Help! They're Tearing Down My Trees Tomorrow!

[TNTreeHugger]

After seeing the new photos, I have to concur: they should come down.
I'm surprised your landlord didn't do this... as close as they are to the foundation and as bad as that one is leaning... looks like more of a liability than an asset.
How'd it go today? Did they come down?

 

[BC WetCoast]

Thanks, my day job has been wretched latly I'm losing my mind waiting for stuff to do while I'm suposidly at work meanwhile my stuff to do at home list keeps growing and I'm getting backed up with the part time tree stuffs. Makes me irritable and probibaly a little harsh. When the op dident realize they were looking at rot and mentioned the brown heartwood being maple syrup. I figured an analogy was in order no offense to the op this is proy just a topic outside of there wheelhouse that is after all why there asking. Btw even if he dident chain himself to the tree like a few of us were really hoping he would .... he did do a decent job with the pics more than enough there to answer the question but could we please get a pic of you chained to the tree ...... pretty pretty please ?

He probably prefers handcuffed to the bed post

 

[ArtB]

Have some maple in my back yard that look like pic 75 and 76 due to backing the truck into them 15 years ago. I'll leave them up until they fall down by themselves, which shold be fairly soon?

No need to take the NYC trees down, they will fall down by themselves in about 8-10 years...

oh wait, falling is what the concern is about?

Best outcome - get the arborists recommendation for what to replant in that area - one recommendation - NOT Chinese elm (aka stink tree, ghetto palm, etc)

 

[mohick]

AS close as they are under the foundation, they shouldn't have been let grow in the first place. Now, if they are bad or not they really really need to go utter stupidity to let them keep growing under that building . Get em gone. SOON!!!!!

 

[hseII]

Yes, they've already used the, "what if that windshield was someone's kid" comment. This small parking lot is used by the principal and the teachers only. Kids are not supposed to be in this parking lot and I don't ever see them in there.

So you take liability for the tree when it falls on one of the Faculty?

 

[Pelorus]

...the op dident realize they were looking at rot and mentioned the brown heartwood being maple syrup. I figured an analogy was in order...

I wish you had mentioned the malnourished one-legged kid contracting scurvy, cause you mention scurvy, and you will have even the tree gropers convinced the tree has gotta go.

 

[ATH]

....
Best outcome - get the arborists recommendation for what to replant in that area - one recommendation - NOT Chinese elm (aka stink tree, ghetto palm, etc)

Chinese elm is Ulmus parvifolia - sometimes called Lacebark elm and is generally a well-regarded tree when used in the right setting.

Ghetto palm and Stink tree are almost always referring to Ailanthus altissima (never heard them referring to anything else) - sometimes just called Ailanthus, or probably most commonly Tree of Heaven. Never heard it called Chinese elm. Not many people hold this one in any respect...and if they do they probably smell as bad as it does

Sometimes people will (incorrectly) call Ulmus pumila "Chinese elm". Its common name is Siberian elm. Slightly less of a disaster than Ailanthus...but not by much.

That is why we have botanical names...

 

[JeffGu]

Ahh.. the lovely Siberian Elm...



...and after a little light pruning...



...see how much better they look when you shorten them to a stump?

 

[ArtB]

Ailanthus
We don't have many (at least I've never seen one in PNW) out here so have not thought of them in years, but back in the 50's when I was a kid the folks in central IL called them stink trees or Chinese elm - grew like weeds there.

Had some true elm stumps in the yard when I was a kid - grandma said they all died in 1944 shortly before I was born. Wiki says dutch elm did not reach IL till late 50's or 60's, shows how accurate wiki is ?

 

[axeandwedge]

Limbs also fall or break out of healthy tree's all the time,maybe the limbs were over stressed due to strong wind and wet foliage .
I hope the arborist orders a stay of execution.

Sent from my HTC_0P6B using Tapatalk

 

[BC WetCoast]

Ailanthus

Had some true elm stumps in the yard when I was a kid - grandma said they all died in 1944 shortly before I was born. Wiki says dutch elm did not reach IL till late 50's or 60's, shows how accurate wiki is ?

You're assuming they were killed by DED. Was grandma an arborist?

 

[JeffGu]

Siberian Elm trees were sold, especially in the midwest, as a windbreak or hedge because they're hardy and fast growing. One of the biggest suppliers called them "Wall of China" as a marketing ploy... a reference to their ability to fill in a fencerow with a wall of crappy trees in a hurry. This is probably how Siberian Elm came to be erroneously called Chinese Elm in many areas.

I can tell you that removing them gets real tiresome, real fast. These and Silver Maple trees. It's amazing what people will plant next to their house with no regard to how big it will get down the road. Or, how many volunteer saplings growing along the property line they will leave there, growing, until they hit 40 feet or so.

 

[ArtB]

Was grandma an arborist?

Probably a better arborist than many 'certified' today ! Grandpa predated ISA by about 45 years!
Their backyard pear, apple and cherry trees always had a bumper crop. As did the grape arbors, got the church thru prohibition for communion wine (with some left over <G>)

Also, about every elm in Spfld IL died about the same time, state 'arborists' at the time called DED.

 

[JeffGu]

Well, you can hardly blame Wikipedia for information derived from the cited sources. They all say the same thing... that DED was first reported in Illinois in 1950.

DED in Illinois, for example.

Is it possible that grandma's memory of the events is just a bit off? I'm pretty sure that I couldn't get the timeframe quite right on anything I did 10 years ago!

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Siberian Elm trees were sold, especially in the midwest, as a windbreak or hedge because they're hardy and fast growing. One of the biggest suppliers called them "Wall of China" as a marketing ploy... a reference to their ability to fill in a fencerow with a wall of crappy trees in a hurry. This is probably how Siberian Elm came to be erroneously called Chinese Elm in many areas.

I can tell you that removing them gets real tiresome, real fast. These and Silver Maple trees. It's amazing what people will plant next to their house with no regard to how big it will get down the road. Or, how many volunteer saplings growing along the property line they will leave there, growing, until they hit 40 feet or so.

I know that's true on the maple seedlings - if I go too long between mowing, the seedlings are wall-to-wall!

 

[ATH]

....I can tell you that removing them gets real tiresome, real fast......

Can't say I'v have the privilege of removing a large one that I can recall. I don't do many removals so I am sure I would remember if I had. However, I know pruning them is among my least favorites. They gum up the hand saw bad...can't make a decent sized cut without cleaning it out 4 times. I would imagine too much big wood does the same to a chainsaw. Just when you think you are done with the piece of junk, you start cleaning up the yard then raking, and raking, then some more raking before you have to go back and do a final raking to get all the little twigs that broke off.

I tell people if they aren't sure whether they have a "real" Chinese elm or a Siberian elm to look under the tree the next time the wind blows. If you have a large pile of branches and twigs, it is probably Siberian...

 

[JeffGu]

That, and the bark of a Chinese is unmistakable... reminds me of a sycamore.
The Siberian ones can have so much water in them, the bigger wood just gushes it out when you cut it, and yeah... I take the saws back home with me every day and power wash them out. The tophandle saws sometimes stall like the chain brake was tripped. You have to knock the chips out or have another saw sent up. Pain in the arse, especially after a lot of rain.
Still, I get a lot of usable firewood from the removals and the customers usually don't want it. Fine for campfire/firepit wood, and I don't mind burning it in the shop, either. Don't really like the smell of it when it's burning, but it's not as bad as Boxelder.

 

[ArtB]

More on DED.

Below is a 1949 citing anyway that puts U of I report in error. U of I CAMPUS was hit big time in 1950, used to have huge elm trees.
http://www.sj-r.com/article/20130821/NEWS/308219881

Anyway GP died in 43, same year the tree in GP's front yard died, grandma not likely to forget the year grandpa died. FAIK, it was the first to die in IL but was unreported - pop was on leave from Navy before shipping out from Norfolk and had brought some botanical stuff back from East coast with him.
One thing have experienced over the decades, any historical topic one has first hand knowledge of and is also in print, the print version has errors.

 

[unclemoustache]

So .404 is the pitch of choice for decapitation via chainsaw ??? Good thing I don't have tree huggers around here nobody tells me these things. I run 3/8.

We're getting off topic here- is .404 a good pitch for tree huggers all around, or just for your typical skinny-legged, dreadlocked, unwashed Californian?

 

[13TreeWorks]

I'm going to assume it works on all types of hippies, tree huggers, Nancy's, and or your garden variety of panty wastes. But your milage may vary hell I was just told about this like 2 days ago and honestly been to buisy with this concrete project to try it yet