Saving a particially chopped tree

Shockadine

Hello. My mom just bought a new house that was covered in bushes and trees she didn't want near her pool. She hired some people to clear it all out. There were 3 trees back there that she thought would be a pain to have by the pool so she told them to chop them down. She found out later that day that were evergreens and she called them to leave those trees. Problem is they already started on the nicest one and it's about halfway chopped through the trunk. She tied a wet towel around it and covered the towel with plastic. We don't know if that will do anything or if there is anyway to save the tree now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It's a beautiful tree, and she'd love to save it if it's not too late. We are fearing it is. At least the other 2 are safe.

Eric Frei

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TreeSpecialist

No pictures - no advice worth keeping.

However, "chopping 1/2 way through the trunk" suggests the tree should now be removed.

And don't pay the bill if you told them to save the trees and they didn't.

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the big tree nut

many years ago my great uncle had a guy to do some tree felling, worng tree of course and he cut a gob out the large copper beech tree by the time my great uncle stopped him, he put the gob back into place and left it, due it done by a handsaw not a chainsaw there was not much of a gap and, now the tree has sealed up competly and growing well.

so there can be some hope, but this was only a third of the tree and if it did fail and fall it would cause no damage.

dov

The only problem with this is that only the cambium layer will fuse. All of the structural wood in the core of the tree will remain severed and possibly already be harbouring infection/fungus etc. In essence, you still have a tree with compromised structural integrity.

If the cut is more than 1/5 way through the trunk, I'd remove it.

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treeshaveneeds

One fifth of the way thru the trunk is enough to remove a tree?
For me it would depend on what kind of tree it is. Some fast growing trees can take that injury in hand and seal it up and keep going with barely a nod for notice.

I have worked on trees that have been 1/3 to 1/2 cut thru (someone wanting to kill the tree no doubt) and still reasonably viable. No doubt there is decay inside, and the tree will likely have a shorter life, but in Toronto houses don't seem to last too long before they're torn down and replaced, and trees are living shorter and shorter lives. So I'm happy to see trees overcome this kind of carelessness, and maybe, if the tree is given a chance it might escape the ax during the next house rebuild/renovation.

New trees are always super small, and the likelihood of them getting big is also super small.

I have meant to ask you Dov. You folks seem to be familiar with a large number of trees that are common in North America. I assume a large variety were brought to Australia to augment the native tree population. How many native species are there, and where would I look to find more info on them? It seems unlikely any of your trees would survive in Canada, whereas quite a few seem quite at home there. I have learned about a few thru this forum, but there must be many more?

dov

Any advice I give over the internet is going to be slightly more cautious than I'd give onsite - especially with no pics!

Ye we have a lot of introduced species in our gardens, not that our native trees are lacking! Australia has a huge variety of trees and smaller plants. On the tree side, different types of Eucalypt would be the larger portion of them, but there are many more. It is a big continent and very diverse.

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