Sticky situation

[imagineero]

Just thought I'd post this one up since it's winter here and work's a little slow, could be something worth bearing in mind.

A buddy of mine was doing a crane removal about a month ago, and the neighbour wanted a tree done at the same time. The neighbour seemed like a difficult person, bet buddy gave him a price $1200, it should have been about $2k but if done same day since the crane was there already he gives him the cheap price. Gets to the day and neighbour puts the squeeze on him, wants it done for $1000. So he reluctantly agrees and does the job since he brought extra labour along just for that job. Neighbour is aware the stump wont be ground, but wants it poisoned. No problem, buddy applied glyphosate and job is done.

So he gets an irate call from the neighbour a few days ago, one of his other trees has died, can he go take a look?

There was another mature canopy tree about 15' away, buddy took some pics and sent them through to me and it's pretty obvious that the tree is dead. Full brownout of the whole canopy. My best guess is that the root systems were intertwined/joined, and the poison applied has killed the other tree.

So where to? The neighbour is furious, and wants the second tree removed for free. It's never going to end well for anybody. Buddy can dodge it, and the neighbour would have to take him to court, needing a lot of evidence. He might win or not, he might give up or not. He might go and burn buddy's truck or not. Buddy could go remove the second tree for free and maybe loose $1000. Or he could put it through his insurance which has a deductable of $1000.

Be interested in hearing of similar cases, first time I ever heard anything like that. Could be worth considering next time you treat a stump with a nearby tree.

Shaun

 

[sgreanbeans]

To kill a tree, murder and mayhem Down Under.

Yeah, that sounds like a bad position. I would do a test to make sure it was the poison, could be a guy doing it himself to get a tree gone for free. I have seen HO's poison neighbors trees and do other mechanical injury's to kill a tree. In Cali ( one example of why I left). My "senior" sales guy wants me to look at a tree to make sure it is safe to climb. We have our BCMA going to the job, pretty sure he could handle it, but whatever, I'll take a look. We get there and the first thing I see is that someone had taken a claw hammer and girdled a canary island pine about 3ft up, dug a 12" wide ring, about 2 inches deep all the way around the tree. Smoking the tree. The tree grew over the fence and hung out directly over the backdoor neighbors pool, hmmmmm. Gee I wonder what happened. My salesmen, who has worked there 23 years and is titled "Sales Arborist", told the HO that it was beetle's, even tho there was no sign whatsoeva. Told the HO that the girdling would not hurt the tree at all! ......this is the guy they wouldn't let me fire. My point, people will do some nasty stuff to trees to get them gone. If the guy was beating him up on the first price, then maybe he thought he could blame it on poison and get the second one for free, so he goes out and kills his own tree and blames it on your buddy. I would test the tissue and see what is in it. If it is found that is was the poison, take it out and be happy to do it, if it is something else, poison from the HO, then go after him for fraud and make him pay for his time and the test.

 

[tree MDS]

I would've just told the guy to cover the stump in black plastic.

 

[Pelorus]

There ain't gonna be no happy ending here. Your buddy has let himself get caught in a lose - lose situation with a client who is smarter than him (at negotiating). But, since the stump got nuked because that is what the weasel wanted, I would be highly tempted to ignore him. The death of the innocent tree #2 is karmic justice for him beating your buddy down on his price.

 

[imagineero]

I would've just told the guy to cover the stump in black plastic.

I don't know what you guys do stateside, but here in aus treating stumps that won't be ground with glyphosate is the norm. You don't need a license to use it. Clients would look at me funny if I asked them to put black plastic on the stump.

Shaun

 

[ATH]

Obviously you have different tree species down there, so things behave differently....but glyphosate doesn't travel in the roots as much as other chemicals (Tordon, for example).

Is the second tree the same species? Could it be a root sucker from the same root system even? If so, I would be more inclined to agree with the diagnosis. If they are different families of trees, I'm going with 'unlikely'. If I had that problem, I'd probably call the state department of agriculture (that is who regulates pesticide applications) and ask for an investigation. Let the property owner know that you 'self reported' the incident, hoping that would show you are sincere. If they came back with "not glyphosate", then all is good. HO shouldn't be mad because a 3rd party (regulatory at that), determined it was not the glyphosate. If they determine it was the glyphosate, then do the second removal and plant a new tree.

 

[imagineero]

Same species (spotted gum). I don't know that our department of agriculture is as advanced as yours. I'm pretty sure they'd want money to play CSI

 

[treeclimber101]

I don't know what you guys do stateside, but here in aus treating stumps that won't be ground with glyphosate is the norm. You don't need a license to use it. Clients would look at me funny if I asked them to put black plastic on the stump.

Shaun

Sounds to me like a license to apply that #### may be in order .

 

[ropensaddle]

No good deed go's unpunished, I won't treat stumps. I will tell them how to do it themselves but until I get pesticide license, nope no way. I usually blame it on my insurance reg's but even if licensed I would be wary. Some hypo allergic peeps out there!

 

[KenJax Tree]

We don't use any poison its either ground out or it stays.

 

[gorman]

You don't realize the worst of people until you do business with them.

 

[BC WetCoast]

I've never worked with blue gums, so I don't know how sensitive they are, but in my experience Roundup isn't that effective in killing mature trees.
Especially with the formulation they supply around here. It barely kills dandelions, and requires multiple applications for bamboo or blackberries. And assuming it can translocate through root grafts, I would have real doubts about it killing a mature tree in a "few' days.

I would be telling the neighbour to "prove it" before I put out any money.

One of the benefits of roundup is that once it hits soil, it binds with the soil particles and becomes inert.

 

[imagineero]

Most guys here use it at full strength as a concentrate, 360g/litre and apply it to the cambium immediately after cutting. It was about 3 weeks between the time of application and the call from the neighbour, which is about right based on my experience.

 

[treesmith]

two trees, same species, 15' apart, time frame is long enough and doesn't glyphosphate kill roots by design? Sounds pretty likely but that's a guess on my part. Don't know if you'd get a sensible answer from the glyphosphate company but a tissue sample should show what killed it. Till he knows for sure it's just guess work. Wouldn't know where to go for that in Oz though, I'm new here.