Giles Hill

Hi Sean, The forestry commission website is meant to be a good source for this kind of thing - I found this advice by typing 'management plan' into their search facility. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/guidancenote12.pdf/$FILE/guidancenote12.pdf Take a look at the woodland grant schemes while you're there, apparently we should no the various schemes in outline. What day is your exam BTW?

Yes I'll bow down to the fungi master - I'd never heard of Ischnoderma, but having looked it up it sounds a more likely candidate than Phaeolus.

Phaeolus attacks conifers - it looks a lot like the pic here: http://www.mkweb.co.uk/parks-trust/documents/Fungi_Identification.doc

Phaeolus schweinitzii I do believe, I mistook it for Inonotus on the Tree Life tech cert training day.

Pain in the arm.

I just hope nobody farted near it over the bank holiday.

Must be a Suffolk thing, I love field maple too. Its an understated tree that people don't seem to notice, or they mistake for a small oak. I love the multistem fms growing from great big lapsed-coppice boles that you come across in old hedgerows. Some nice multistem hedgerow ash too. In fact, it's the history side of things that get's me - looking at the tree and thinking of times and society gone by. Big parkland cedars of Lebanon... River valley native black poplars... Saying all that, my guilty pleasure is Variegated tulip trees.

The client did pay for it. I organised it and and took it as a learning oppurtunity!

You're welcome, I had a similar experience with G. resinaceum on an old lapsed pollard oak in a conservation area - it too was leaning toward a house. I went through the above process and the consultant inspected the base of the tree with a Picus tomograph. From the evidence, there dosen't seem to be adequate functional wood and the tree unfortunately is likely to be removed. I'll try to get the trunk retained as a monolith, but that's likely to depend on whether the client is prepared to manage the regrowth.

I should be asleep, so excuse me if I ramble... I would advise the client in writing that: The tree appears to be host to a Gandoerma species, believed to be G resinaceum. Ganoderma won't necessarily kill a tree, but it can decay the stem to the point that the tree falls over. G. resinaceum is said to be one of the more 'aggressive' Ganodermas, but oak can host Ganoderma for many years without failing. Advise the client you can not assess the extent of the decay because it is internal and therefore you recommend they engage a suitably experienced arboriculturist, equipped with appropriate investigative equipment to assess the extent of the decay - or more importantly whether the remaining functional / healthy wood is sufficient to support the tree for a reasonable period. Assuming the tree is suitable for retention, the Arboriculturist should also advise when the tree should be reinspected. The Arboricultrist does not need to be Arb Association registered, but they do need to be suitably experienced / qualified. If you're feeling really helpful, you can advise the client that most local authority tree officers would have recieved reports carried out by such people and they should be able, with a little encouragement to mention companies who are suitably equipped / experienced. TO's don't normally openly recommend companies because they're not supposed to, they should be able to mention a local company that has suitable decay detection equipment and know's how to use it. If that dosen't work, try the neigbouring Local Authorities and if you get really desperate google the words 'Arboricultural consultant' plus the name of your county or nearest town. There's a good reason for the above sounding like an answer in examination...

Thanks for the comments, I'll take a closer look next time I'm over that way.

Timber edgings fixed to posts driven into the ground, or sleepers laid on the ground are often recommended. I usually specify a normal kerb with the footing on top of the existing ground. You just haunch it well, then build the road on the inside on top of the cellular system and cover the haunch with a narrow strip of uncompacted soil, sloped back and graded by hand down to the existing ground level. You can choose the kerb to suit the thickness of cellular system - I've done a detail - I can send you a copy if that helps.

I was thinking the same, but then wondered how unusual it is to get extensive decay like this, without having a parasitic fungi involved? I'm meaning where something else compromises the tree's vigour, so it can't adapt to the decay caused by saprophitic fungi. I guess that happens a fair bit, but I've not been aware of seeing it - possibly because the trees get cut down because of their poor appearance, before they rot as much as this one?

Yes it does thanks!

Thanks a Bundle. Did you mean to post a link? Is it this article? http://www.arbtalk.co.uk/articles/biomechanicaloptimisation.pdf It could be optimisation rather than lifting, however there are fruiting bodies, but no exposed roots on the compression side. I should have taken a picture of the whole tree - the canopy is thin, the lean is prononounced and I don't think there's much evidence of 'phototrpohic adjustment' - is that a proper term? I mean the whole thing is leaning, rather than it straightening out at the ends.

The only thing that's bothering me now is there must be some other factor that's affected the vigour of the tree - there dosen't appear to be any callus growth and as I mentioned earlier the canopy is very sparse. Judging by the above and the lean there seems to be a major problem with the roots. I guess it could be down to root death caused by waterlogging, with water backing up the channel from the adjacent stream. I don't think a load of roots have been severed by excavation, because none of the other trees in the line are in this state. All guess work of course.

There's nothing banked up against it. I can see it looks like there is in the picture, but the ground is flat between the path and the trees and there's a there's a lowered grass channel on the otherside of the trees, running parallel to the path - the ground then rises up the hill. Your point about the ditching bucket sounds feasible though - I guess the tree could have taken a knock if the channel was cleared at some point.

I like the way you're thinking SWB. Unfortunately I don't know the history, but this tree is part of an avenue of trees that have the same relationship to the path, but this is the only one that's in this state. I don't think any channels have been excavated recently - it's a path, not a road. I guess it could have been started off by mechanical damage of some kind at some point in the past, I hadn't noticed the state of the grass and don't know if that's significant. Thinking about it, it is next to a watercourse , which crosses the path - i.e. none of the other trees in the line are next to the watercourse, so that might have something to do with it.

When stuff is submitted with Planning Applications, a lot of Local Authorities put copies online. It makes quite a useful resource. Some people call it plagarism, or borrowing intellectual property. I prefer to think of it as not reinventing the wheel.

You're right, next time I'll photograph it for posterity, then get medieval on it's ass.

This lime is developing quite a lean and has a sparse crown. I couldn't see any evidence of decay fungi - just a lot of decay with insect holes in it. The decayed wood is dry soft and dusty.

I should take a slice, but it seems a shame to 'mess' them up. I'd do it if I was inspecting rather than observing. It's leaning toward a mown grass area in a park - I don't think it gets used much because it's off the beaten track - you can see the beaten track in the picture!

Thanks David, I don't suppose you'd like to guess which one? I'll check it out when it's grown a bit bigger.

I've not managed to put a name to this one, it's lurking between some beech butress roots. I'll check it out when it's grown a bit more. Any ideas in the meantime? The brown shiny bit on the top is part of the bracket, rather than something stuck to it.

That and a few more failures waiting to happen are in a park we go to with the kids. I've dropped a line to the management suggesting they might get someone more qualified than me to do a proper assessment.