bigbaddom

Hello Compost Charlie I would say don't import at all - burning wood is sort of carbon neutral only if you're using a local source otherwise the energy involved in shipping firewood means you're producing more CO2 than necessary. Ie. its no longer a green source of energy. Apparently the coal/biomass power station Drax, which is a huge power station, is importing American and Canadian woodchip as fuel - it boggles belief the way the powers that be are trying to fool us that we are going green. Get your wood nice and local no matter how crazily "cheap" and "green" importing appears to be.

Hello Something puzzling me and I would like your advice please. I trimmed the sycamore in the photo about June last year just before the drought and it reacted very poorly. Specifically I removed any dead branches of which there weren't that many of any size. There was a hefty branch that had broken off and I merely removed it without a live cut. I don't think I took off more than about 10-15% in volume. It seemed to react poorly - leaves started shedding except for one smallish area that retained leaves. The tree is in a back garden, I don't think ground compaction is an issue. The photo is taken this year - there is the start of some leaf growth at the top left in that small area that did well. I am curious because all the sycamores around - I am in London, seem to be in leaf. The squirrels I believe caused the damage which led to the previous branch death. Looking at the tree now I can see maybe half-a-dozen branches stripped bare by the squirrels. So, what's the prognosis? Is the tree just slow to come into leaf? Could last year's trim have been the death knoll? Can trees have some really bad years of semi-dormancy before springing back? Can squirrel activity be as bad as to kill a tree? Many thanks Dom

Hello My first post to the world of tree people and tree artists all and I would like your advice please. I trimmed the sycamore in the photo about June last year just before the drought and it reacted very poorly. Specifically I removed any dead branches of which there weren't that many of any size. There was a hefty branch that had broken off and I merely removed it without a live cut. I don't think I took off more than about 10-15% in volume. It seemed to react poorly - leaves started shedding except for one smallish area that retained leaves. The photo is taken this year - there is the start of some leaf growth at the top left in that small area that did well. I am curious because all the sycamores around - I am in London, seem to be in leaf. The squirrels I believe caused the damage which led to the previous branch death. Looking at the tree now I can see maybe half-a-dozen branches stripped bare by the squirrels. So, what's the prognosis? Is the tree just slow to come into leaf? Could last year's trim have been the death knoll? Can trees have some really bad years of semi-dormancy before springing back? Can squirrel activity be as bad as to kill a tree? Many thanks Dom