Tree Pee !

[David Humphries]

Not trees having a leak, but other things having a leak on trees.

 

 

On another thread recently regarding veteran trees Bolthole brought up the interesting point around whether repeated urination would possibly have an effect on the bark of trees.

 

I don't know in detail, but I hear that repeated applications of urine effects the cambium and also the soil. Can someone (David?) comment further?

Might be best not to discuss this in terms of just dogs (although dog urine might well be particularly bad somehow) as in an urban environment it's clearly not just dogs that wee on trees! I think dogs do do it as part of their territorial behaviours though but I'm definitely NOT pointing the finger at dogs or dog owners...

 

This raises an interesting discussion point and deserves its own thread.

 

Having a quick look around the web I found this interesting blog (which I'd already posted on the above mentioned thread) that offers some insight to the potential issue.

 

Why You Shouldn't Let Your Dog Pee on Trees - CityLab

 

The London Tree Officers Association had a working party looking at the issues around dog damage to trees and released a guidance document but to my knowledge we haven't specifically looked at the potential urine issue.

 

If anyone knows of any specific research on this I'd appreciate seeing any links or reading your thoughts.

 

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[Daniël Bos]

I thought it was not just the effect of the "topical application" but also the much increased levels of urea in the soil?

I'm sure I read something somewhere about such, I'll try and find it.

[Macca]

Would the salt in the dogs pee be of high enough concentration to have an negative effect on the tree?

[David Humphries]

Would the salt in the dogs pee be of high enough concentration to have an negative effect on the tree?

 

Repeatedly perhaps, particular on young newly planted thin bark species, who knows ?

 

 

 

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[kev7937]

When we visited new lands corner with college (merrist wood) many years ago they told us the soil had been affected by dog waste in the immediate vicinity to the car park, no references other than my poor memory I'm afraid but someone had looked into it.

[sean]

thin bark species,

 

 

 

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Is that a Dad joke?

[Kveldssanger]

Brief mention here at the bottom of p3. Otherwise, finding any journal articles is proving difficult.

[David Humphries]

...........finding any journal articles is proving difficult.

 

 

Guess no one's fancied putting their nose into it to research the issue lol !

 

Just read this attributed to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation

 

"The high salt content in dog urine draws water out of tree roots and causes the soil at the base of trees to crust over making it virtually impenetrable simulating the effects of a drought. Dog pee, like all mammal urine, also contains ammonium which can be very damaging to tree bark in large doses making the trees susceptible to burrowing insects and oozing diseases like “bacterial wetwood.”

 

 

 

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[Kveldssanger]

Ask Glynn Percival. I hear he's enthusiastic!

 

So from that quote we can ascertain that the golden stuff (not the golden stuff Gordon Brown sold) causes plasmolysis, thereby inducing water stress directly (and then compounded with indirect water stress via glazing over the soil).

 

An interesting line of research yet to be explored it seems, and I'm sure there are plenty of dog owners out there who would be happy to help in allowing just their dogs to piddle up some lovely veteran oaks.

[One Buck]

When we visited new lands corner with college (merrist wood) many years ago they told us the soil had been affected by dog waste in the immediate vicinity to the car park, no references other than my poor memory I'm afraid but someone had looked into it.

 

I think that this is more to do with increased levels of phosphorus from the doggy doo having a detrimental effect on mycorrhizas. I seem to remember Germaine Greer (I think it was) ranting about this happening in her bluebell woods a couple of years ago.