armybloke

have a strong feeling that D F Clark Bionomique as Sharon went alone and folded her company I am to understand. I have attached an alternative for readers now that the link has been removed. There is also a useful nesting bird guide that may also be prevalent to arborists. Don't forget that in the winter months a roosting bird check is also a requirement for protected species. Middlemarch Species Calendar.pdf Nesting Bird Factsheet.pdf

Back from an epic trip in the US. I will, in time post some photos of the trip and discuss the merits of a road trip around the bazaars. I managed to clock up 1800 miles and took in more sights than I had planned but definitely worth every penny. What I will say that the advantage of visiting over the residents of the US was that I was up with the sunshine and at a site way before the noise and hubbub of the day which meant I parked very close (even at Muir Woods) and was out eating a grilled steak for breakfast before the traffic backed up and tempers flew! Absolutely top trip and did I see some big trees or what! Vegas will only get a brief mention - a micro-country with its own law (less) rules exploiting females (kind of in a sick way that was upsetting to see/hear) and littered with beggars and chancers. I won't be saying more than it spoilt the holiday a tad!

Does appear to be Ganoderma applanatum

Thanks for all the well wishes. I will be sure to post a few of my experiences on here. Mario, I take heed of the warnings regarding Muir and hope my expectations are not dashed too much. The experience will be awesome I am sure.

Appreciate your advice but sometimes you have to go with what you have. I will have my family on tow and they will undoubtedly get fed up with me detouring off to see trees (as they do on all of our holidays). So long as I get to see a big (ish) tree I will be happy.

Thanks for the tips, I am pre-booked in hotels so hanging around may prove difficult. I am in the Grand Canyon on my birthday so a sunset/sunrise will be the order of the day. I am also having a picnic on the edge to see the sunrise on that day too in preference to some posh restaurant!

There is a brilliant book called Managing Native Broadleaved Woodland by the Forestry Commission. Worth every penny IMO. Look on the Sparsholt College website for courses

Holiday all booked! Big trees to see via some top attractions en-route! Hopefully I will find some big trees to post on here when I get back. I have taken tips from all the forum pages so thanks to those who post. Starting in Muir Woods we take a car to Yosemite, Sequoia NP, Death Valley, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon, Las Vegas, Grand C, Meteor Crater, Sedona, Phoenix and then out to UK through LA. Two years planning and saving for this one! Leave next weekend.......

Yep you talked me in to buying the book, sounds like a must read. Thanks for the tip!

This little snippet would be appropriate for this thread - being as it is a fact. Apologies if I have already missed this post elsewhere. There are roughly 3 trillion trees on Earth — more than seven times the number previously estimated — according to a tally by an international team of scientists. The study also finds that human activity is detrimental to tree abundance worldwide. Around 15 billion trees are cut down each year, the researchers estimate; since the onset of agriculture about 12,000 years ago, the number of trees worldwide has dropped by 46%. “The scale of human impact is astonishing,” says Thomas Crowther, an ecologist now at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology in Wageningen who led the study while at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. “Obviously we expected humans would have a prominent role, but I didn’t expect that it would come out as the strongest control on tree density.” Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2015.18287 Crowther, T. W. et al. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14967 (2015).

I think I touched on this before but the home-owner that strives for a bowling green of a lawn, getting up at dawn to sweep both worm casts and dew off the leaves of the grass prior to dosing the ground with fertilizer still calls me to ask my advice on his surrounding trees and their health. Apart from them all being tightly clipped and their leaves caught in netting before they strike the ground (and ruin the look of his lawn) the mere mention that his OCD tendencies towards his lawn is the cause sends him in to irregular palpitations!

I was discussing the merits of keeping an untidy lawn, raising the blade height on the mower etc instead of wasting 'holiday money' on fertilizers, moss killers and his electricity and time to get a perfect bowling green that no one must set foot on but merely admire! I read with interest only yesterday that many of the fine roots of a tree reside only a few centimetres below the surface and some interweave with the roots of the grass so when matey here rakes his grass he is also severing thousands of micro-roots from his trees! So when I go back and he asks me why his tree may be suffering, not only is his fertilizer, moss killer and any other paraphernalia he throws on his 'bowling green' killing the tree, his trusty rake is too. A top read is Trees, Their Natural History (2nd Edition) although read the 1st Edition as Peter picks up on his previous books facts and expands on them.

A little more detail required please. Stem, size of tree, situation just to make it a tad easier

I have a SUUNTO clinometer, the very same for sale here that I bought for my Tech Cert. Used it throughout and it did me proud. I would sell it should you wish to buy it. PM me if you do. SUUNTO PM-5/66 PC OPTI CLINO 14 - COMPASS / INCLINOMETER

Without sounding rude, the white 'splodge' looks similar to the splodge a plasterer left on the bricks on my garage wall when he could not find a rag last week - tut! On the same vain then, should it be in proximity to a site where construction folk dwell or wander it make be worth checking; smell, texture etc. Just a thought.

Further to the 'benefits of trees', I am fortunate to be in a position to educate both children and adults alike on the benefits of trees. I teach children predominantly at a Wildlife Watch Group (Wildlife Trust) twice a month and the (almost) favourite subject is now trees. Camp-fires and marshmallows is hard to nudge off the perch! Needless to say that I can talk for ever on the subject of trees and factoids like this just add fuel to my fire (and the camp-fires at the end of the day). The adults have now become the Q&A experts and quiz me for more and more information. This is good and I have digressed again! My point that I was attempting to make was I am being asked by the general public, clients and the like about the benefits of trees over say, an extension to their property etc. I have now added a section in my reports called 'Environmental Benefits' whereby I add a few interesting yet important facts similar to water transpiration to control local water tables etc. It has become very evident that 'some' people want to know more to be able to do more. Refreshing anecdote to my ramble. Keep this thread alive people, it's very useful! If climate change has now reached an emergency threshold akin to terrorism then we must all take note!

The root 'mound' is partially hollow

These are a couple of pictures of tree in Italy situated within a public park. Would anyone like to hazard a guess at the species. On a different note; why is the rootstock so large? Why do some trees exhibit such large roots, for example a Cherry will behave in this way in UK in some places.

Have a look at these. I can recommend Sparsholt and Dale Valley Lantra Awards | Professional Tree Inspection - ITA course

This is not a tool for generating work but a consideration for you. If your landowners tree damaged property or injured a person/animal then can they show an auditable trail whereby reasonable steps have been made to ensure that the risk has been reduced/removed. That may include you walking the estate and merely signing a form to say you have made an inspection. Occupiers’ Liabilities Act 1957 and 1984 An occupier of premises owes the same duty, the “common duty of care”, to all his visitors whether by invite or otherwise. The common duty of care is a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the ‘visitor’ will be reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which he is invited or permitted by the occupier to be there or for purposes other than that which they have been invited (trespassers).

A similar symbiotic relationship is exposed when the acacia tree is predated upon in Africa. Ants colonise these trees in response to the tree rewarding them with a sugar rich nectar-like substance from glands at the petiole. When a Giraffe (or similar) predator begins removing the leaves, the tree releases an agitative hormone that excited the ant and sends them scurrying to the bows to escape it. This is where they find the Giraffe and the set about biting it. Whilst the venom of the ant is relatively mild, in abundance the Giraffe gets a little perturbed and seeks another lush tree. By this time the attacked acacia is emitting an airbourne hormone that tells adjacent acacia that they are being predated upon. This then stimulates the hormone to scatter the ants and so the cycle begins. Now, if I wasn't stuck in some grubby service station motel awaiting a survey tomorrow I could give you the reference but I am pretty sure Perter Thomas, History of the Tree (Part 1) tells the same story (to a fashion) The acacia is not alone, our English Oak carries out a similar response and 'talks' to their friends. You see, I tell people everyday that trees are living, breathing, sensitive creatures and should be respected. One day they may all turn on us and start pumping out CO2 rather than O2 just to p*** us all off!

Which tree has the thinnest?

This scenario is the same at a site I worked at in Tiverton recently (and it was an Oak!). We overcame the levels using bespoke made gabion baskets filled with smooth stones (to improve percolation of water, oxygen and nutrients) about 20 cm across, laid terram matting over the top. Finished level of clean crush mixed with topsoil and laid with turf. There will inevitably be movement but infill with washed sharp sand and topsoil to allow grass to regrow through. You won't have a bowling green but you will have a level playing field. I am monitoring for the next 12 months or so and will let you know how we get on. Tree Officer was happy and I was happy with the combined effort to get this done. Part of the overfill was used to park a car on top so it holds the weight.

This thread is going to be very useful...keep going.....

One other point in case you missed it was the trees growing from the side of the ravine/gorge. Optimal living organisms hanging there with the roots all buried in the rocks. The girth on the roots were as big as a tree! Oh and that Sitka has a primary limb that has grown to be a tree in itself!