# Locust tree- strange problem. Is it doomed?



## Jeff Pass (Sep 9, 2015)

I have a black locust tree, at least I am pretty sure that is what it is.... two of them actually which came up volunteer along the fence about 10 years ago.
They grew pretty fast, and are now quite tall- trimmed them high above the power wires so they make kind of a canopy. All that is fine.
What is not fine, is that one of them has developed the most perplexing of problems. And it couldn't be happening in the worst spot.

The tree has a slight lean, and leans over the neighbors house. At least... sort of. I decided this year that maybe I should take the tree out- so then I called a tree cutter who assured me that 1) taking out the tree would be an astounding $1200.00, and that was probably the best price in town and 2) this type of tree practically never falls over, they are very solid and not to worry about it falling over. So I decided to leave it.

Then something very weird happened.

It seems like the bark is moving away from the tree, on the front side at the base It looks normal, but you can push the bark in about an inch. If you look inside you can see the heartwood which is flat, but white and there are a lot of 'shavings' like toothpicks. I brushed them out for the pictures.
I don't see any bugs except there were some very small ants on the tree, after which I put ant poison in the area and they seem to have disappeared. There is also a large round 'root' on one side.

I recently asked about this on another site and someone said this is a death sentence, the tree has to come down, it has fungal rot. They said it sustained some damage years ago and the 'root' is the tree trying to grow back over it, and as it grew it pulled the bark away from the tree. However the base is very large- quite a bit larger around than its sister tree next to it (both identical in age) so it seems to be artificially wide. The heartwood as it were seems solid. Why can't the fungus be treated, if this is what it is? Or is it something else, ants, another pest, etc?

Thanks much for any input. :/


Pictures (sorry for the rotation)

http://oi58.tinypic.com/105xycz.jpg

http://oi57.tinypic.com/30uqyqt.jpg

http://oi57.tinypic.com/1z1wfg1.jpg

http://oi60.tinypic.com/2u58dis.jpg

http://oi57.tinypic.com/258468h.jpg

http://oi60.tinypic.com/1yv891.jpg

http://oi59.tinypic.com/33fg4up.jpg


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## Axmeaquestion (Sep 11, 2015)

Wrong section, post this in the homeowner help section


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