daltontrees

The best? Doesn't get any better than that. If I was you I'd be more worried then about subbing than when you are in control of your own jobs, unless its a main contractor you know and trust. I do wonder, though, when I did my basic tickets I came out of it aware of the need for risk assessments but I could then have gone sstraight into business and never thought about where the requirement came from and what the law actually says. So at least my previous posting covers that bit, anyone that wants can refer to the Regulations more fully. Ignorance of the law is no defence, but keeping it safe means you will probably never need a defence. Or a hospital.

Even self-employed people are affected by the law. Please note that what is important is that no-one is needlessly hurt. So risks should be assessed and eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level. That's not the same as 'doing a risk assessment' and sticking the bit of paper, unseen and undiscussed, in the truck. You do that and it won't protect anybody and won't cover the employer's a*se. Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999, relevant snippets below 3.—(1) Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of— (a)the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and ... (2) Every self-employed person shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of— (a)the risks to his own health and safety to which he is exposed whilst he is at work; and ... (6) Where the employer employs five or more employees, he shall record— (a)the significant findings of the assessment; and . (b)any group of his employees identified by it as being especially at risk.

The only common mould i can find for on Viburnum is Botrytis cinerea. Apparently not severe enough to kill quickly. Maybe be to do with the site. I had a customer last year nearly lost a Holly, Cotoneaster and Box. Turned out the site was getting flooded by sopapy water from neighbour's blocked and burst bathroom drain.

There can't be many fungi and bacteria that can act quickly and equally effectively to kill conifers AND broadleaves. Even the honey funguses have a couple of species that specialise in one or the other. Yeasty smell suggests a fungus, but it might not be the fungus that killed the trees anad shrubs. Yeast is more like a mould than a mushroom. Could be feeding on dead material.

Didn't mean to criticise, just enjoying the speculation and debate, it is how one learns best. Your opinion is singularly the most reliable and rigorous on Arbtalk. But if the OP ever confirms it is an Alnus my money's still on P.alni. based on my own experiences and these few photos.

Complete wiht screw-on fungal brackets on hitherto unknown hosts, and larch decked out with cedar cones like baubles on christmas trees. That sort of thing? I'll bring a rope and harness...

I went for a 3/4 hour run about the campus every morning before conference. Firstly it wasnae me, secondly no hood, thirdly although I was stopping at every labelled tree, I was just trying to breathe, not switching labels. Fourthly, there was NOBODY else around. I would have spotted any label-switchers. But the fun that could have been had, wish I'd brought my pliers.

I came across what I thouyght was M.g a coulle of days ago, wasn't sure as the slugs had taken quite alot of the top off it and it hadn't fully developed anyway. So I remmebered the old 'turns black when squeezed' test. Here it is under the microscope. Pictures taken before bruising, immediately after then after 30 mins, 1 hour and 9 hours.

Give us a tree species please, OP. Sure is looking like a Phytophthora so far, though.

The way I read it was that the fungus had nothing to do with teh subsidence but that the risk of subsidence from the tree was not foreseeable and Mrs Kane would have no way of being alerted to the tree's potential to cause subsidence. Even if she had noticed the fungus and got someone out to check the tree for safety, it wasn't likely that this process would have resulted in her being told about the tree's subsidence potential. Which is probably right. So I don't think the judge does expect arbs to pick up on subsidence risk when assessing a tree's condition. After all, if you get an instruction to report on condition and risk, you don't report on root spread, soil type, moisture deficit and indeeed anything under the surface. These cases are increasingly taken it as read though that nuisance damage doesn't have to be foreseeable for the tree owner to be liable for compensation, unlike with negligence damage.

A fab conference, I doubt if there will be one like it for a long time. Were you there? It wouldn't have answered your thread but it seemed to address a lot of generalities that point to answers to most questions. For an anorak like me anyway...

Thanks David. I looked for but didn't notice any galls. We may be back on site in a few months to do some reductions and with client's consent I will run a silky through some brackets and see if there is any discernable morphology. I think he will just want to see them chomp away at the lump as quickly as possible but if I have a big saw on the go I might get to take a section throughthe big lump anyway.

'Permitted Development' strictly speaking means you don't need permission. Application met with silence means a deemed refusal. which I suppose means you may have developed unlawfully. As has been suggested, maybe get some independent planning advice. Possibly try Planning Aid, it's like Legal Aid. Good starting point for a free initial consultation.

Nuisance as you probably appreciate means two things. 1. a pain in teh *rse because of leaf fall and satellite singal. 2. A potentially actionable encroachment, a strictly legal issue.

Alas the stove went on 2 nights ago, a load of Scots pine that has been in teh living room all summer went whoosh and turned the place into a tropical hothouse. It was nice to see the flames sending a cheery glow across the room and hear the jet-engine roar of a well-ventilated stove doing its thing again.

I've seen loads of Oudemansiella mucida, this is a textbook fruiting body. Unimportant in general terms except as a symptom of other problems with a (Beech) tree, but trivial in the overall context of this tree.

Tag means nothing, it is either TPod or not. If you have already applied then good. But that is definitely Meripilus which can cause toree to go over in one from just beneath the surface especially if fruiting freely like that. If your house is in the firing line you have also the option of notifying the Council that you plan to remove it on the grounds that it is imminently dangerous. There is statutory basis for this. You need only wait 5 days before felling. Get a tree surgeon that is willing to vouch in writing for the level of urgency and to give you a quote for removal, send the report to the Council and fell the tree 5 days later. No Council in it's right mind will resist a genuinely urgent case especially where Meripilus is extensive. Worry about who pays later. Get it assessed and then if recommended get it down.

Darn, just seen this, could have given you a day. Best to post these things in the Employment section, anyone looking for a day here or there looks in there first.

Thanks guys. The comparison with the shots of L.s on willow are pretty convincing. The tree in question I was subbing on, I turned up and stripped it and rigged it down in 2 days and have no idea about it's history. No fruiting present when I was there. Now that I think of it, the texture was not unlike the fruiting body of fungus. The pattern of decay seems consistent with L.s. Tree was leaning almost 30 degrees on the decay side, I wonder if early degradation and the compression had allowed internal cracks to develop, subsequently occupied by the fungus. Oh well, I'm glad it's gone as it was a killer tree.

Ta, Paul, all input gratefully received. I think pics 2 and 3 could have both species, 4 is adspersum/australe and 5 could be applanatum. For what it's worth the dead bracket on 1 looks more like adspersum.

I am guessing you mean the rope is for pulling and not for attaching to trees. If you want a lightweight kit one way to keep it light is to have only 10m of wire rope at the winch end and use rope rope for the felled tree end. The rope should have as little stretch as possible, a stretchy one is no good. I use a 16mm lowering rope, but only to coax a tree over. If it's for insurance against it going the wrong way, I'll double it up.

I found this the other day while looking a t a job for someone. The first pic shows an enormous lump of Beech lying on its side under dense canopy cover at the bottom of a slope. It is really a large fork left there after development site clearance I would guess 6 years ago. It has one dead bracket, just visible top left, now in the vertical plane. Ths I have taken to indicate Ganoderma was present before the tree was dismantled. All other brackets on the lump are horizontal and have presumably developed on teh ground. The proximal end of the lump has an outstanding group of Ganoderma brackets. See picture. At first glance I thought they were G. adspersum. Then I thought they were G. applanatum. Then I began to wonder if it was both. I told the owner I wouldn't damage them. Sorry about the pics the light was very poor and I had only a basic camera. Can the two co-exist generally, and is that what's happening here?

I would be obliged to anyone that can help explain this. We cut down a large multistemmed White Willow (Salix alba) recently. INside the butt along with a lot of decay wee a number of small fissures filled with a white dry rubberty substance, akin to set silica flexible sealant. It could be picked out in small bits. See pictures. Anyone know what it is, what it's for, how did it get there?

It's on Schonbeinstrasse in the Swiss sector, fairly central. Tram stop right outside. Part of the University and it is behind the Botanical Sciences building. If you go there, they have an excellent catalogue which I got goven a copy of because I asked so many questions (mainly translations). If you go under the hothouse there is a workshop area where the curator hangs out. Show her any professional interest and I'm sure you'll get a copy. It's in German but the important bits are in Latin. Tell her the scottish guy that came in 2013 said she would be giving away copies because they are out of date, she told me the Paulownia at the gate was about to be removed. It did look awful. Not the one in my pics, it was elsewhere. The rest of the pictures were taken here there and everywhere but quite a few in Lorrach in the park beside the Suchard houses, people locally will know where that is if you get off at Lorrach Musee. Worth going to see the twin stemmed monster G. biloba and certainly the biggest M. glyptostroboides I've ever seen. It's just inside Germany and the second last stop on the Lorrach line from Basel Deutsche Banhof but the train starts in the Swiss station so you can get on there. Easyjet flies to Basel Mulhouse, really quite cheap. And Basel/Bale/Basle is fabulous. If you think the germans have civic pride, they will look like amateurs when you see how spick and span and smooth-running a city centre the Swiss do. And trees are accorded proper place.

The pictures do suggest an old vertical crack which has either admitted decay or has been the result of hollowing then buckling. The ddecay doesn't look like it goes below the bottom of the old crack, so it's most likely the former. I'd love to have seen it go, my guess would be that wind forces re-opened the old crack and extended it rapidly out through the stem and with that lean and hollowing it would easily and quickly propogate down to the base on the other side. It migh have been enough to pull the stem to the left (looking in the direction of fall) slightly, accounting for which house got hit despite the lean direction. Lucky no-one got hurt.