What, exactly IS a 'hack' tree person?

[stig]

Sounds like socialism to me.

 

[Mr. Sir]

Trees get big by not falling. Why punish success?

I'm not sure I follow the logic of that statement. I realize that a tree can't get big if it falls, but does that mean that if it does get big it won't fall, simply because it hasn't fallen before it got big?

 

[NeTree]

Size isn't an indicator of tree failure likelihood.

 

[Mr. Sir]

Nor is it an indicator of stability.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Size can be a factor in heavy winds. Bigger = better developed roots = stability.

 

[treelooker]

Nor is it an indicator of stability.

By and large, large trees are more stable. Heavy weight down low.

 

[stig]

After the "storm of the century" we had in 1999, I saw an 5 feet dia oak, with a trunk of maybe 6feet and a low wide canopy covering a circle of maybe 180 feet dia blown over.Simply pulled the rootplate and went down.
I simply didn't think that was possible.


That was some storm, btw. Took us about 1½ years to get the last blowdown out of the woods.

 

[Frans]

I look at trees as a system. When the system grows to a certain point, it begins to break down.

 

[Al Smith]

You can just get unique weather conditions that will uproot trees that have been well rooted for several hundred years . Super saturated soils along with an 80 MPH burst in wind speed has toppled a lot of them .

Normally in a praticular patch of wooded area the outward trees have developed root systems that seldom fail because they've been subjected to winds since they were saplings .More towards the center it seems these roots are not like the outbound trees .

Remove a bunch of these center trees and open up an area to wind then you start to see more damage by the wind .At least that's my observation in these local hardwoods .

 

[biggun]

Excellent examples of improper/neglected pollarding Highscale.

Good find!

I know I've seen pics of strikingly beautiful london plane tree pollards with huge elephants feet terminations, almost forming a perfectly symmetrical canopy.

It must have taken more than one arborist's lifetime to form such beautifully pollarded trees.

Good stuff guys.

jomoco

been reading this discussion, very interesting to hear different thought on Pollarding. when done correctly I think they can look pretty cool. A couple of pic of the London Plane trees on the south shore of Lake Geneva, switzerland.

sorry about the quality but they ere snapped ith camera phone, on the move. but the row of trees must be about 3 mile along the shore.

 

[jomoco]

Good stuff Biggun!

Thanks for sharing your pics mate.

jomoco