Tony Croft aka hamadryad

dont do it jammy, save yourself! run with the pack mate!

anyone who thinks it acceptable to condemn what has been termed recently as "bad trees" which I use in this context to describe what in their (the users) terms means anything rotten and therefore "unhealthy" rot does not equate to Bad or unhealthy, there are few cases when a tree is in danger of imminent collapse and or threat to human life, majority of pathogen infected trees die standing. or break up. healthy trees can and do live for centuries with deep decays and hollow trunks. we can manage trees as hollow remnants in the urban context, if pollarding was a recognised art it might be more utilised for this purpose. I want to live in a world where we allow trees to live through their entire cycles, albeit managed in a safe and viable way, not felled at the first "FC" style deviation of "health" In the forestry journal recently I read "an ash colonised by inonotus hispidus" as "collateral damage by" collateral damage in whos valuation? Arboriculture is a young and developing industry, Forestry is stemmed (pun) from a productivity point of view, any deviation from timber value (old age/mature) is considered non valuable and rubbish. Arboriculture stems from Botany, it is up to us to advance it as an art and science in its own right, for NOONE is expert or master and commander, this is all brand new. which is what makes it such a wonderful thing to be involved with, there are no answers yet, they are yet to be found. we may squabble over the finer details for a couple of centuries, but in the meantime I want to be certain the trees we have today are still there when the arguments finer details are resolved, or there will be nothing worth resolving anything over!

I completely missed this thread before!

Ive just been having a quick scan to see trees with principal decays road side both unmanaged and many managed by me, man alive I cant even begin to contemplate what a loss all those trees would amount to. and there all still there too! I am begining to wonder if its wise talking about fungi and giving the skills to know them well, ive no doubt many would use theze skills to fell trees in thename of HS. ive got to consider that dilema, is education better or worse for the environment? if you lot knew how, what would we lose? when you can read the body language with deep insight what would you do with that knowledge? would you learn jus how common these decays are and relax a litle knowing that we are surrounded, or panic fell everytree you read? man alive that for me is frightening a prospect.

look, i Know I am a yoghurt knitting, tree hugging fungi lover and that you al think im stark raving bonkers (I would not argue!) but were missing the point here and you bloody know it.

now that explosives have been mentioned it will be over subscribed! lmao you wait and see!

defo great colour, go for it. you obviously like it, its loud for sure but youll stand out and people wont forget whos truck it is, branding is sooooooo important, be remembered not blend in.

theres a lad asking about a biomechanics book for collage course but forgotten his name, but he knows who he is and im reserving it next for him as no one appears to be inline? please say if there is and I missed it!

I come across as a lone crusader? Not really, theres loads of folk on this crusade, eventually we will match the fellers and knee jerkers 1-1 instead of 100-1 or maybe its more like 10000-1 who knows, certainly feels like it in my boots at the moment! Stimulating though

thats it, im neither qualified nor insured so Im out thats too much of a threat for my tastes.

Andy, im no intellectual, thats the other Tony's domain, im just trying to do the best I can in a world that seems to be so ready to brush off decisioning that involves a living thing/things.

I think polyporus squamosus more likely here, some plating evident too

indeed, I believe its been a long time since anyone asked for "the body language of trees" should be available immediately?

well then, maybe you should tell ME WTF is going on and how and what to do about it and while your at it maybe you an explain to all those preaching about tree retention what you know that we dont? im all ears:thumbup:

were not looking for 100% were looking for "reasonable" and it aint yet, not by a long chalk. tony S windmills?

this subject is important, but it went the way of digging me out, questioning my abilities, qualifications, insurance, telling me to go and do it "properly" whatever that means so, cool bring it on, i can hold my own, but I will do it as heated and "lively" as I wish, when someone or a few somones wanna talk about stuff that personal rather than the real issue here. A profound lack of appreciation of real tree ecology and life processes causing many thousands of trees a year to be felled when retention is or was possible. and also charging not just a lot but verging on extortion we have a major major problem with retaining older trees in the built environment. All the work that has been done up to this point in time by the likes of Ted green, nev fay, mike ellison, Claus Mattheck, NTSG,etc etc etc to make retention possible or encouraging a more sustainable approach is in vain if at the core of it there is a higher cost in getting an opinion than in doing the actual removal!

In the autumn I will come and spend a day with you working "for free" and point out every tree with decays that we see. I promise you youll think crikey if we felled everyone there would be nowt but immature trees left. How many times have me or david posted images of trees retained or just standing with "nasties"? have we got nowhere despite that?

Im not giving information above and beyond, that would be a breach of forum rules. Im just trying to provide a thread for people who WANT to save their trees if at all possible and whats wrong in that? never saw anyone getting a hardtime over the "managing trees with decay thread"

do you promise not to fell them all:lol:

no pricing info paul?

If you all knew how many trees with principle decays you drive under on a daily basis you would freak out!

do tell us about this case, they are all important examples of when even with the utmost care is taken all fails! I know a few cases but those have obvious flaws, as did yours, the case of meripilus on fagus!

I wouldnt ask nor expect to, mine will be in place when the time comes.

I give up, you lot have missed the whole point, there was a member of the public desperately seeking help as they had been advised to fell the trees, when they looked to an expert for a second opinion they basicaly asked 3.5k to "test" with no certainty for that expense. I started the thread because google will spit it out on a search if the searcher uses the right terms, the title should fit. many of you have assumed way too much, I am a realist, and a very capable tree assessor, feel free to argue over that if you want, I am all too aware of just how many trees are getting over estimated risk levels attributed to them. Yes Ive got some minerals, so what, somebody has to fight for the trees cos you lot certainly aint.

Im sure im not the only one who would rather see a tree standing?