PROMINENT NOTES OF INTEREST FROM INDOOR PRESENTATION
Due to rules & regulations, health & safety, awareness of basic tree inspection & adhering of certain laws are required in places like gardens, streets & highways. Tree surveys sometimes takes place on front of trains - Network Rail does not have power like Highway Act - Rail missed similar applications out.
Reg. example: Manslaughter from 2005 (corporate manslaughter) is now easily proven because someone is accounted for keeping safety e.g. Chief Executive - has to have questions answered.
Min. required - at least zoning of low & high risk areas.
Sources to seek advice of what to do:
- HSESIM01/2007/05 Management of the risk from falling trees.
- www.hse.gov.uk
- Hazards from Trees Guide - David Lonsdale (a bit dated but good general info).
- Booklet - Common sense risk management of trees.
- NTSG (National Tree Safety Group)
Other useful books:
- Fungi on Trees (Can get from AA - Arboriculture Association)
BASIC TREE INSPECTION EQUIPMENT
- Binoculars
- Tree tapper (suitable hammer)
- Prodder/ prober
- Compass (e.g. locating fungi - might have disappeared for further checks)
- Camera
- Measuring tool (e.g. laser - not good in mist though)
Measuring from the base to top of the tree (height) can calculate possible extent of damage (as hard to visualise). Other measuring device - Mechanical clinometer (measures slope or tilt). DBH - Diameter Breast Height is standard expression of measurement for trees.
Things to take in account of like how trees work
- When thinking about trees one thinks about wood structure, lignin & cellulose.
- If roots are exposed slowly over time it can be fine and have no impact on tree.
- No sight of buttress in light fryable soil might be ok but if heavy compacted clay - may be a problem.
- Roots need oxygen
- To not affect trees in excavation Klaus says keep a distance of four times the stem diameter. British H & S standard says 12 times.
- Ride on mowers create more compaction than a JCB - ground pressure might be better because more spaced out.
- A tree with a defect is what it is.
- Don't just deal with problem area. Look at other potential problems, causes or effects.
- Trees like Ash is always late in leaf as it is temperature dependent rather than light/ day length.
- Elm hangs on for a year when it dies before it drops its branches.
Identification of some fungal diseases:
- Kretzschamaria deusta - subtle black charcoal lichen like fungi - more unpredictable.
- Ganoderma - woody perennial one (Photo 1)
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| Photo 1: Different dried Ganoderma specimens. |
- Meripilius giganteus - transient & transparent (slimy disgusting mess)
- Beefsteak - Fistulina hepatica - Found on Sweet Chestnut, most likely to be benign.
- Frances Schwartz says trees like Lime trees has no ability to defend itself & compartmentalise itself from fungi
OUTDOOR OBSERVATIONS
Ginkgo Biloba trees in Bowles Lyon Rose Garden one of them in particular looking thin at the top, not happy. No tree protection was done when this area of the garden was designed & installed. Ginkgos are tough trees - the only ones to survive in the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.
'Big ears' on trees bad - can be helped by bracing. Catalpa bignonioides (Photo 2) tree in same area needs constant management now.
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| Photo 2: Catalpa bignonioides - the limbs of the tree has gotten so big they have started to fall/ collapse around it. The area is fenced off and props are used to help support the heavier branches. |
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| Photo 3: Close up of splitting of tree limb at weaker union joints. |
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| Photo 4: Flexible cord bracing used to give additional support at the top. Dynamic cables allows more flexibility, more movement but not peak movement. Ideally two thirds way up. Has to be done at optimum angles, if too shallow/ vertical = ineffective. |
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| Photo 5: Epicormic growth grown out of shock |
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| Photo 6: Bark splitting erratically. |
Conifers with over extended branches is not really high risk except maybe in coastal or high snow areas.
Oak tree at top of Rock Garden has Inonotus dryadeus but has responded with big buttress fortification - poses no danger.
If you have fungal activity around tree - it is possibly hollow.
Theory: Klaus says re health & strength of tree with fungal fruiting bodies, bigger = potentially higher nutrient level in tree, smaller = nutrient level has dropped. If according to Schigo - the compartmentalising ability of trees to isolate diseases to one area - less nutrients may be good & normal for a tree and indicate it's ability to rehabilitate of its own accord.
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| Photo 7: Extra side buttressing occurring on side with most tension (often in broad leaved trees) |
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| Photo 8: Metasequoia glyptostroboides displaying incremental strips - normal responding to quick growth and weakness. |
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| Photo 9: Ailanthus altissima |
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| Photo 10: Close up of infected Ailanthus altissima bark. |
When there is Phytophthora important to check movement of water (ways it could spread).
P. ramoran that affects Lithocarpus doesn't affect our oaks but is suddenly our larches. It hybridises alot. P. latiflora takes out Lawson Cypress but there is worry it will leap to Taxus.
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| Photo 11: Dead stump of Champion Holford Pine Tree. Was killed by fungi Phaeolus schweinitzii. Now just lignin (the hard stuff) left. |
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| Photo 12: Pinus nigra - slumping bark may be indication of white rot. Not necessarily a problem but a pointer to keep an eye on. |
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| Photo 13: Aesculus turbinata has Ganoderma applanatum/ australe - hard to tell which one unless under a microscope. Aesculus naturally sheds its bark, is not a good compartimentaliser. |
Leaf miner moths - with the mild winters they keep coming out earlier, so you get 5/6 generations in one year. Problem started in 2002 only recently our wildlife is adapting and our bluetits are eating them.
A Quercus palustris in Pinetum has canker, eventually it rings the tree and kills it.
A Pinus wallichiana with Phaeolus schweinitzii - annual brown rot, may not fruit every year (Photo 14).
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| Photo 14. |
TREE DETECTION DEVICES - Ultrasound - gives picture of inside & density of tree (will not pass an air gap though & not 100% accurate). Machine - Ultrasound Picas (means woodpecker) - Resistor graph machine for trees resistant to drilling - immediate read out & more portable. If you drill through barrier zone fungal disease can get in.