daltontrees

Sound answer, Gary. I wouldn't blink before getting up there. If it's a dismantle, get the spikes on and a swedish strop, spike up and strip it, leavign a few stubs to stop a whoopeee sling anchor sliding down, worst case scenario would eb to ratchet strap then brace a pair of weak co-dominant stems together at 1/2 height, then dismantle as normal. as Gary says, trees have probably withstood a lot and by the time you have the tops rigged off there's no force you could put on them by rigging that could make them fail before you get the whole lot down. A god risk assessment leave the final call to the climber who goes up as far as a weak-looking union. If the climber is experienced, qualified and sensible, it's then quite appropriately his call. When I see weak pollard unions from the ground I am naturally cautious, they look like text-book hazards, but when you see them up close from a harness you generally realise that King Kong could fight off a squadron of aircraft from them and the unions wouldn't be troubled. So, standard climber-knows-best RA clause. Otherwise, go for it, if you don't someone else will.

I told myself that if it was north of the Manchester/Sheffield parallel I would go, but it aint so I won't. Kinda works in my head like £500 for the gig including accommodation, 2 days net loss of earnings getting there and back, 3 days loss of earnings being there, plus travel costs, plus the amount needed to compensate me for the mind-numbing journey, minus the huge professional and personal benefits of attending. It's slightly in the red. Not to mention the in loco Myerscough beer costs. Maybe next year. C'mon AA, trees do continue north of the Watford Gap!

I saw one out on survey today. The leaflets have a notch near the base, and it's pretty much the standard check I do to eliminate all other possibilites. The alternative is to climb it and fall to the deck as a sound-looking branch gives way beneath you.

For various reasons I think I am fairly familiar with this location. Would I be right in saying that the land to the north east is the subject of feisty local opposition to the sale of community land for development by GCC? There is a genuine difficulty - people on arbtalk are incredibly generous and skilled with their advice but they can only give general advice if they can't see the specifics of the situation. Some of the advice you have had so far is sound enough but dare I say suffers from over-generalisation to cover situations typical in english law (especially common ownership law and conservation areas) and english geology and climate and rights to light and ignoring how the role of Factors can be enshrined in deeds of condition for tenements. I have been working on a situation like yours behind a southside conservation area tenement for 5 years, if it wasn't being done for my brother-in-law (i.e. no prospect of a fee for my advice but an ear-bending if I don't give it instantaneous priority every time a leaf floats down) I woud have walked away from it 4 and 11/12 years ago as a complete financial no-hoper. The trees are 10 metres higher than the top of the top flat of the tenement. I'd say initially that giving you general advice on this forum will not get you the right answer. If you PM me I might be able to point you in the right direction buy refining the question. I'm not touting for business but from my experience you probably need the sort of bespoke advice that you won't get for free and which few contractors will be able or willing to give you (for free or otherwise). You have my sympathy about poor daylighting. Anyway, please feel free to PM me and I will see what advice I can give for free.

definitive? no such thing! Captive eyes are going to be a pain in the proverbial, they can't just be clipped to a sling. I just take up a set of slings of various lengths and a set of krabs. If you're doing every branch is a whorl of 6 and clipping them all before starting a saw, you will need at least 2 lengths of sling, maybe 3. If you use captive eyes you'll juyst be constreaining your choice. And those things are aluminium. For me that's a no-no for zipping.

I was lucky to get a load of fairly cheap swing-cheek pulleys a few years ago, and I use them in preference to krabs when either the piece is heavy or the zipline is at a shallow angle. You just need to feel the heat of a krab immediately after zipping something big in a shallow line to realise how much of the potential energy that has been n converted to frictional heat has been absorbed by the metal. It's never going to melt steel but it could be enough to cause microscopic recrysytallisation and the start and propagation of hairline cracks. I wouldn't really be worried about them wearing through, you cluld easily see whether that is happening, it would be brittle failure if they take a bit of a twist or a jerk. Aluminium doesn't hav ethe density or structure to absorb this amount of energy, and aluminium has been known to crumble when heated. Overthinking these things as I can't help doing, I have a sort of formula in my heads as to when to use steel krabs and when to use pulleys. It depends on how much of the potential energy will have to eb absorbed by friction. Big conifer limbs have a lot of drag, and air resistance takes up a lot of their energy on teh way down. They don't seem to heat up krabs the same as the equivalent weight of bare wood. Pulleys bring the pieve down quicker, and more of the energy is absorbed on the final impact (the piece hitting the ground), meaning less needs to be absorbed by the rope and the krab/pulley. We had fun a couple of months ago zipping down a big Douglas Fir, the guys set up 'skittles' of ringed up wood on the lawn and when I zipped the next bit off I tried to judge the sling length just right so that I took out the skittles. On the very last shot before we switched to chogging down, I got a perfect 'strike'. One of the guys filmed it on his phone, I keep meaning to get it from him.

Scary story there at 13 minutes in!

It would seem that the courts are greatly assured when a landowner has a 'system' in place. If it is not documented, it is not damning, but it certainly makes the proof of 'care' easier. If as you say you have dealt with all the suspect stuff, firstly the likelihood of someone getting harmed is reduced and secondly the landowner clearly does toake a responsible approach. What isn't clear is whether it is you or it is the landowner that spots the 'suspect stuff', and whether this is spotted during a systematic inspection or is just noticed in passing. The relevance is that the courts have differentiated between the degree of care required of a landowner in looking for suspect trees and the that required of someone called in by the owner to follow up its suspicions. If you are in any way involved in avising what work needs done rather than just being a contractor, you may have a wider 'duty to warn' if you spot anything that you are suspicious of. So be careful. For similar reasons you need to be careful about putting or finding yourself in the position of advising the landowner how to dioscharge his duty of care. That you have asked the question here indicates you parhaps don't have a full enough understanding of the extent of the duty of care to be taking on the advisory role. But to your credit you quote rightly don't want to put the client to the expense of what might be an unnecessary survey. David Humhries has commended the NTSG publications to you, which is a very good starting point and possibly all that you an the landowner should need to make sure the 'system' is adequate. But probably best if the last word on that decision comes from the landowner. It sounds like you're both close to it already, just neding to clarify the roles.

well apparently Abredeenshire down't. In the central lowlands edinburgh has had a good shot at it but in the end they all seem to say that it's up to the landowner to know whether there's a TPO or not. There shouldn't be any excuse, if you own or buy a property it should be known to you whether there is a TPO in place.

I haven't come across a Council in scotland yet that has a list, online or offline. I'm pretty sure that after several Local Government reorganisations they don't know themselves what Pos there are. I fin doubt, email an enquiry to AC.

Thanks, and I have just read they like to eat willowherb. That'll explain why they like my garden, it's over-run with the stuff. I hope they scoff the lot. I will look out for the moth around the garden over te next couple of weeks.

This is the biggest caterpillar I hve ever seen, found clutching a weed stem last week in my garden. Anyone know what it is (or will be)?

That's what I meant. I am so pleased that for once I have been more succinct than somebody else. No offence Ed, but it's not like me to be brief.

Interesting case. The fine is about £90 a cube, and the Act says the fines can be up to twice the value of the trees. Looks like there was no gain that way. And the developer still hasn't been sentenced. There could be another hefty fine. The Commission can order restocking. In theory anyway, this whole thing will not advance the likelihood of planning permission. If anything it might put it in stasis for 10 years. The contractor seems to have been hit on the basis of 'should have known better', even though it wasn't his land and he argued that he assumed the developer had the planning permission exemption.

Beech bark is smooth but it aint thin. I'd say Birch would be a good deal thinner. Or even Cherry. Anything with lenticels. Sorbus? blah blah... Rhytidome is a new word for me. Hurrah. I'll try and drop it into some conversations. Hmm, as in " A house in the woods? You'll feel rhytidome there!"

The simplistic difference is - worth is what you would pay for something, value is what you could sell it for.

Go for it! It will be nice to look in on Arbtalk and see something daily that is gratuitously informative. And about trees! Always a bonus on the perennially cosmopolitan Arbtalk.

Could you please say just how soapy the solution was? Did you use a detergent or a soap?

Paulownia! The fruit of Catalpa, as the 'bean tree' name hints at, are long pods.

I can't help being reminded of Joni Mitchell's lyrics in 'Big Yellow Taxi' They took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone They paved paradise and put up a parking lot Now I feel as ancient as that tree, quoting Joni Mitchell and Free in the same thread. Lost on the youngsters, I expect...

Thanks guys, you seem to be right, it is Spruce Gall. I will read aup a bit about it. Never seen it first hand before.

Yeah I wasn't clear about this. I meant that Paul Rodgers and Paul Kossoff will hold the doors open for you. Except that one of them's dead. What a swiz!

And the answer is about 600 years old. Plus 115.

Yeah well it was felled in 1900, so all I know is what age it was then. Vaguely specified guesses can be up to 115 years wrong and still be right. I can't remember the right answer, it's on the other computer all the way up stairs and in the office. Then there's switching it on [sigh] and waiting for it to warm up and all that... may get round to it later. first prize is free admission to Kelvngrove Museum in Glasgow to see the ring for yourself.

Spotted on a couple of Spruce last week. Older lower branch and side shoot tips. Swollen, twisted and pitted at the needle attachments. Any help appreciated. I thought it might have been Cucurbitaria but it doesn't fit the bill and seems to be absent in uppoer crown. The trees are basically a bit stunted but healthy looking.