core sampling a removal before climbing?

[BC WetCoast]

Good job Mitchell.
I see a lot of dead and dying Doug. fir, up the Fraser Canyon, east of Lillooet, not a good thing, especially with the pine beetle epidemic. I hear its root rot and an insect.

Armillaria can be bad in that area. Also spruce budworm (which hits the Douglas fir) is really noticeable at a certain elevational band. Looking across a valley, you will see a band of red trees at a defined elevation.

There is also some fir beetle.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Not recommending this ...

But do you know any tree workers who thump the trunk with a mallet like a trucker checking air in tires to hear the sound?

I figure if several landscapers believe in water witching - there must be people in the tree trade who believe in other methods too.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Not recommending this ...

But do you know any tree workers who thump the trunk with a mallet like a trucker checking air in tires to hear the sound?

I figure if several landscapers believe in water witching - there must be people in the tree trade who believe in other methods too.

I know myself, and have had success with the practice. Not as good as a bore, but it can tell you when you need to get one out.

 

[Mitchell]

stand health

Without being on site to inspect the trees it is going to be a shot in the dark to give suggestions as to the problems with the trees. Assessing a mature stand of trees for their health and risk, and have any accuracy to your assessment will take some experience in many fields of study.

Thanks for the replies guys,
No doubt no one can assess the stand from a couple pics. I was hoping some west coaster would have some insight from experience. The root rots and bark beetles are present but I thought they would be secondary.

Not recommending this ...

But do you know any tree workers who thump the trunk with a mallet like a trucker checking air in tires to hear the sound?

I figure if several landscapers believe in water witching - there must be people in the tree trade who believe in other methods too.

If you know any fallers you do; as you asked I think its fair to say you do not, so read on.

In so far as tapping a tree with a mallet for soundness I would highly recommend.
It does not take much practice to start discerning structural issues. Not just obvious hollow center checks will sound different, old hard to see shear plane fractures in branches will sound different then their neighbours. The vibrations going up the tree will oscillate the top and you will develop a sense of how sound the tops are from the movement. In the bush a falling axe worked well but it of course scars the tree. Hard rubber would be better for landscape trees.

Due to the massiveness and thick bark, big trees like I was working with in the pics do not yield as much of this information [increases as they are cut up mind you]. Perhaps I just need a really big mallet...

 

[rbtree]

Impressive work, mitchell!

Perhaps you might find a good consulting arborist in the area. Possibly the best in BC is Julian Dunster, who lives on Bowen Island. Bartlett Tree Experts in Vic have some good arborists......a couple samples sent to a lab would determine what exactly is going on.

Interesting....about 8 years ago, I removed a 31 degree leaning 5 foot dbh fir. The wood all went as pulp....yet it stood.......even as a home was built almost directly under the lean....till we craned it out.

Near it is one even larger that has a slight lean away from the house. It is still 125 feet tall to its 26 inch top, which I've cut out the dead....since, it has died back more.

Both 500 plus yr old trees are survivors of a landslide some 150 years ago which occured on the west side of Mercer Island. Many of the trees now on the bottom of Lake Washington, are apparantly upright, and known as the Standing Submerged Forest.

 

[Mitchell]

hired help

Impressive work, mitchell!

Perhaps you might find a good consulting arborist in the area. Possibly the best in BC is Julian Dunster, who lives on Bowen Island. Bartlett Tree Experts in Vic have some good arborists......a couple samples sent to a lab would determine what exactly is going on.

Interesting....about 8 years ago, I removed a 31 degree leaning 5 foot dbh fir. The wood all went as pulp....yet it stood.......even as a home was built almost directly under the lean....till we craned it out.

Near it is one even larger that has a slight lean away from the house. It is still 125 feet tall to its 26 inch top, which I've cut out the dead....since, it has died back more.

Both 500 plus yr old trees are survivors of a landslide some 150 years ago which occured on the west side of Mercer Island. Many of the trees now on the bottom of Lake Washington, are apparantly upright, and known as the Standing Submerged Forest.

These jobs are great, beats cutting leylandis back any day. Two hours of set up for 5 seconds of chaos. My 13 year old did a video of it coming over but I'm not sure how to post it.

Dunster is very knowledgeable, as are some others around here like talbot and Mckenzie. The problem as I see it is, no one home owner wants to foot the bill to get the bottom of neighbourhood problems.

Other arborists and I offer likely explanations but I am not sure any one knows exactly what is taking out pockets of trees. Home owners tell you what the last arborist said and often I do not think it is entirely accurate, the odd time it seems bunk. Other then this site, the odd course, shooting the breeze with a friendly arborist, I [most small tree co I believe] tend to operate in a vacuum. That's just the reality of working dawn to dusk day in day out.

I hear you on the "what were they thinking building under that tree scenario." With the housing boom peaking two years ago around here the construction damaged trees have just used up all there stores. They are starting to pack it in. Thousands of dollars I have dinged more then a few folks for trees that could have been saved or should have been pulled over with a machine during ground break. I have yet to hear of anyone hiring an arborist before buying a house but I now know a few folks that wished they did.