gmanntpo

Fell ASAP!!

*apologies for spelling mistakes!! Too much fine wine!!

Superb pics that are making me think about the physical dymanics in this situation!! What a find! That deserves to be in a referance book on tree structure/physiology... Send them to Klaus M. !!

Ahhh cool! Would love to get some pics of my own mate! You have taken some great shots there...

Where is this oak John?

I'll nail my colours to John's mast and say degraded Collybia fusipes fruit bodies!! Host and pics fit the bill!

Its fascinating to see different fungal species competing for the same food resource... Those fungal species will be fighting each other tooth and nail to be the dominant coloniser... Using all the chemical tricks they have to fight each other off... It is a whole diffferent field of research that is only just being explored!!

Its a great programme Can't believe the size of the tops they pop with 020T's or MS200T's for the younger generation!

In my opinion.. yes it is.. Shape, scales on the cap and stem, plus broadleaf host all fit the bill! Cheers Gmann

Check out the London tree officer forum. It gives all details there and the information to download... Have used it once to value a huge poplar. It was a bit heavy going, but made sense in the end! Ahh, just seen you have found it.. Will happily dig my stuff out if you need it.

Point taken. I must have topped plenty of leylandii's in my climbing days! From my own experience I know all you can do is offer the best advice and hope the client takes it. Nevertheless lets keep pumping that best practice into the public realm. I do honestly think that it is slowly trickling down.. Thankfully I now have a bit of control on such matters... They have to take my advice, wanted or not!

Hi mate If your consultant has a resistograph, use this to ascertain the extant of decay in the the supporting root area. A picus is great for investigating stem decay, but an'it worth jack for examining decay in roots due to the limited positions it can be placed and the way the system works.. If the stem is badly decayed then it's highly likely the large supproting roots will be as well! Nevertheless if the stem is sound, it does not mean that the support roots are not decayed. It is also important to consider colonisation by secondary decay fungi (Armillaria sp etc) that could add to loss of vitality and stability degradation (note: not vigour, that refers to a species, vitality refers to an individual tree's reaction to stress) As it is a species not found in the UK, it is a very interesting post. I agree with other comments that I. dryadeus is generally consider slow in its decay progress in Uk Quercus sp. Nevertheless, once it has become extensive, wind throw can obviously occur.. Cheers mate, please keep us posted! Gmann

This guy looks good John Nice pics too!

Hmmm I wish to make it clear that I intend no criticism to any individual who carries out this type of work... Goddamm it money has to be earned and if your client won't listen and you have the mortgage to pay, kids to feed etc, what option do we have?? I'm being a bit self righteous, at least the work will be done by a pro and not a pikey. Thus at least damage will be minimised. Before you ask, I'm sure I must have done similar work myself, although nothing springs to mind immediately....! All I can say is use your skills and knowledge, pictures, anything that will make the client realise the error of their ways... Cheers

Fair comments, money must be put in the pot, I know that from when I used to run a small tree firm. It would however, appear that topping is alive and thriving in the modern arb industry, which is a shame! As for Skyhucks comments, I said to myself last night 'someone is bound to say it extends tree life, look at all the oak pollards etc...' The reason the old pollards have survived is because any decent oak etc was felled for ship building in the days of the Mary Rose, Napoleonic wars, ww1, ww2 etc. The pollards were left because they were obviously no good for timber. I contend that if this was not the case larger naturally growing trees would have equalled the longevity of the ancient pollards. Nevertheless, there is still a big differance between how these trees were pollarded from a young age to produce timber products away from browsing animals and topping a tree that had not been subject to such management. A topped tree is NOT a true pollard tree. Consequnetly, a topped tree will have a signifcantly reduced SULE, compared to a tree that has not been subject to such pruning. This is not my opinion, but a scientific fact. If we in the industry can't improve standards, then what hope is there??

I agree with Big Boss Beechwood.. This work is topping and I'm a little worried to find others still thinking this pratice is acceptable, when modern arb has discouraged it for the last 25 years... Lets look at the facts: - As Big Boss says. The flush of highly vigourous regrowth is not a sign of good health. It is a panic reaction by the tree to try and compensate for the loss of energy producing crown area. If energy reserves are good, then the regrowth will succeed, thus creating a denser crown than if the tree had not been topped (great for repeat business I know, but piss poor practice in modern arb), if the energy reserves are not good, then the tree will die. Energy stored as starches are not just in the roots, but in the whole structure of the tree, hence massive loss of stored energy with topping. - The large pruning wounds created overwhelm the trees defences and are easily colonisied by decay fungi and other tree pathogens. Thus they decay and the SULE of the tree is ruined. - As Big boss said, the regrowth comes from adventious buds under the bark around the topping points, thus they are structurally much weaked than natural growing stems and more likely to fail. Not a problem on small trees but a big problem on large regrowth. I will quote Alex Shigo from his book 'Modern Arboriculture' ... 'Topping is a crime against nature. If a tree must be topped, then it is time for a new tree. Customer education is a major way to stop this practice. It will not be easy..' Without wishing to sound harsh, maybe some in the industry also need to be reminded of this as well as the customer. Cheers!

Good post Definately Malus sp. I'm with Treefrog and go for the 'Red Jade' cultivar. Weeping habit and fruit size and shape certainly fit the Hilliers manual description. Cheers

Great pics!

Tony I agree, but not everyone has your level of knowledge to produce a concise report such as the example you gave... Neverthless, what is important in legal terms is that, however brief 'the report' i.e written advice on the back on the fag pack, it is admissable in court and one must be ready to defend that... I have no doubts your findings would be defencsible (again as you have the required level of knowledge to answer questions of your findings in a court of law) Although it happens rarely, such cases can end up in the courts! It does indeed happen though.. I guess this goes back to my point about the costs.. You may find yourself defending your findings against the best experts money can buy... so you need to be very sure of your conclusions and charge accordingly! Cheers Gmann

You are right Bundle2 getting back to the original post IMO the T.O was fundamentally wrong to TPO this tree.. Nevertheless as professionals we have called this into question and lets hope good sense prevails.. I don't doubt, that if this went to appeal then the LPA would lose... Like I said in one of my earlier posts, specify a good replacement and fell the sycamore (if indeed its condition is as bad as the pics suggest) Unfortunately, quite a few T.O's have a blinkered view and no concept of using the principles of silviculture in the urban forest... Cheers Gmann

You have produced an excellent report in my opinion Tony! Thats all I need to know!! Nevertheles that is clearly from someone who knows what they are talking about! As a T.O I would be more than happy to consent for a 25% reduction with such evidence from someone who is clearly knows what they are talking about...! If it was a TPO app, obviously I would check the findings with my own investigations, doing exactly what you did! Just for the record I was a climbing arborist for 10 years before I got into LG. A short report that is concise and sticks to the facts is all that is needed in some cases. Cheers Gmann

Hi mister tree They recommend about 15 - 20 hours a week, every week on study. I spent about £2 - 300 on books and the publications like magazines you need. No regrets on spending the money on books as this is just more knowledge you can call on. The trouble is you really do need to know everything, as you just don't know what will crop up in the exams... Cheers Gmann

I agree, but it also says this: Arboricultural or other diagnostic evidence (eg from an entomologist or pathologist) must be provided where the health of the tree is affected, eg by the presence of pests, diseases or fungi. If the reasons for the application relate to the structural condition of the tree (eg damaged roots or structural defects within the tree or defects that may be of concern to the current or future safe retention of the tree or parts of the tree) then arboricultural evidence must be provided to support the proposed work. All roads lead to some kind of report IMO, even if its written on the back of a fag packet. Cheers Gmann

Hi mates I started the prof dip in Jan 08, with tree life. The course sessions finished in June 09. I didn't take any exams in the June as I needed a break and had already failed 3 out of the 4 I took!!! 1 pass though!!! I'm deciding whether to take more PD exams in Dec or switch to a Bsc arb distance learning. Everyone on my course found it tough, even the very best (and there were some very good people, I wasn't one of them!!!) around 25% dropped out in the first few months. All I can say that if you want to pass PD arb then you have to commit your whole life to it. Friends, family, fun they are things of the past for 2 years. You can't blag this course and hope for the best on exam day, it just doesn't work like that. Personally I found working full time as a T.O that I couldn't commit the time I needed to study. You need to study ALL the time. Now I'm not saying BSc is 'easier', but you do have structured aims and it is not solely based on an exam question, that you hope you get lucky on... One thing you soon pick up on is how disparaging the examiners reports on exam papers are towards candidates, they basically call you a worthless piece of ****, who is not fit to lick their boots. This started to get to me by the end.... And don't forget the management exercise after you have passed the 6 exams and plant id and P & D id. You can't take the management day until everything else has been passed. I think from my group only 2 or 3 have passed all the exams and have sat the management exercise, this is from around 20 people who started in 2008.. Nevertheless I will end on a positive note: Dave and Andy from Treelife who run the course are VERY, VERY knowlegable and even though I haven't (and may not) passed the course I did learn a HUGE amount that has helped me in a massive way in my job as T.O Cheers Gmann

I note the bificated smooth stems with, no doubt at tight fork crotch further up.....!!!