ScottF
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Everything posted by ScottF
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Great beach pictures and more proof of the super-toughness of oak. I might try to head down there next low tide. Just down the road from me. Apparently, the foundations of the Roman fort walls in Holyhead are made out of massive oak "sleepers", ca 4th century. Still in excellent condition and holding the walls up admirably.
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Ed from here used to have one. Looked the biz, but I seem to remember the brakes being pretty iffy. Pretty sure that's why they never went fully into UK service. Was quite nifty offroad.
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That ain't an orchid
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minging
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Yep, I didn't see any host plants for UK spp. in the shot. That doesn't mean they're not nearby. I've seen an image of Orobanche hederae with no ivy to be seen. Maybe O. minor then?
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Looks really pale- could it be Orobanche picridis? Brilliant spot if it is.
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I'm slightly shocked and disappointed that you've had the hassle you describe, Gerrit. A bit depressing, really, but certainly not representative. I've found your posts fascinating. As said above, don't let these cretins, whoever they are, get to you.
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I already work for the National Trust, undertaking BS 5837 and detailed risk assessments on specific projects for them. What I say is from first hand, direct experience. And I'm not trying to generate more work. I have plenty. All I'm saying is, we should have some pride in what we do and what we know. I'm sure any other trade would feel slightly irked about "members of the public" (and please do not intimate any sort of derogatory tone where I didn't intend any) doing their job. And that's all I'll have to say on the matter
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I generally use the 12x stem diameter "halo" around trees in the first instance. You really need to have a good reason for drastically offsetting an RPA away from the default circle (such as a fixed barrier, like a wall or building, a limiting factor like an abrupt change in soil type or a slope). That's not to say that roots don't offset, because they do, but unless you're Airspading to determine the root area, I think it's best to keep your offset assumptions conservative. I've seen the area vs circle approach used fairly disingenuously to wildly alter and greatly limit radial RPAs by unscrupulous arbs to squeeze buildings in between trees on development sites. I don't think this is in the spirit of the standard, and should be constrained by the 20% maximum offset (for individual trees) in any event.
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It's called trying to promote professionalism. And I wouldn't tolerate someone taking that tone to my face.
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I think this is extremely ill-advised. How can they possibly think that training a load of "members of the public" to do tree inspections is a good idea? This can only be bad, not only for tree safety, but for the management that is likely to result. I've had 20 years of members of the public telling me on one hand that a tree is dangerous and needs to be cut down and there's nothing wrong with it, or me having to point out dead trees hanging over roads and car parks to indifferent landowners. By way of analogy, if you had 500 bridges that needed inspecting would you train up members of the public to do the work or would you hire a team of trained, experienced and insured engineers to do it?
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I think I know what you're referring to, Tony. I don't think we can rule out another organism causing the brown rot (or at least brown colour) you're seeing. Could be part of a common, but ill-described syndrome. Again, interesting stuff.
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Always tricky. Short of climbing up and Resisto-ing each limb, you just make a jusdgement based on experience and ideally, similar failures you've seen locally. An example being ash with I. hispidus which you see near me on Anglesey, where they fail more often that those I see elsewhere, probably due to extreme end of summer weather events. So on Anglesey, I'll score more "harshly" than I might elsewhere for the same host and specie combo. As for tree risk assessment generally, I always look at target first, and then likelihood of failure. If there's no target, or an extremely intermittent target, I move on to the next tree.
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A little reduction would go a long way there. I normally look above the bracket for crown condition and presence/absence of Daldinia etc before calling it. Again, gradual retrenchment is my usual call.
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Good knowledge
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Like it. Is it in Glyn's literature somewhere? Haven't seen it.
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Was this proposed as a treatment for an infected tree or more as a prophylactic prescription in an area of known infection, Tony? Sounds interesting.
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Do you think Nectria colonisation was simply a function of the area between the graft being exposed the the air (as such), or do you think that some disfunction of the tissue around the grafting point produced abnormal growth which was somehow more susceptible to infection, Gerrit?
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If you've got access to mulch, I'd mulch the lot if I were you. It can do wonders.
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Is a "Sunderland Airshow" one of those euphemisms out of the Viz Profanisaurus?
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Before buying a jet ski try sitting on the beach and listening to the irritating noise they make as they go round and round pointlessly for hours, frightening kids in the surf and stunning the fish.
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Certainly see a lot of honey fungus on the specie in the UK. I don't think you could rule out an old lightning strike as a contributing factor either.
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Birch are very susceptible to drought, also. I've seen quite a few here in North Wales looking very ropy this year, and I'd put it down to the very dry Spring. I'd expect to see a pretty sorry looking cohort of beech next year for the same reason.
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IMO we should do it as work included as well as taking them down or pruning, it is after all Arb!! I agree- I regularly see large commercial landscaping schemes which seemed to managed Ok (trimmed shrub mass, mulched beds, edged grass etc), but then all of the planted trees are in a hell of a state (strangling ties, drought, mechanical damage co-dominant leaders etc etc). Planting and managing trees is quite specialist and should be done by arbs, but it's probably impractical to let two separate contracts to manage a given site.
