Tilio-acerion

Evening fog and snow - shifting bales

Because they’re first consideration is how much it’ll cost and they then employ cowboys

Anyone know whether this is some type of Hypoxylon sp? If so what? It’s on an ash (80cm dbh) growing over an area of missing bark and decay at the base

Yes

361 is an awesome saw, run it with .325 and 9pin and it’s a snedding weapon in softwood. 362 uninspiring ?

With that attitude, my advice is CRACK ON! ???? just please get someone to film it ????

What’s the difference between a pregnant woman and a lightbulb? You can unscrew a lightbulb

Nearing decision time on a new splitter - which will be a tractor mounted vertical. It'll be used out in the forest and at home so PTO is an obvious necessity, however I'm just debating on whether it's worth also getting the electric motor option also. The thinking being quieter when at home, independent from any tractor breakdowns and also future proofed for if diesel use becomes an issue in future years. As the splitter is an expensive purchase and one to last a lifetime, the latter point is probably most important behind the thought but just wondering whether I'm over thinking/worrying about something that might not happen and whether it warrants the extra cost (approx 1k) of the elec option ?‍♂️. Thoughts welcome and also whether anyone has experience of tractor mounted PTO splitters with the elec option and how much they use it? From the data when in elec mode it's considerably slower than when run by the tractor!

Figured it would have been posted previously just hadn’t clocked it. ?

2021 Ineos Grenadier: Land Rover Defender rival revealed WWW.MOTORAUTHORITY.COM British chemicals giant Ineos is jumping into the automotive game with a rugged...

Is this on the first point of entry? ??

As the bark necrosis caused by the beetle larvae appears recent - indicated by the surrounding bark appearing to be live and unaffected - these localised patches of missing bark certainly look like a bird has been seeking the larvae out. P.16-18 Natural enemies ? This is what can happen with a mini-population explosion (of beetles) and subsequent avian feeding frenzy on the increased food source.

Yes they fly. This is useful (https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/documents/6467/FCBU008.pdf) and confirms my understanding of bark-beetles within the UK context, eg they’re very much a secondary issue generally. So on this basis I’m not sure why you’d wish to attempt controlling them, And importantly they’re a native species and part of the ecosystem.

I far as I am aware, even with tree 149 ('Betty") in the Nornex trials, it wasn't considered 'resistant' to ADB, just that it appeared to have a very high tolerance; as it was growing within a heavily infected stand which was full of badly affected trees yet she was classified as having a very low damage score. What Allan Downie of the project stated is: "I believe that we have generated the fundamentals required to select and potentially to breed trees with enhanced tolerance to the disease. What I mean by this is not ‘resistance’ in the sense that these trees will eliminate the pathogen. Instead, what we probably have found are genetic markers and metabolite profiles that are associated with enabling ash trees to live with, and suppress growth of (rather than kill) the pathogen. One of the advantages of such ‘tolerance’ or ‘low susceptibility’ is that it has a much better chance of being sustained over long periods of time than is the typical gene-for-gene resistance that is used in annual crops and which can so easily be broken by small genetic changes in the pathogen." In 2014 I visited a site in Lithuania (which along with Poland) is where ADB is first thought to have become established in Europe circa 1991. There were big prime specimen ash growing which had endured the disease for nearly 25 years** and had been considered as highly tolerant, yet had just started to decline and were also infected with secondary Armillaria infections. The lesson was that, even trees which at fist appear highly tolerant can succumb to ADB overtime. Bear in mind that they are suffering repeated infection pressure annually and add in all the other compounding factors which contribute towards their overall health / ADB disease susceptibility. **We are way, way off this point yet in the UK so I treat all the news stories of "resistant" trees being found, with a very healthy dose of sceptisim? As for the future of ash, then maintaining these trees which are highly tolerant and affording them every opportunity to successfullly naturally regenerate is going to be what is key! It'll be pointless having highly tolerant ash saplings that are getting hammered by deer.

Experience from Europe shows that in the early stages of an ADB outbreak, due to the low infection pressure/spore loading, specimens with moderate-low tolerance become infected yet can survive for a fair few years, often rallying. Trees losing their apical shoot, developing diamond lesions are typical of this. For them to be so affected at such a low spore loading demonstrates their lower tolerance, but as the infection pressure is low and likely sporadic & isolated they can survive and respond to the infection eg either by producing replacement growth or compartmentalising shoot infections (causing the diamonds) etc. However once the spore loading increases and the entire tree is under infection pressure (eg spores consistently alighting on all its foliage) and has been for a number of years (upwards of 10), the trees true tolerance will not be revealed. Add in all the other contributing, compounding factors - that can wax and wain - makes being able to make early predictions on whether a tree will survive long term, impossible. As far as I last knew, as yet no trees have been found to not be infected. Those which are non symptomatic are just very highly tolerant, yet still have ADB present. Hope this helps. Attached for reference.

This. In your second photo it looks like the breeding galleries are present, or rather had been. They’re a good food source for birds. As a result of ADB there’ll be a population explosion of ash bark beetles.

Sounds like they could have COVID 19....?

The ecological impact is yet to come. Yes there are the benefits to the climate from reduction in air travel and fuel usage generally, yes during the first 7 weeks a lot of wildlife had benefited from decreased human disturbance. However now everyone is allowed out people will be roaming all over. Those self indulgent types who’ve flown everywhere for their holidays will now be exploring the British countryside. It will be overrun with littering twats who see it as their playground, all 60million of them, wildfires aplenty are on the horizon and that’ll be just for starters ????‍♂️

You remember right - the illiterate peeve pants - made the whole thing even more hilarious ?

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Well something smells fishy about it ?!

More winching and skidding out windblow spruce

?consumer morals

New Holland T3040 + Tajfun winch, pulling out windblow

Well it’ll be interesting to see how much that goes on with these new regulations..?