modelled on the TEP phases perhaps

 

http://www.treeworks.co.uk/downloads/Retrenchment_pruning_2008.pdf

 

 

Any desicated older brackets in the cavity or closer shots of the current dryadeus Dan?

.

[Dan Curtis]

My thoughts would be retrench, but with a mind for planned future phase retrenchments.

 

modelled on the TEP phases perhaps

 

http://www.treeworks.co.uk/downloads/Retrenchment_pruning_2008.pdf

 

 

Any desicated older brackets in the cavity or closer shots of the current dryadeus Dan?

.

 

Now you've made me doubt the fung I.d.

 

I don't currently have any more photos, it was raining quite hard when I was finishing up so I snapped the few here and got back in the truck! I'll endeavour to get some more. As I said I'd never noted any fb externally, desiccated or otherwise. The stem is hollow down to ground level and now the immediate risk is dealt with, I'll get in and investigate.

 

So off the top of my head, I'd be looking at a 25 year phase. Very interesting David, thanks for the link

Edited September 10, 2013 by Dan Curtis

[difflock]

Is that an older model lovingly cared for Fendt tractor I spied.

Looks very clean.

PS

I found the rest of the post interesting as well.

cheers

marcus

[sloth]

Another vote for retrenchment pruning here, to conserve habitat; looks like very low target value.

[Dan Curtis]

Is that an older model lovingly cared for Fendt tractor I spied.

Looks very clean.

PS

I found the rest of the post interesting as well.

cheers

marcus

 

Haha, a keen eye! It's a Fendt, g reg I believe. Not sure on the model

[Dan Curtis]

Another vote for retrenchment pruning here, to conserve habitat; looks like very low target value.

 

Target wise there's a hedge, other young trees and a bit of crop in the field. Habitat conservation is a high ranking aim here