What do you think of this pruning? Development site case study

Eric Frei

Just down the road from me they're developing a corner block.

Is a prominent large Albizia on it, spectacular in full leaf, it's just not that dense now getting ready to shed.

Now have a look at the pruning of it and comment, that pruning is half way around you just cant see the back from this angle.







Here's a before shot courtesy Google Street View

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TreeSpecialist

We need to come up with some new descriptive terms for this kind of mutilation.

In a way, it's almost too bad that trees don't react more dramatically (quickly) to this kind of nonsense.

I personally love the ring porous trees in that when a contractor trenches and cuts off half the roots here in Central Texas on a hot summer day, that half of the tree can wilt and die by nightfall. It teaches folks that trees can and do react to poor work around their root systems and usually results in a large settlement - a lesson not soon forgotten as trees "teach" one contractor at a time.

The trouble with this kind of pruning is that the limbs will still likely flush out, rot and decay will set in, and the new adventitious sprouts will be subject to falling from the tree in the future. By then, the culprit will be long gone.

If you could catch people in the act and photograph them, you could be an expert witness in the future when the limbs fail and hurt something or somebody.

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Eric Frei

I see you guys use this "ring porous" term a lot, what exactly do you mean by that?

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TreeDimensional

Some trees that are ring porous are Elms, Oaks, and Ash. These trees display wide ring increments in the spring wood xylem, and narrower ring growth in the later season growth.

It is a biological issue that is related to the density of the cells at the time of growth, the later developed wood (xylem) is composed of cells that are smaller in diameter

Alternately, trees like Poplar, Maples and Planetrees are considered diffuse porous, and may be identified by uniform ring growth in the xylem.

JohN Dee

Topping in disguise eh? I wonder what they were trying to achieve with that kind of pruning?

Hey, I've came up with the new name and we all HATE it anyways. Undercutting or cuthroat for sure. LOL . But, I reckon it suites it.

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Eric Frei

If you were to pollard a tree, then that would be the best way to try, cut off both sides of the co-dominant.

Now I drive past this every day. If it were done to create clearance for building etc then the argument is ... is it better than having big wounds at the trunk?

The branches as you can see by the unpruned side dont offer much of a drop crotch situation. So, whether clearance or crown lift you would end up with >12"dia wounds at the trunk, and for albizia that is bad.

The obvious solution was the TPZ, they should have allowed enough room for an unbutchered canopy.

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Eric Frei

Now lets see how the TPZ is going, NOT!


Now they also saved some of the paperbarks along the fence.

Check it out, lets put some large gravel down, all our shit there and park there, great TPZ! NOT!

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Sean Freeman

That would have to be the cheapest TPZ in history??!!??

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treeseer

If pruning was done to allow tall vehicle access on the road, then it was as good as can be. Cuts were made at nodes, where regrowth will be better.

"Proper reduction cuts are made at nodes or crotches" Alex Shigo, p. 458, ANTB

Eric Frei

Where we are up to now.

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fosheezy

lol they'd be good pruning cuts if only they left a branch on the end of it! you see that heaps dont you, its a dissapointing sign that an actual arborist has done that work because they obviousely know the basics of pruning cuts, just not pruning practices.

Eric Frei

I liked the way the TPZ fence up after they trampled the area, compare the lawn to what is there now.

It'll be good to see what happens over the years to those stubs.

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spartek

Looks like the work of tree butcher that gets freeked out at heights.The higher he got , the more of "awe,thats good enough" , "the top's not as bad as I first thought" LOL

treevet

Is this tree becoming dormant or dying?

Eric Frei

It's dormant now, soon be spring though.

They're quite tough, it'll take a bit of abuse, going to be interesting to see those stubs grow.

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treevet

or not....

Garry Brockley

Quite simply WHY? WHY? WHY? do people do this to trees im no tree hugger but with a little thought the tree would have looked better and had correct pruning to encourage its future
you can hear the conversation now "its a TPZ so take as little as you can off just that side and keep it away from the building, yes thats it! can you take a bit more off? it's still a bit twiggy, of course you can use it as a vehicle park that wont bother it its only a tree" in the land of the blind the man with one eye is king. or any other anecdotes that you care to apply to this.

there are a few oak trees by me that the local authority pruned (i use this word because thats what i assume they think they did) because they are building a school access road by them they are showing signs of epicormic growth now but they are going to look rough for years to come, i will see if i can get some picturessome time.

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Garry Brockley

i saw this in the village im working today just stood and at it not sure if it will survive. it's been cut a while the cuts are dis-coloured they have left one piece of brash at the front bottom that seems to be alive(ish) the rest has died back.
im calling in to ask the HO who the contractor was tomorrow.i hope i dont know them!

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newguy18

The tree in ekka's pics looks like the work of a moron with a polesaw.

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old schooler

Eric Frei

Newguy, wait to you see what the buildings gonna be!

Just what the planets short of.

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newguy18

what is it gonna be?

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old schooler

Garry Brockley

McD's? Bk? KFyuck?

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Eric Frei

You'll have to wait and see.

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Q.Q.

Hmm unsure I suppose.Still new at all this.

If this what was asked of the contractor then what?.

If this was no good, what more could have been done as a clearance issue?.

Would this amount of pruning at the defoliating stag of this tree risk killing it?.

Just curious on all this.

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FAMILARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT

Eric Frei

This pic was taken 16 August, as you can see the fence didn't last long.



These pictures are from today, where we're up to now.




This picture, the red circled shows all busted off roots.



And how did those paperbarks fare? Well, one is gone and the other.


So there you go, that's a real life observation and a very typical one. This tree even made it into the local paper and got an article about it and being saved in the development, I cant find that article now though and it's hard to search articles for local papers online.

Anyway, just shows how useless the industry is, how useless Logan City Councils tree protection regulations are, and the developer will dress that tree up and be long gone whilst the tree has to deal with the abuse it copped. If there's to be a change, local govt is the easiest place to start by having decent regulations in place for tree protection on development sites.

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newguy18

Is it dead or just dormant?

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old schooler

Eric Frei

Still dormant, but they're just starting to fire up now.

It should be in full leaf in another month, I'm keen waiting to see what those cuts will do.

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Eric Frei

LOL,

A Christian Book Shop!


These pics were taken in November 2008.

Shots of the tree.






Closer look at this new growth.

Now in this thread there was only one person who sort of approved of the cutting.

But to me, it all looks like lop job epicormics. However Treeseer might say that they're endocormics.

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Sean Freeman

Pretty typical response from a very stressed Albizia lebbeck, as much from the root damage as the canopy damage...

but I imagine it will matter little since my limited experience with this species and flat roofs with box gutters tends to lead me to believe that the tree will recieve many many future lopping treatments.

Bermy

SO typical...tie a ribbon on it, and park all the vehicles under it. I usually see all the soil and excavation rubbles piled under trees, burying the trunk, smothering the roots, or even better, used as the dump zone for cement mixer washings, and they coat the mixer barrels in diesel to stop the cement from sticking...

With that tree the root flare is buried, but at least the hard paving over the top is bricks, there may be some water and air penetration through that...but the compaction underneath and during the construction will have done the damage.
The regrowth is low down, heavy and epicormic by the looks of it...stress indicators to be sure.

Over here Albizzia is one of the best street trees we have, they can take an enormous amount of abuse, and still manage to hang on. Its fast growing, a pleasing shape, and a good shade tree for the summer. I like them, nice to climb and plenty of targets for pruning. The ones we have in town are quite old, they have been hit by trucks, liontailed, paved up to the trunks and they still keep growing!

I have two stumps in my garden, one was a tree about 2' across, and 20' tall probably had a10' spread. I had to cut it down after it got trashed in a hurricane, it is flush to the ground. It kept sending up sprouts, so I have let four regrow, in 4 years each sprout is at least 6" dia and they are getting on for 20-25' tall!
The other tree was cut off 6' from the ground (left to tie the hammock to it) I used it to test my chainsaws on for load tuning...so the stump is cut halfway through...it refuses to die, just keeps pushing out sprouts from the top and all around the sides...

I do have two big ones left in case you think I'm a serial tree torturer, they had several big limbs broken from the storm, the 10" - 12" wounds are growing over very well, and I've been reshaping them over the last 5 years.

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