ScottF

After a morning's stacking firewood in a force 8 I come home, sit by the fire and rejoice in the exquisite oddness of this thread. If Pete (and others, apparently) hadn't jacked my Avatar, I would be truly serene. Why anyone would want to use a picture of my favourite dogging spot as their Avatar is beyond me anyway.

Aha, I must have got my meditation totally wired! The walls of reality are collapsing around me. Super!

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but this thread is even better in the morning. I can just feel the stress drain out of me. Smashing stuff.

Having read the letter I believe it would amount to, in strict legal jargon, "trying it on". Like another poster stated, you acted entirely in good faith and I don't think it's reasonable for you to ask for property deeds from every client who instructs you. If anything, his claim is against his tenant, the only person who was aware of the constraints on the site. Happy non-litigious christmas to all!!

This is the best thread ever. After a busy day at work, noisy motorway, whittering bosses, I can come home to the exquisite silence of this thread. Bliss.

Probably couldn't be certified at least under the UKWAS remix of the FSC as the land isn't intended to be restocked.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

I've done quite a lot of personal research into this disease, and I've discussed it in a couple of previous threads. What I'd say is that it isn't uniformly fatal- around 50% of trees start dropping so much top as to require removal, and that proportion is lower in larger, more vigorous trees. I'd also say that it's worth thinking about what else might be happening in the worst affected trees: a change in soil conditions, trenching, other abiotic matters? Similarly to the previous M. giganteum threads here, there may be other agents at work and the most visible one is copping the blame. Forest Research guidance is here: http://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/fr/INFD-6L4ER3 ,and it changes from time to time, but the crucial thing they mention here is that if a given area (let's say an area within visual cue- a park, a road or a neighbourhood- an amenity area) has a high proportion of horse chestnuts as part of their tree population, think carefully about removals. I'd even say, but planting non-hippcastanaceae potential replacements at the earliest stage in this instance. What I'm saying is that we need to think carefully about prescribing removal where HCs are all that's there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge HC fan, but some tree cover is better than none. On that subject there was a radio 4 call-in show it the other week ans some Herbert called in and said essentially "I hope it kills all the HCs as it's a non-native invader that deserves to be eradicated". Just look at some urban landscapes (particularly Victorian parks) and imagine the the HCs gone. I think we'd all miss them (particularly in early April, when they now folwer here in coastal Wales).

What sort of crane were you using? In the past I think I must have mistakenly hired the kind of crane that make the branch butts kick up unexpectedly and knock your helmet off when you cut them. All joking aside- great job. Efficient and safe.

Excellent photomontage work- seamless. Amazing the stuff you can do with computers these days.

I would have liked to have read this stream, I'm sure. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Voltaire

Poor graft, I reckon. It's surprising how feeble the 'sport' in in relation to the as species grafting stock. Maybe feebleness is part of it's genetic package. Thinking of it, the golden ones often look a bit less ambitious than the green ones. Interesting pics-cheers.

cracking shots

I like the way this thread seamlessly moved from "nice food" to "nice beer" and stayed there. Great stuff. These cooking pots look like some thing you might add "bat wing" or "Eye of newt " to. Very appropriate for Halloween.

I agree with Tony on the leaf morphology issue. And I reckon Quercus spp. are more flexible than most!

The hut circles at North Stack near Holyhead and the iron age village at Din Llygwy are really cool. Nice sea arch off the coast at Carmel Head. The ducks at Mr Ed's house are quite amusing. I almost ran them over yesterday..

Silky saws are savage things. Some of the worst injuries I've had are from these little buggers. The remove quite a lot of material when you cut yourself with them and tend to scar up quite a lot. Maybe you've got some heavy scarring which is applying pressure to something it shouldn't. I've regretted not getting a couple of Silky bites stitched up because they healed pretty untidily. Worth getting looked at if it's months later?

Maybe this is being pedantic, but just for clarity's sake my understanding of what evolution is, is that it's the change in inherited traits from one generation to following generation via reproduction. I think what we're talking about in this thread is mutation which confers an adaptive advantage. Only one this advantage has been passed on to the next generation can it be called part of evolution. If you accept the conventional model of natural selection, then all of these mutations are totally random and it's very lucky if any adaptive advantage is achieved at all. I don't personally believe in the conventional model of natural selection and favour the theories of "self-describing (autopoesis) systems" described my Capra and Marguilis is a really cool book called "The Web of Life".

Good advice all round.

I'm sure we've all dropped enough in a day's "garden tidying" to exceed the threshold. Like you say, the FC aren't likely to come out for a look unless someone kicks off (see my previous post). I guess the hassle of prosecution is why they've decided to gain the ability to secure a restock order without prosecution.

It looks more like a fracture due to wood that's been laid down in an extremely disfunctional way to me. Ash fibres are usually laid down long and straight and these are all over the place, maybe from a long-standing canker or other disfunction at this point. They say that basterial canker of ash doesn't weaken wood, but I reckon it must enentually, as maybe seen here. Apart from being irregular, the wood looks ok, not discoloured or anything. Really interesting shot.

A shave and a good dribble always makes me look my very best.

Just got my treequip helmet through the post after winning Andy's competition. It's very tough-looking and stylish and very lightweight, but perhaps not the right size? cheers Scott

The forestry act makes no distinction between gardens and other land because there's no legal definition of a garden. It's a pain but there it is. I've seen a number of arb contractors pursued for felling trees on private land. The felling licence issue is often used as a basis to punish somebody when the council's slipped up and failed to protect trees. This was certainly the case in the instance I cited above. It was used as a beating stick of last resort where the trees weren't protected, they weren't in a CA but the councillor who lived down the road happened to hate the guy who felled the trees so he badgered the FC until they very reluctantly got out of their nice warm office to come and have a look. I think the 5 cube figure would just be interpolated up from the tree's dbh and form using the mensuration tables. It's worth mentioning that this applies to healthy, growing trees. If the trees are to be removed because of a health or safety issue, then the licence isn't needed.