Poinciana Limb Failure Ascot Brisbane| BCC Tree| Failure Diagnosis

Eric Frei

Happened to be driving around and spotted this, very fresh with sawdust from cutting it up around etc and a Pee Wee hanging around feasting on bugs!

Tree had stacks of VTA symptoms including the ole expanding foam in hello, basal root damaged cavities besides upper hollows. Inside was a defunct bees hive, looked native bees to me.

Stem hollows beneath large included branch unions are a bad thing. Lots of force on that stem with compression wood trying to hold it up. Poincianas love to grow large long horizontal limbs as seen in the pics.

I wonder, since the council has treated them and "foamed it up" it means they were aware of the cavity but perhaps failed to monitor and work on the tree. Cabling would be a waste of time, propping is the usual way but not in that location so heavy reduction pruning or removal would have been my call. Whenever you have large included unions like that with a cavity beneath then the ALARM BELLS SHOULD BE RINGING. Hope BCC at least pay for the repairs to the fella's carport! Also check out the honking lump of deadwood in the guys yard, that's pretty obvious!

Recently I dealt with one here and made the call, that's our job you know.

Oh yeah, also note that the decay advanced to the sapwood, the bark is relatively thick on these guys and you need to discount that. When the decay advances to the sapwood and each year consumes that little bit eventually the tree will be too hollow to support itself.... like an egg it's just a shell with air or much inside. Chains break at their weakest links ... so do trees.

Weather was fine and dandy last few days, many roadside poincianas in Brisbane in this affluent suburb, many with lots of basal damage and hollows.

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newguy18

looks like a definant removal.I'm sure treeseer will be along any minute to tell me its worth saving.

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old schooler

TrevMcRev

That obviously hasnt been inspected or if it was a very weak or uninformed decision was made to not remove it sooner.

About as blatant warning symptom as you'll get there.

newguy18

So Eric any threating phone calls or emails yet?

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old schooler

Eric Frei

Where the wall thickness adjacent to the failure is 2cm the diameter is 64cm. This means the T/R ratio of supportive wood directly beneath the co-dom union was 0.06

Why do you ask Bill? If council were a little more vocal, a little more open about what they have with their trees then perhaps they could have 1000's of aware citizens informing them of their tree woes rather than having rubbish like this going on or forking out huge sums of money for "consultants" to assess trees. An informed populous is an advantage, the more people who understand what to look for with trees the better .... then rather than have failed trees with damage a more proactive approach would commence.

I know I personally have informed them of many hazardous trees, and they have cut down many of them. That tree was right next to a bus stop, just down the road from some trendy shops and that was a footpath that had 100's of people walking past daily ... and hello, no-one noticed or knew of the potential danger because it's simply the unspoken thing.

So when failures occur, including car smashing ones besides the New Farm Park ones rather than sweep it under the carpet and lay low hoping not to get sued for damages it would be far better to show, explain and inform people what is going on. It's called culture, what is the culture? A STFU culture or an open culture?

Grab the VTA chart here. Claus Mattheck VTA Reference Chart

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newguy18

I simply asked because it seems alot of orgs and councils seem to keep quiet and try to keep arbs quiet about problem trees.I agree whleheardley an informed public is key to preventing tree failures,property damage,and most of all loss of life.I'm always showing my clients what to watch out for with thier trees,i also tell them that if the tree gets wounded,has fungus or mushrooms growing on or around it to call me so i can lead them in the right direction.

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old schooler

TrevMcRev

One thing it aint, arbori-culture

Bernard Keays

Ekka,

Was this poinciana in Alexandra Rd opposite Oriel Park?

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Bernie

Eric Frei

Nope, is that another one?

It's right here on this link

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=109+upper+lancaster+street+ascot&sll=-27.424995,153.061094&sspn=0.016646,0.036178&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=-27.425595,153.058369&spn=0.008323,0.018089&z=16&cbll=-27.430181,153.0574&panoid=1-OVxCbiWWpAnT9xpB9DpA&cbp=2,166.13437887509056,,0,-8.262168116579154
Also I have loaded up the Google pic, note that the guys carport isn't there and the red line shows the failure point.

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Bernard Keays

Ekka,

My grandmother use to live in this area. We use to walk down to the park when I was a kid. I don't remember looking at this tree but most of the poinciana's in this area have suffered a similiar fate. Roots have been severed to accomodate driveways. Or while footpath or kerb & channel repairs were made. I like the photo 09102008%29-1. You can see how much root environment the tree has been given. Do we have an RSPCA for trees?

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Bernie

Eric Frei

LOL, why would you have such low crowned trees anyway, many have decent wounds from trucks hitting them.

Did you know BCC footpath clearance height is 2.8m and road is 3.8m ... so again, they could be held liable for cabin damage to trucks.

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