Matthew Arnold

We're gonna be felling a pair of 100 year old beech trees this winter (or our contractors are). They both have 4 fungi on each which is kind of strange as the fungi are growing in the same place on the trees. The fungi in question are Honey fungus, Kreztschmaria deusta, Ganoderma and Giant Polypore. I shall hopefully get a pic of the stumps after they have been felled. We had them sonar checked a couple of weeks back and if we are lucky there is about 3 inches of good wood holding one tree and 6 inches on the second tree. So our contractors are getting a "spider like" cherry picker to drop em as they are next to a busy road. We knew they had Kretzschmaria but not the other 3.

Last year i did a basic tree survey and inspection course on one of the local estates near to where i'm based. I did it with my colleagues, one of them had done a course in tree dynamics when he was at college. It was rather amusing as all of my colleagues and i were just saying "fell it" to every single tre that came up on the slideshow. After we did the tree inspection course we went round with marker paint in September and marked up all the trees with defects. We did the same in a 26 acre piece of semi-natural woodland we manage and had approximately 50 complaints as most of the trees marked were so called "veterans". The oldest trees in the woodland are about 250 years old and are well away from any footpath. The trees to be felled are decent sized beech trees riddled with Ganoderma appalanum and the ultimate nastys, Giant Polypore and Honey fungus. We had an outbreak of bleeding canker on a 250sqm area of mature Oak and Sweet Chestnut last autumn. All of the trees were felled much to the upset of the users of the woods. Getting back to the subject has anyone been taught/assessed by Derek Brinsley?

Cheers guys. It quite funny as i use C and O Tractors for our major tool maintenance and repairs. So i shall go asked them on Thursday when i am back in the office.

Hi guys and gals Does anyone know wot file size should be used to sharpen a chisel toothed clearing saw? As one of our volunteers who has been trained to use them has smacked a couple of peices of wire and a nice big stone cutting down laurel and hazel coppice. Also, I know this would sound typical of a counci lworker but how often should we replace air filters on chainsaws? And would putting refined fuel (BP Ultimate, Shell V-Power, etc) through the tanks clear the systems or does it just work on fuel injection systems?

My colleagues heard me scream and saw me run like **** stripping down to my boxers. The boss said he thought i had become a bit of a loon lol. nice bit from the sympathy as usual

We've had this sort of thing happen on one of my sites. There was a line of about 40 Leylandii and some very large Ash, Sycamore and a massive Aspen. All of the trees were in perfect order but they were felled in May last year the worst time to fell ivy clad trees. About 3 months later the contractors ripped out the line of leylandii stumps and ground out the rest. 2 months after that the builders came in a dug down about 6 ft to get the site perfectly level to the boundary. They cut through about half the root system of several coppice stools on our side of the boundary. As the foundations were laid the first stool gave up the ghost and landed in the builders site. We very quickly got our county council tree surgeons come and do an emergency clearance. We billed the building company for the work. 3 days of work with 4 men, 1 van and TW190 chipper and fuel = £4,500 for the removal of 6 large sycamore, ash and hornbeam coppice stools.

the fruiting bodies died off in May then re-sprouted in July and they just went nuts. I couldn't get any pictures of it then as we had a nice big Hornets nest in the stump which i found out to my cost. got stung atleast 25 times. Ended up in the local A & E for nearly 2 hours being doped up on anti-histamines

Whilst looking through the pics i have take nwhilst at work. I found some nice ones of some extensive Dryads saddle growing from a massive Ash stump( hence the reason for felling). Has anyone seen Dryad's Saddle growth like this?

I work in north dorset on lots of small nature reserves and several long distance trails. We have all recently done a basic tree survey and inspection course so its all fresh in our minds what to look for. I've checked out the fungi gallery the amount of fungi in there i recognise that is growing on our trees is frightening. Although i work on many little sites in north dorset we have a couple of woodlands down in west dorset which are managed by the team down there. We have just been around and marked up the trees for felling this winter whci has ever upsets lots of people as we cut loads down each winter but only ill ones, damaged ones or fungi ridden.

None of the surrounding trees are showing signs of being a bit sick. apart from a bit of deadwood in the crown there isnt much to show for ill health. the two lower trees have quite a bit of epicormic growth that we knock back every few months in the spring and summer but limes send epicormic growth out for a past time

No pics of affected leaves unfortunately. only managed to get pics of the ooze. if had got pics of the top of the tree i would have been underneath the crown of a nice low oak thats full of bats

I spotted this beautiful multi-tiered Dryad's Saddle growing from a big Ash. Althought the girth isn't much the height is shocking. It is atleast 80ft tall. It is being felled as well as several other trees in an are of the site we call "The Pit". The 80ft Ash also has a severly undermined and rotten root plate. I have taken a pic on macro of a baby dryad saddle growing from a sycamore on one of the 8 mile sections of trailway.

This pic was taken in mid-August of a large Broad-leaved lime next to one of the main access roads to our biggest site. We have had several tree surgeons turn up to have a look at the black ooze and all 3 of them have come up with different opinions. One saying it is phytophthora, another saying its a big weakness and the tree is weaping because of it and the last one saying its due to the water filled cavity in the fork( the cavity is only 2 inches deep, not exactly a bottomless pit). When i took the picture it was still sticky and smelt of mollases. The trees were all crown lifted and thoroughly dead wooded during the winter of 08-09. The tree isnt showing any signs of die back of yellowing of the leaves. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers

Hi Gallagher666. the exudate was watery but also slightly pasty. there is some necrotic bark to the left of the lower exudation. at first i thought it maybe be fire damage but then realised we havent had a bonfire on that section for a few years.

Last winter we had a theft of approximately £3000 worth of equipment. We were only 100 metres away from the truck but it was 100 metres uphill so all we could see was the top of the beacon. About 15 minutes before we noticed the theft there was a suspicious looking gentleman with two lurchers watching us for a long period of time. We heard a vehicle turn up whilst the man was watching and we assumed it was our colleagues but sadly we think it was a couple of his mates. They used a screwdriver or similar to prize the locking pins out to get into the back of the truck. We lost 2 Stihl Chainsaws( 341 and 361[361 was only 4 months old]), Stihl FS 450 Brushcutter and a Tirfor T516 winch. All of the equipment was replaced with 2 months and all of our powertools no matter how old have been tagged and put into the tool database at our HQ.

Hi everyone Whilst mowing a section of old railway line in dorset I noticed a Broad leaved lime with a strange looking ooze coming from the base. I know it isnt Phytophthora as the ooze would be black rather than white. It has a couple of scars at the base but no sign of fungal infection as the crown is perfectly healthy and there have been no signs of fruiting bodies apart from the very occasional bit of Sulphur Tuft growing from a stump next to it. If anyone has any idea what would be causing this it would be of great help as all of my colleagues including me are completely stumped. I have attached a photo showin the ooze.