Hi. I would appreciate your thoughts on general reconstruction on large, mature trees - and specifically a big old ash project I am planning to tackle in my garden.
Now, I know some of you might think: "Cheeky, tight b***! Picking our brains and doing us pros out of work!" And I would understand it if you thought that way. However, I like climbing trees, I like doing things myself (not keen on plumbing though), I have the gear (ropes, harness, PPE etc) and have treated myself to an extra 25m of Marlow Gecko for Christmas! I have a large garden with many mature trees that have been in need of a bit of TLC over the years and I have a lot of respect for chainsaws - particularly my old Stihl 020T!
So my question is this: what are the fundamentals of tackling an old tree with some large dead limbs but still has (hopefully) many more years life left in it? My guess is the priority is safety - cut out anything that could fall and cause damage or injury. Then any diseased wood. But then do you cut everything back to healthy wood? Or do you leave some dead wood (particularly in an old tree) to encourage birds, critters and insects?
As you will see from the photos of my tree (BTW - the thin, 3-strand blue nylon rope is there just to bookmark a useful crotch), it has had some work done about ten years to remove dead and dangerous limb tips. The tree surgeon who did this cut back to what he thought was green wood but some of the big limbs have failed to regrow. I fancy leaving these big main limbs to the critters - subject to closer inspection. He also left some green top limbs which don't look very pretty and have since died. To be fair to him he did ask me if I wanted them removing. I said - no, but wish I had said yes.
There is one big limb on the right which has green growth on the tips but the main part has a major crack running down a large part of the branch. I think I will have to cut this back to the start of the crack.
Anyway, I want to take my time and do it right so any advice will be gratefully appreciated.
