daltontrees

I think that for the commoner species this is possible. Having formally surveyed about 50,000 trees I find it is possible to identify and recognise abnrmalities in all the native specis by now and only to have to refer to the guidebooks for varieties, hybrids and rarere non-natives.

I have it and like it but it is outdated (taxonomically) and the illustrations are poor compared to subsequentn editions by Johnston and Moore or the photo-based Phillips publications.

Collins Tree Guide (Hardcover) 0007139543 | eBay You'll never need another in the field, but it's good to have a few others in the office for leisurely idents of rare species. Get the hardback, it's worth it in the long run. Or if you get paperback, get a case for it. Mine has taken a pounding in the survey bag for a few years but is in amazingly good condition. The day it falls apart I'm going to buy 2 more copies in case it goes out of print.

10 out of 10 for careful dismantle, not so many out of 10 for cutting out the only good strap of wood on the compression side to take the bollard for shock loading?

Acht, you're right it's not the Polish thread its the door-knocker-transit-mob one. Same message though, poor b++++tree seen more trauma than 400 million years of evolution has equipped it to survive. These delicate reductions are hard to get right. Really unless you re-distribute the hormone (auxin) production in a near-prefect way it can all go pear/banana/coffin shaped. Just as art imitates life and bad art is bad, arboriculture imitates nature and bad arb is bad...

Not the best photo? papparazzi could have done a better job on a bikinied B list Royal from 400 yards! Seriously, identification of fungi is dependent on so much more than what it looks like. What it's on helps, but the arty shots aren't as informative as the ones of the pore surface or the top surface or as Sloth says a wedge of the flesh.

Belated welcome to Arbtalk, ARP. That's a neat pruning job and although I am frimly in the 'pruning is wounding' camp and would have said why harm this tree again after the Polish savaging it got, if your ethics and your workmanship are genuine I hope you go from strength to strength and let the occasional drivel of Arbtalk whistle past you, useful as a test of strength but no basis for over-riding sound instinct and judgement.

OK, save the punchline! For now I am thinking 20 + or - 10 for soft rot, 25 + or - 5 for 'functional'.

David, for comparison what amplitude would you expect for completely sound Lime?

Depends on the age of the tree. What is the diameter of the limb that you want to kill? And the one you want to retain?

I think I see how to do this with a long endless rope sling. Tie a midline knot (a moth would do - see Arbtalk's splendid knot guide) in the middle of the sling (using both sides of the sling). This creates one footloop (the one we can't see in the photo). Then pass one end loop of the sling round the back of the stem and one round the front, put one loop through the other to make the bit we can see. Et voila! Better would be a adjustable length sling for different diameters of stem. I think I see how to do this too if anyone's interested.

Sound logic there, but just to be clear the OP shouldn't assume that a TPO proposed in a CA but refused by committee removes the CA status. It doesn't. And so a s211 notice is needed, but should be a formality since the only option open for the LA to resist it is a TPO. I can't see any TO trying that twice. If I was the LA I wouldn't quite say the trees are not protected but that in this case no further notification is required.

I suppose I would just have to disagree with that on intuition. I agree that many metals are well tempered by heat, but what is being done here is to expand the metal to take a shaft then cool it around the shaft, so the metal is being cooled rapidly while under tension and as it cools that tension increases rapidly. I feel that microfractures are inevitable in this situation. They might not cause brakage immediately but they will not repair themselves even with subsequent heatings and will only ever get bigger and lnger. One day they might cause the wedge to shatter. After all, the things get punded with a sledge hammer. Any weakness will propagate. Oh, who knows, it might take years and your wedge might fall in the river long before it breaks.

Or maybe see if Le Creuset do high lift wedges? If they do, toss them hot onto the kitchen table, you'll get a way with it.

Wood chars at around 150 deg C, at a rate of about 1mm per hour, and ignites at just over 200 deg C. Aluminium expnds at about 0.025% per degree. So heating a wedge to 100 deg C should increase the circumference of the hole by about 2.5%. Aluminium melts at about 600 deg C. I would have thought that putting a wedge in a pan of hot water and bringing it to the boil for a couple of minutes then driving the wooden shaft in and letting it cool in air would produce a fantastically snug fit but could never char the wood or damage the metallurgical structure of the wedge. This might work too with the plastic shafts, whereas heating the wedge in fire will almost certainly melt a plastic shaft.

Sorry, typo by me. I have the book, I fell asleep reading it. Tried again last night too, it hit the floor with a thump just as I was getting to the interesting (...) bit. Maybe I will have a look during the day.

I was curious about that too, it's got to weaken the aluminium eventually. Not the heating, but the rapid cooling in water. Wouldn't it be better just to let the whole thing cool slowly?

If you disturb or harm bats or their roosts you will be in breach of the Wildlife & Countryside Act. The penalties are up to £5,000 per bat, 6 months in prison and or having all your gear confiscated.

Many thanks again, the pictures make the point very well. I.h is I believe capable of early soft rot, which I generally associate with less aerobic conditions which would be found in downward acting decay

I fell asleep last night trying to find this is book, will look again.

The point about bird nesting is a good one. Postponing the whole development for 6 months becasue you can't get in to teh site would be very very expensive for development financing. A few days ago I mentioned about the difference between being the contractor and being the agent. I should have epxplained a bit better. An agent is someone authorised to speak and enter into agreements on behalf of the 'principal' i.e. the client. Anyone who acts as if he is agent in speaking to others about a project binds the principal to any agreements he reaches. That can be dangerous legal stuff. It's OK to have the client's agreement to go off on fact-finding, just asking questions here and there, that doesn't really make you an agent, but if you discuss and disclose the client's business you are acting as agent. If I was client on a big development and a contractor took it upon himself to discuss my business with the TO without my permission, I'd probably fire the contractor immediately, and then hold him responsible for any economic losses arising from him pretending to be my agent. I'm not saying that this is relevant in this case, but if ones' 'i'm-getting-set-up-here' radar is already pinging like a techno tune, it's good to tread very carefully.

I'd second that, but the right consultant should also listen to the wider needs such as shelter, screening, shade, root protection from livestock trampling and excreta etc. and also any pests and diseases and sanitation required to protect overall tree stock, thinning required for optimum timber production, availability of grants for planting or management etc etc. I'd say find out what's there and what your friend's farming objectives are (trees are crops too) and take it from there.

Aye, very good! I think the 8 most important words there were - "reduce liability, increase productivity" and "responsible tree work management" I suppose it's up to individuals and companies how they see themselves in those contexs.

I am incapable of giving it a rest. Sorry. The tree died, but trees don't matter, do they? I just really really worry that punters look at stuff like this on Arbtalk and think (roghtly or wrongly?) that even the better contractors think it is OK to laugh at the misfortune of other punters who have suffered at he hands of tree contractors. You can all choose what part you want to take in that. I've chosen my part a long time ago, and shall leave the majority of you to your version of humour. Until the next time, that is. As I say, I can't help myself. Being witty and being right seem to be almost mutually exclusive. A laugh is usually at the expense of someone's misfortune. I've never been good at it.

Not a happy dilemma. I wasn't aware of the TPO, it changes things a little because Councils have a tendency to try and prosecute the guy covered in sawdust, regardless of whose orders he was following. Here's my thoughts. Yes PP overrides TPO, but it depends. If the PP specifically shows the trees as being removed (there on the 'exisiting' drawing, not there on the 'proposed' drawing, and the drawings have been stamped by the LA as being part of the consent), they can be removed without further process IF (a) the removals are necessary to implement the permission [note the word necessary, which is not the same as desireable or convenient] AND (b) this hasn't been over-ruled by planning conditions. The way to think of it is that if there is a site with TPO'd trees, and if an application for planning permission is going in, you don't need a separate TPO application because it can all be dealt with at once... but like a TPO application conditions can be put in place that says what can and can't be done to the trees. The PP is just being used as a medium for communicating and formalising those conditions. Can't say more than that without seeing the conditions, but I hope this helps. Just to be clear, the process for prosecuting for breach of TPO and the fines are much clearer and Councils seem much readier to pursue TPO prosecutions than breach of consent prosecutions. So be especially careful i.e. instructions clear and in writing and a record that you let the customer know what he might be getting into if he gets you to go ahead.