EPIC ICE STORM !!!

[CurSedVoyce]

What a mess! Well that ought to help carry you through the winter Erik.

 

[hornett22]

anyone needs a climber or groundie,let me know.i'm already bored with my winter mechanic work.i need to get back out side.i have the 4wd tractor with the front grapple as well.

 

[Altissimus]

Still cutting out breaks (cccccold climbing) , and pulling up waste lmbs from snow and ice ....

 

[treelooker]

C-c-c-cold, yeah, too cold to ski dammit.

What to do with the damaged ones? Attached is an idea--waht do you think?

wtf still cant attach pdf's here?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Because I don't like you.

 

[NeTree]

ROFLMAO!

 

[Newfie]

Damaged trees around here we hug 'em and reassure them and then sing cum-by-ah.

 

[Paul B]

PDFs and other files like excel and word can have executable code in them (icky viruses), they are usually excluded from being posted as attachments. I think.

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[NeTree]

Damaged trees around here we hug 'em and reassure them and then sing cum-by-ah.

Yep... gets 'em to let their guard down, so we can do basal kuts.

 

[Altissimus]

Update .... the snow and ice are almost gone .... there is waste everywhere , life does go on (muddy roads , Maple sap gets gathered and boiled) .... Suddenly everyone with a pickup and a saw is in the tree biz .... lotsa hack work being done out there ... people who do NOT know what they are doing ! I'm sticking with my high end regulars.... letting the quality of our work speak for itself .... those guys usually don't climb for the hangers and breaks anyways ....

 

[treelooker]

Yep... gets 'em to let their guard down, so we can do basal kuts.

You must be Basil Kutz, the villain in the below tale from down under:

Mike O’Ryza and the Case of the Desperate Divorcee

An old tree arises on the northwest corner of a three-story house in the affluent part of town. Through her bedroom window a girl watches two birds build a nest. The crown arches heavily over the roof and extends over the neighbor’s driveway, so they complain about leaves and pollen and their new car. Below, the 20 cm-thick concrete carport floor is badly cracked. A mushroom was seen on the opposite side of the stem. The branches swept the roof on stormy days, but the owner still enjoyed relaxing on her patio, in its shade.

One day a tree service was working nearby, and after lunch the foreman knocked on her door.
“Good afternoon, ma’am” he said, smiling with one side of his mouth. “My name is Basil Kutz, and I’m here to tell you about your big old tree.”

“Yes, it is large” she answered, raising her sunglasses as she looked him up and down. “SUPERVISOR” was printed above Basil’s pocket. “My name is Hannah Lantana. What do you want to tell me?”

“Your tree is more than large” Basil said, shaking his head. “It’s senescent and asymmetric. There is decay where that big branch broke off. There is a crack on the opposite side of the trunk. When roots break concrete like that, they are always damaged and decayed in the process. Other roots are breaking your foundation and your water and electric lines, and the top will come down any day. I would not sleep under this tree.”

“You wouldn’t?” her voice trembled. “What would you do?”

“Ma’am, I would remove the tree as soon as possible. It’s near the end of its lifespan, it’s out of balance, it has decay and cracks, its support is compromised: this tree’s defects make it a hazard. We can remove it cheap while we have the crane here today, but it would cost double if we have to come back; fuel and rental prices, you know.”

“Thank you, Mr. Kutz” she said, taking his card. “I will consider your observations and let you know.”

Hannah ran inside and called her ex-husband. “Roger you’ve got to hear this” she panted. A tree supervisor says that big tree over Hazel’s bedroom is going to fall soon, so you have to get it cut down. The crew is working down the street and they can start today. But that would break Hazel’s heart. She loves to watch the birds. “

“What?” Roger roared. “That tree’s fine. I’ll call my buddy from the gym, Louie Dalopur. He’s worked with trees for 20 years.”

Louie came right over. He shook his head as Hannah told him Basil’s proposal. “You do have another choice. We can cut the branches back so the tree will be safe. We guarantee that your tree will not fail for not just one, or two, but three full years, or we will remove it for half price.”

“But how will you get up there without a crane, and where will you make the cuts?” she wondered.

“We have no problems getting up” Louie winked and scratched himself. “Our men have the latest high-tech climbers they strap to their boots, so they can walk right up there. We will cut all the branches back so they are exactly three meters long. That way the tree will be structurally perfect; that’s a scientific fact.”

“Is that right” she said, taking his card. “I will get back to you.”

“Mr. Delopur has a plan to prune the tree and make it safe without removing it” Hannah told Roger’s answering machine. “What should we do?” Roger never called back. Hazel slept over at a friend’s, but still Hannah tossed and turned all night. The weather was calm, but she couldn’t sleep under the tree that had sheltered her for so long. The next morning, Hannah had to act. Which proposal would she follow? See page xxx for the answer.

Her twitching fingers tapped at her keyboard until she found “Arborists”, and called the number of Michael O’Ryza. That’s me.

“Mike O’Ryza” I answered. “We diagnose tree diseases, disorders, infections and infestations. We also assess defects, appraise damages, and coax the beauty of your trees.”

“I believe I have the right number!” she said with anticipation. “I’ve heard two different assessments of my tree, and I don’t know what to think. I would like you to inspect my tree, assess its condition, and tell me what to do. I agree to your fee; please come right over.”

Something about her voice made me drop everything and drive. I saw her at the patio, and stopped still. She was the kind of woman who gave a man 20-10 vision. Her bright green eyes sparkled like sunshine on chlorophyll as I shook her outstretched hand. Electricity licked my palm and shocked me back to action. “Hannah, I will be glad to look at this tree, and discuss my observations with you. However, it is your tree, so only you can decide how you want to manage it.”

She raised one eyebrow as the corners of her mouth slowly curved upward. “We’ll see about that later. I’ll leave you to your work” She picked up her book and leaned back in her chair, as I slowly stood up and continued my examination.

OBSERVATIONS AND DISCUSSION
This is a big tree in a small space. Branch growth is suppressed to the south and to the northwest by other oak trees, and whole limbs have been removed from the east side, over the house. The limbs to the north grow out over the top of the house, then down. These heavy ends, dipping toward the roof in a light breeze, create a moderate risk to the house.

Older wounds on the trunk are closed completely, and newer wounds have thick callus rings. The wound from the storm failure is long because the underside of the collar ripped out, but the tree’s response shows that it has good vitality. Callus is forming evenly around the wound and differentiating into woundwood, which in other species has been measured to be 40% stronger than regular wood.

The crack on the other side of the tree is about a foot long, and near the scaffold attachments. It is on the east side of the trunk, about 7m off the ground. From a ladder I probed the cavity behind the crack. It measured about 8 cm deep, and up to 1 cm wide, with hard wood inside all around. The crack itself measures 30 cm long, and the tissue forming at the ends contain the crack. The tissue on the edges is closing the crack; overall it appears to be a minor defect.

The evidence of prior failure is one aggravating factor. The reported fungal activity at the base is another, as well as possible damage by the shed and the concrete carport floor. All these could result in a loss of strength. The rubber mallet did not produce any hollow sounds in the well formed buttress roots, but a deeper Root Crown Examination (RCX) was needed. We raked away the mulch and saw a white fungus on the base of the tree, but it was harmless. It peeled off the outside of the bark, with no wood decay behind it.


FOLLOWUP FLARE WORK
I excavated 10-20 cm of soil all around. Probing the underside of the roots from an angle with a tile probe showed no soft spots. In the area where the mushroom was sighted, the bark is discolored, but it sounded fine with the mallet, and the cambium appears healthy green when the bark is nicked. Next, the two obstructions: we excavated soil from under the shed, and reached in to see if roots were severed when the shed was built. The roots felt solid in my hand; the shed was built properly, above the roots.

Next I looked at the north side. 12 years ago a storm had this tree rocking so hard that a major root pushed open a crack in the concrete floor. We removed loose concrete above the buttress and found two 3 cm roots growing back toward the trunk. They were not a girdling concern so we re-covered them. Then I encountered many small roots, and determined that further excavation would do more harm than good. I inspected above and below the concrete as much as possible, but there were no smells or other signs of decay evident in this area.

I put up my diagnostic kit, checked my look in the mirror, and ambled back to the patio. “Good news, Hannah” I reported. “The stem is solid, and the roots that anchor your tree to the earth have no obvious problems. Inoculating the soil near the trunk with mycorrhizal fungi and compost may displace whatever decay pathogens are active.

“I am so glad to hear that, and I agree” she nodded. “Now, what about the branches?”

“They do need some work” I agreed. “The sprawling limbs should be pruned back to upright laterals, to lessen the likelihood of breakage. Reducing these heavy ends will also lessen the strain on their attachments, the stem, and the roots. Did the tree contractors who looked at your tree refer to these?” I asked, handing her my field copy of the AS 4373 Pruning Standards.


STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
She flipped through the pages, noting the sections I highlighted. “No, they did not. I see you have your insurance certificate here too, thank you. Neither of the others showed me theirs. Basil Kutz made a lot of judgments without inspecting the tree, in violation of Clause 4. Louie Dalopur’s crew uses climbing spikes to prune trees, violating 5.1 (a). Are these rules that important?”

“Indeed they are” I assured her, tucking them back into my bag. “Every industry has standards, and every qualified arborist should know about and follow AS 4373.”

“ Using telescoping pole saws will make the job safer and easier. The hardest part about pruning with a pole saw is to “avoid tearing or splitting of the branch collar or trunk, branches should be pre-cut or undercut.” (AS 4373 5.3) The standard 3-Step pruning method for any branch results in a stub falling freely, if it cannot be held by hand or rope. That does not work over the house.
Because many reduction cuts are beyond our reach, and roping pieces so small and so far out on the limb is practically difficult, we often must make do with a 2-Step pruning method. This calls for precise and deep undercutting, sometimes with a second undercut meeting the first to form a notch to direct the debris.

With good positioning and technique, even climbers who lack brawn can make proper cuts with a polesaw. Clean wounds are the goal, but small wounds on the outer crown are not major damage to the tree. If a major rip of the branch collar seems possible, it is best to put it on a hand line. The hand line runs through a fork that will guide the cut branch to the desired landing zone. Using a fork directly above the cut branch, and tying near its center of gravity, the limb may not swing and hit the roof. All dead branches within reach of the pole should be pruned, even the twigs. Their weight may be minimal by itself, but with precipitation and wind they exert a much greater load.”

“That sounds like common sense” Hannah nodded. “Your hourly rate is fair; please prune the tree when you are able. I don’t know why Basil and Louie saw things so differently.”

“Tree workers often use the hard sell. They speculate about how bad defects might be, without even inspecting them. They talk about how precious the “targets”, the persons and property beneath the tree, are, as if the owner did not know. But as the number of trees goes down, their value goes up. Too often, people follow simplified ‘Rules’ like ‘Defect + Target = Hazard = Removal’, or ‘When in doubt, cut it out’.”

“Tree owners like you are growing savvy about their options, and resent any attempts to aggravate their anxieties and fuel their fears. Once tree owners learn more about their trees and see a responsible plan for their care, they are more likely to focus on quality instead of price. Trees are valuable and they are dynamic, so our assessments can’t be strictly determined by simple rules that are taken from a quick reading of the literature. It is up to arborists to closely read both the books and the trees.”



We pruned the tree shortly after, with Hannah watching the whole time. We made 27 cuts on live branches, all under 12 cm in diameter and all to good lateral branches. Some laterals were less than 1/3 the diameter of the parent, which is commonly considered to be the main criterion for selecting a new branch end. However, they had other laterals behind them to back them up, and five other criteria for selection:

1. Good vitality, signified by color and fullness of bark and buds,
2. Sunlight, the amount required depending on species,
3. Good attachments: stable angles, no bark inclusion,
4. Good probability of wound closure, due to small size and downward slant, and
5. Room for future growth. Unless these criteria are met, branch reduction is what Shigo called “tipping”, and will likely kill the branch though starvation.

“The load and the risk are reduced significantly, with minimal decay” said Hannah with a smile. “I’m so glad you did not do any lopping. That ‘unacceptable practice of cutting branches between branch unions, at internodes…’ would have ruined our tree. I see that every remaining branch can harvest enough sunlight to sustain itself, and the tree system. You’ve made my tree safe enough for me.”

I smiled back. “Regular checkups can maintain that risk at a low level. Aeration and inoculation in other parts of the rootzone, along with light fertilization spring and fall based on our soil test, would boost the tree’s health. Monitoring should be in late summer, when the mushrooms typically appear, and in winter, to see the structure with the leaves off. Also, the tree will probably need pruning again in a few years.”

“I am so glad that you saved me—and my tree—from a tragic mistake.” she smiled gratefully as she grasped my hand. “I will agree to the soil work and semiannual monitoring, if it is you who will be doing it.”

“I will look forward to seeing you then” I replied, my fingers slowly releasing hers. “Oh, and please tell Hazel that I saw four eggs in that nest, so she may be seeing some baby birds soon.”

 

[NeTree]

Interesting story.

Just as I suspect, you're both completely clueless about my opinions and skills as an arborist, and completely cluless about how the tree business really works.

Other than that, you're a great guy.

 

[Altissimus]

...... ?????? ..... oh yeah and ??????

 

[treelooker]

Hey I know you ain't Basil; sorry to give wrong idea there.