Engine exhaust on spruce

[Menchhofer]

Anyone had experience on the affects of engine exhaust on spruce or pine trees. Friend of mine parked his skidsteer next to spruce tree for about 1/2 hour idling and now 1/3 of the side of the tree is brown. Client is very concerned.

Since I have no experience in this area I wouldwelcome comments/advise. thanks

 

[Ax-man]

I would say the spruce won't make a recovery, the heat from the exhaust is almost the same as having a fire next to the tree. I have seen the same thing happen to parkway trees when a street gets a new blacktop surface, you can tell right where the semi stopped and had to wait, if there were tree limbs above or close to the exhaust stack there would be vertical line of dead leaves. A decidious tree would fill in the void with next years growth, but a spruce would be a different situation and wouldn't recover. JMO

Larry

 

[pbtree]

I would say the spruce won't make a recovery, the heat from the exhaust is almost the same as having a fire next to the tree. I have seen the same thing happen to parkway trees when a street gets a new blacktop surface, you can tell right where the semi stopped and had to wait, if there were tree limbs above or close to the exhaust stack there would be vertical line of dead leaves. A decidious tree would fill in the void with next years growth, but a spruce would be a different situation and wouldn't recover. JMO

Larry

What he said. The heat is the culprit, and I am not sure of the recovery from this with a spruce...

Any way to post a photo?

 

[ASD]

y were you parking equipment in the drip line of a tree that was not getting cut down :bang:

 

[gitrdun_climbr]

Not to beat a dead horse but IMO the heat. Just this morning I was following a city bus with his pipe pointed up, out, and literally blowing the street trees around with sooty exhaust and those tree looked as healthy as can be. How many times a day do they get that heavy dose of black exhaust? I guess since the bus is moving the heat is less of a factor and the trees adapt to their every 30-minute snack...probably pinch their stomata or something.

ASD good point on the heavy equipment...soil compaction is very hard to amend. On a tall skinny pine those absorbing roots travel well outside of the dripline even and really should be looked after. Sometimes I see huge lots cleared for development of houses and all the heavy equipment is huddled under two of the only three trees to be saved!

Menchhofer I'm not trying to give you a hard time though, your question was to the point and the issue is very real. Photos would speak a thousand words if you can but the future for the tree's shape looks bleak. Just as a conifer with actual cambial damage from fire may continue to grow, it will likely always show those fire scars. Please give us more info like species, size, maturity, value (screening, ornamental, etc.), if you can.

 

[woodville]

Sorry but any evergreen 70' tree or 2' shrub will not regenerate at all. The last time I saw diesel stack exhaust damage 12' to 40' up a fir the tree still looks the same dead on that part. 60' spruce owner had a chimany mini fire pit thing underneath used it all winter 1/2 the tree over the thing is dead. BBQ to close to yew hedge dead. Mature 70' white pines over a keg party fire perfect death ring to this day over the pit.:angry2:

 

[gitrdun_climbr]

I guess you're right, 'regenerate' is probably the wrong terminology. Many forsest fires have partially burned conifers that later generated all kinds of new growth. That's not to say the actual burned branches will grow back in those burn scars as they likely will not. Sometimes these trees will conitnue to live and generate new growth year after year is my point and depending on the size, circumstances, use/value of the tree, it may need to be removed and replaced but we know nothing about the tree at this point.

 

[Menchhofer]

I will try to remember to bring camera and take a few shots of the tree.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Probably not the heat.

We had a call a year or two ago, a water softener delivery truck got stuck and used water softener salt to get traction, at the base of some evergreens.
After a tree died, an insurance claim was filed, an investigation was made, tissue samples were taken, and it turned out that it wasn't salt damage, but carbon monoxide. The truck sat running for 45 minutes or so and the exhaust killed the tree.
Give carbon monoxide poisoning careful consideration. If it goes to court, you'll know for sure.
Being an arborist, I see a lot of tree damage caused by equipment operators, and they never know they did it.

 

[gitrdun_climbr]

Mike thanks for that info. I love hard science. Direct carbon monoxide like that can't be good for any living thing I guess. Whether it was heat, carbon monoxide or both, I think Menchhofer knows by now the skidsteer done it...and that's a bummer. Without branching this thread off into a new topic I think I will do some research in the area.

Climb safe!