daltontrees

Seems to be named after the area of Germany known as Swabia ('Schwaben') in German). Among famous swabians, wikipedia lists Andreas Stihl! We use this knot as standard for climbing, and we just call it the 'swabian'.

I do believe you are right! Cheers, I would never have thought of Cotoneasters when looking at trees.

Does anyone know what this tree is? There are 3 in a public park in Glasgow, first impression was they were Magnolia but they can't be because they have berries (bitter, 2 seeds each). Deciduous, and the alternate leaves look like goat willow only longer and with no irregularities to the margins. I have been through Phillips and the Collins guide but can't find anything that's even nearly right!

Thanks yet again. Parts are ordered and hopefully on their way. I can only imagine previous owner of saw took pick-up off for some reason then couldn't put it on again.

Thanks for extra comments. It is really odd that my oil pickup is missing from both my 200s but I will track down the replacements and get them put on. Yesterday was too busty on site to be getting oil pumps but maybe today...

A somewhat simplistic but nevertheless valid view is that the HRA merely codified existing law and that one shouldn't expect any radical changes to come from it, just a percieved new ease of assserting long existing human rights?

Hey, thanks! There is indeed a black pipe passing through the tank wall and going past the crankshaft to the oil pump, but i'd swear that inside the oil tank there is no filter or pipe. Would need one of those wee mirrors on a stick like dentists have to check for sure. I will try your trick with the oil pump first and if that seems to be the problem I will whip the pump off another 'dormant' 200 and give it a whirl on site tomorrow. We have a massive conifer to do and I don't think I could stand another day of intermittent oiling.

I would appreciate any thoughts anyone has on a problem with one of our 200s. It was bought second hand as a backup then someone nicked our main one and this has now become our regular saw up trees. In short, the problem ius it oils perfectly well sometimes and not at all other times. This has been going on for months. Yesterday it just stopped oiling mid job and started overheating the bar. I swore at it so loudly that our client, a very churchy man, heard it through his double glazing to the other side of the house and came out to see if I needed an ambulance. Today it worked perfectly for nearly 2 tanks then stopped oiling. The groundy 10m below said he could smell burnning plastic. In fact the inside of the clutch cover is a mess and melted in places. I only just resisted throwing the saw out of the tree onto a rockery. I have had the thing apart umpteen times, and had it into a Stihl dealer who cleaned it out and pronounced it was fine and billed me for £36. There's no split on the oil pipe, no block in the connector and the worm gear and pump spindle all seem to move precisely and freely. Some days I start the saw, it won't oil so I take the bar and clutch cover off and start it and I can immediately see oil coming out where it should. It then works fine when I put the bar on. This has become a daily routine now, no hardship as I like to clean and scrape the bar daily anyway. I am loth to fork out £40 on a new oil pump, and because the saw is otherwise fine I want to get another year or two out of it. The Stihl dealer was a bit of a waste of time and money. And here's a funny thing, I cannot figure out if the 200 should have an oil pickup in the oil tank. You can buy the pickups from L&S, and the 200 exploded diagram shows an oil pipe and pickup in the tank yet this saw has none. Should there be, and could this be the problem? The rockery awaits...or is it a simple fix?

We've got 2 357s both operating with 18" as default bar length, a bit sluggish on broadleaf unless razor sharp chains but fly through spruce/larch/pine/cypress. We have a 455 too that is the same, likes a 18" bar. Never tried anything bigger as I don't want to fork out on a longer bar in case it doesn't work and can't be mounted on our bigger saws. I was always curious whether a .375 sprocket and chain would allow a longer bar to be used for softwood forestry stuff. A 357' about the heaviest saw I'd like to be waving around all day in forestry but we can spend days and days in a certain age of forestry where you think an extra couple of inches would save a lot of faffing around.

Quercus semicarpifolia. Himalayan Brown Oak. The building is the Ulster Museum, in the Belfast Botanics.

Right genus, but none of those species, but you're so close with what the pictures show that I might have to tell you. Final picture, meantime, as I said it's only a baby. I didn't include this one before because there is a well-known building in the background in a well-known park that at this location is a bit quercus-obsessed and it would have given it away for anyone local. Last clue, it is associated with Spain/Portugal/Algiers/Tunisia. How it fares in our current sh!t climate remains to be seen.

As I don't know how perfectly representative of the species these pictures are (it was a young specimen) I willl give you a clue. Order Fagales.

Definitely not Ilex and definitely definitely not Osmanthus. Barking up the wrong shrub there...

No, not an Ilex.

I spotted this recently on holiday (somewhere in the UK), with a label on it. Never heard of it, personally, but someone out there might want a shot at IDing it for fun.

And I see Pseudotrametes gibbosa, admittedly only in use briefly for 70 years, has gone back to Trametes. Good to see an official name for Kretzschmaria deusta (Brittle cinder) though! I have been calling it Cinder Fungus for a couple of years, largely for fear of someone asking me to pronounce or spell its scientific name.

I was bothered that those lesions didn't really look like Rhytisma, so I had a look at other Acer leaf lesions. I found this about Cristulariella depraedens - "Lesions have light brown centers with darker margins and may have concentric zones of alternating light and dark tissue. In some cases, the lesions are nearly perfect circles, but in others they are irregular and may spread over entire leaves. Both fungi overwinter on remnants of leaves infected the previous year, and they begin to liberate spores in early spring. If conditions are favorable (cool and wet), infection of new leaves occurs readily, and subsequent generations of spores may be produced and cause disease throughout the summer. These diseases usually go unnoticed until early June when spots are numerous and badly infected leaves start to drop." Forestry Commission lists it as one of the disorders of Sycamore. The timing and the "cool and wet" conditions seem to add up. Could this be a possible alternative explanation? If so the trees might be OK next year. Anyone got experience of this?

You will definitely need a compass and a diameter tape. Distances fromn trees for crown spreads and clinometer work can be done by pacing, they won't check distances uless they're grossly wrong. Could have got away without a clinometer on last year's exam. To be honest you could guesstimate the heights of trees, you probably won't be asked how you measured the height and even if you were you couyld state clinometer. Again, as long as you aren't grossly wrong on height it would be OK. As Pommie says, don't waste time. Read the question after the examiner has explained it, not while it is being explained, so you don't miss anything. If you find you need the data at the last minute when writing up the answers you can just go and measure it. Everyone will be sitting down by then it will be easier than at the beginning when everyone is milling around. Get the verbal questioning out of the way first chance you get, then you know the remaining time is yours.

We had a baking three weeks up here at the end of March. Hasn't stopped raining since... I will be sick Syc spotting for any scottish examples of this. Hope not!

It's not clear whether the trees are outwith the boundary of the land you want to buy. If they are to be on your land and are not protected by any local laws you could always cut them down. If they are to be on land retained by the garden centre, you could make their removala condition of you buying the house plot. And as Steve alludes to, it depends how close they are to the proposed house position.

Could just about pass the first pic off as example of early Rhytisma acerinum but by 'eck the trees look pretty poorly from the other two pics. I have a vague recollection from my studies that C corticale is a "sapwood intact" saprophyte, up till then the only example ever cited was Piptoporus betulinus. I would go with the idea that it is present and dormant in the tree but is activated by stress. Again, vaguely I recall that the stress triggering activation can be prolonged warmth. But incessant f***ing rain? More likely to be drowning the roots than drying them out..! And providing ideal humidity for spore germination? Strouts 'Diagnosis of Ill Health in Trees" reckins significance of C corticale is limited by the localised nature of the disease but I hope fpor all our sakes this year's abnormally dry start and then continual rain hasn't triggered a widespread outbreak of an incurable condition.

It always seems to me that BS5837 is the nearest thing there is to a methodology and format for tree surveys. That and Visual Tree Assessment from 'Body Language of Trees'. 5837 defines an arboriculturalist as a 'person who has, through relevant education, training and experience, gained expertise in the field of trees in relation to construction'. Our insurance wouldn't cover us if we did surveys outwith expertise and we would always refer something on if a VTA was inconclusive or flagged up the need for further investigations. We don't have shrinkable clays up here but the thought of signing off nhbc subsidence calculations fills me with dread. I agree with the advice about not calling yourself an expert. In court you would get taken apart. The gulf between 'expert' and 'gained expertise' is wide. I would recommend the Lantra Professional Tree Inspection course and assessment Lantra Awards UK - Professional Tree Inspection - ITA course . It is could be just the right proof of competence for you at this stage. Nothing personal but if you don't know enough to pass that assessment you probably shouldn't sign off surveys. And if you do nothing else get PI cover but first check what your insurer has to say about relevant expertise.

That C. corticale is nasty, isn't it? Won't it finish the trees off eventually?

Sounds like the tree is 300 to 400 diameter and so is not exempt from the rules. According to the English guidance "TPOs should be used to protect selected trees and woodlands if their removal would have a significant impact on the local environment and its enjoyment by the public. LPAs should be able to show that a reasonable degree of public benefit would accrue before TPOs are made or confirmed. The trees, or at least part of them, should therefore normally be visible from a public place, such as a road or footpath, although, exceptionally, the inclusion of other trees may be justified." Maybe your tree was TPO'd because the house was being built and the tree needed protecting. Anyway, the guidance is academic because the Order is already in place for whatever reasons and maybe was made when the guidance was not so clear on the emphasis on public benefit. If it was me I would be asking the LPA to consider why the Order was made, who the tree is benefitting if it can't be seen from anywhere and why it is resisting a reasonable management approach. And if the LPA is being unreasonable after that and the client is unhappy, put in an application, get a refusal, and appeal it. And if you're going to take it that far, it would eb a good idea to specify the works very precisely using the BS3998 method (para 7.7.2) i.e. the specified end result can be stated ... as the tree height or branch spread that are to remain ...and when reducing to create clearance from a structure the points between which the clearance will be measured should be stated. That's what I think anyway. The LPA should be made think too, they don't have to live under the excessive shade of a needlessly untouchable tree.

TPO or Conservation Area? Although it's behind the house can you see it from any public area? If so the LPA could find reason to resist topping...