ash in real trouble?

[Spellfeller]

Wow! Thanks for such a detailed and thoughtful response, Ian. Dinner is on us, if you and your son ever make it to town! The zoo and Treestuff ARE worth the trip.

Can you tell me what went into your company's decision not to climb EAB trees? Will you not climb them at all, or does the ban apply to trees that are beyond a certain severity?

 

[Raj]

My neighbour's tree behind my house, I've been telling him for over 10 years he should do something about it, for crying out loud I have climb and rigging gear! He's career is in health and safety.....

 

[ianwhite]

Wow! Thanks for such a detailed and thoughtful response, Ian. Dinner is on us, if you and your son ever make it to town! The zoo and Treestuff ARE worth the trip.

Can you tell me what went into your company's decision not to climb EAB trees? Will you not climb them at all, or does the ban apply to trees that are beyond a certain severity?

Happy to tell you what I can. I have a good buddy that's a municipal forester that told me about some research regarding the structural integrity of wood riddled with eab. That was rather concerning. He put the thought in my head when he told me that a company that he used to work for had recently said no more climbing eab trees. Honestly, it's more of a cover my ass and get the client thinking. I'm sure you've all heard the quote, I think I saw it as somebodies signature on TB "a lack of planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part". I don't want clients thinking they can just wait till it dies and have it be no big deal to have it removed. That's the brief explanation. Sorry for the brevity. Just got home. Time to play with the kid for a bit, then get some paperwork done.

Also, thanks a bunch for the dinner offer! Hope I can take you up on that sometime!

 

[Spellfeller]

I climbed and cut much of the deadwood out of this tree today. More details HERE.

As I was climbing, I found this flaw at about 20-25' on the back side, away from where the original photos were taken. Doesn't bode well, huh?

 

[Raj]

Is it solid? Soft? Bark loose/ peeling?

This was my climb for today.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

You have other defects over some deadwood you cut in the other thread. Looked like maybe a sprout from where an old pruning cut was made, grew larger, then died.

 

[Spellfeller]

Hi, all:

Just to close the loop on this...

Indy Ash LINK came out to take a look and determined that this tree (and four others on the property) are relatively healthy and excellent candidates for treatment. There are 10 ash total. The other five break down as 2 that would LIKELY respond to treatment, 2 that are 50:50 and 1 that should be removed.

Now, with limited resources, we have to triage and figure out which ones to try and save...

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Cool, Jeff.

That's a good surprise.

Remember, the bug is the acute culprit. Consider site stressors: competition, drought, compaction, fill, ...

 

[Spellfeller]

Excellent point, Sean. Thanks!

Taking the totality of each tree's situation/other challenges into account will help us make the best decisions about which ones to keep...

 

[Raj]

Climb up, hang around with your fly swatter!

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

If you have a piece of rebar, or the like, that you can put a point on, you can make a "hand-feel" compaction tester. Cheap version of http://agrimart.net/dickey-john-soi...WfLUgU1VUP-WJo-a6urxOx2wFmyKmbjKMcxoCJiDw_wcB

 

[Al Smith]

Twenty percent of the hardwoods in Ohio are ash.They are all dead .

Dead wooding won't do anything to stave the onslaught .If they are taken down before it gets to the roots they will sprout anew in most cases .I have a few dropped 4-5 years ago resprout and they are about 12 feet high now .The old ones are goners .Just the way it is .They will hold on to the top limbs 4-5 years until the wind shears them off .Hard to say how long the main stem holds .They fail usuallly at ground level when they go .

Interesting enough .When the EAB hit they ignored little saplings evidently knowing there wasn't enough inner bark to sustain the larva.Those survived at least for now .

 

[flushcut]

I have cut dozens of ash as small as three inch caliper with EAB.

 

[ianwhite]

Have you considered which route you will go for the specimens that are good treatment candidates?

 

[Mick!]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ALHfrHeCk

A lecture that involves talk of the emerald ash borer.