YOU rate this hazard - tree - fork

Eric Frei

Prior to voting you may like to familiarize yourself with this thread.

V and U shaped Crotch Strengths, included bark| codominant stems etc especially see the 1st post page 2

This is a mature iron bark close to 100' tall.

Pay attention to the first fork.

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playfordtree

Bloody ironbarks
we have them all over down here, lots of them are street trees planted by council.
They fail more than the english cricket team

I was at a job with the tree company i first worked for, it was a bit of a windy day.
We had the truck&chipper parked curbside, we were dragging brush from the customers backyard to the street when we heard almighty crack.
A leader probably 10 metres long broke off and fell right at the back of the feed tray, across the footpath (sidewalk for you septics) and half way across front yard

Must have weighed few hundred kilos
Another 30 seconds one of us would have been standing at feed tray or walking to chipper it probably would have killed us.
man it was a scary moment

Eric Frei

Crikey!!!

That is BAD.

I'm making a video of a real ugly one I felled today, just downloading customer's footage.

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Drouin Tree Service

Very likely...within 18months

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

TrevMcRev

I wanted to tick "insurance will cover it" coz i know how much you like that one ekka! I rate it highly likely. The union is not the worrst it could be but species traits, if it is sideroxylon, Red Ironbark, as i know down here, they are very common to fail at co-dom stem unions.

If the target rating is high, remove.

If tree retention is highly valued, aerial inspection with view to assessing suitability for cable bracing & possible canopy reduction.

Just quoted a failed one of this species the other day
I'll put up pics 2moro if you want an example for the client ekka.

Eric Frei

Yeah put them up.

I'll be doing a TD on this one, also has cavity and excavator basal damage.

Gonna remove/reduce some then fell somewhere ... is a bad one. That crack is opening up, like a jigsaw puzzle being pulled apart.

Those iron barks seem to have lots of bad inclusions ... goes with the species I think.

Targets everywhere really, can easily make the house, street wires, service drop etc.

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TreeCo

That tree is a removal!

newguy18

We don't agree on much treeco but I agree with you on that tree.

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old schooler

Roller

or maybe a pollard... but anyhow I agree it is a bad fork imo

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jim1nz

Depends how much they want to keep the tree, or loose their power haha. Need a pic of both sides, could be saved, i said could not should. How old ya reckon it is?

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Sean Freeman

Every tree will have defects, every tree will fail eventually, all comes down to target and in the opinion of the Arborist the likelihood or probability of failure, (and the sie of the part you think is most likely to fail first)

Targets in this pic seem to be the supply line and the road, also possibly the house.

Tend to agree with jim1nz and trev if the owner wanted to spend a large amount of resource on the tree some actions could be taken to reduce both the likelihood and the consequences of its failure, but whether such expenditure would be justified compared to establishing a replacement tree more suited to the location....well that would be down to the owner.

The options I would be putting front and centre to the client would be removal with replacement, assuming thats Brissy plenty of great small-medium sized natives that are grossly underplanted in the urban forest would suit that spot.

Eric Frei

Ask and you'll receive ... it is quite pronounced (elephant ear).

I estimate age as 75 to 100 years.

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jim1nz

Ah i see. Yea that much reaction growth is not always a good thing is it.

You know, i like to stick up for trees sometimes, its lived for 75 to 100 years and has not failed. Now, because we have recognised there is a higher chance of the tree failing all of a sudden it has to be cut down, i have to laugh in the irony of it really. Trees must fit into our environment, thats our job, making them fit into an enviornment that has been forced upon them. Woow im starting to sound like a tree hugger!

I most certinally agree with you guys in this case though. If it wasnt for that massive cut/decay i may have second thoughts.

Cheers Ekka

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Eric Frei

These trees were sclerophyll forest and remain after development.

It's also the same property where I felled this tree.

Felling dodgey big ironbark | solo felling.

After developers clear native forest they leave a few trees. Many of the trees in these situations never look good as single specimens. The forest in it's entirety has beauty and trees are sheltered in large groups. The density tends to hide the defects. Now what we have is large, damaged and somewhat isolated fringe trees.

The environment is now more hostile, less insulation from the elements, more competition from turf, hard surfaces like concrete, water table changes, rhizosphere changes etc etc ... trees often commence their decline and become more prone to storm damage.

Nature cared for and pruned in it's own way the forest, however now debri, leaf litter and like is all vacuumed up with every lawn mow, and heaven forbid we wont tolerate mother nature pruning her urban forest with such recklessness and poor cutting.

These trees would rarely if ever be planted by anyone in an urban setting, they are most inappropriate and much better selections are out there.

As I stood on this guys property with him he started to see many issues with many trees. Once his eye was trained by me he got a little excited ... what about these over here, look at that etc etc ... I told him to stop looking or there'd be none left. You look at them from a location perspective first, can they do damage if they fail? Then decide your works.

Developers should leave groups of trees, far enough away from targets to not be a problem, and leave the area around them alone.

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treeseer

Before the defect can be judged, it must be measured. How bad is that decay? Is the tree compartmentalizing it? If so and that is the only defect, then cable it. You all have heard of cabling, right?

C A B L E for those Chicken Little devotees who haven't, and still think that every hazard should be removed.

treestyle

that union looks like good habitat.

JohN Dee

If that Iron Bark was to fail, which side do you reckon would split off? Im thinking the left because of the the ridge... But then again

I quoted one today that Integral Energy has ordered out with a vegetation report for being within 500mm radius of the power lines. 12-14m in height, lines are right next to trunk at probably 2m in height... On the NE side of it, it had a co dom breakout(100km winds, the clients actually watched it go over). Took out some lower understories and the neighbs' power lines... SES cleaned up and Insurance paid for their damage.

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Eric Frei

The customer is watching this thread and he knows his options.

Reduction of the LH leader, remove the lower hanging branches, bolt and cable plus some selective thin/reduction of other side was an option.

Or fell it.

He chose, you'll see when I load the footage what we'll do.

I also was out there again today and will be out there tomorrow for some extreme hazard felling. I even bought a 4000kg ratchet winch ("come along" for the yanks) to help with some of the crazy trees around this place ... I have been to 3 other houses now and frankly I really dont like the trees around this place and yes there are plenty of failures around.

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playfordtree

C A B L E?


Yes i've heard of C A B L E.

There's PAY TV cable,

Then there's high speed internet cable,

And don't forget the cable i laid in the toilet this morning!



Get your hand off it Treeseer.

Did you even look at the photos?

Cabling on that piece of crap?

What a waste of time and money!

That tree needs to be euthanized immediately!

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Eric Frei

Here's some more ironbarks.

It's going to be a dangerous mission tomorrow!

This one and there's one right next to it, but the next 5 pics will show that.





This is looking up the two of them.



This is one side of the biggest guy which was outlined in red in the first pic.



This is the flip side of it.

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Eric Frei

Check out this one

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Eric Frei

This one here I have to fell toward the camera where the pic was taken from.

But is not only leaning the wrong way, it has tangled canopy and a wound type thing.

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Eric Frei

And this big bugger I have to fell between house and fence.

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playfordtree

Those last photos show that when you plant enmasse you need to think long and hard about the speices you choose.

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Euthanizing South Australian Trees
since 2007

treeseer

True, the decay that is bad for the tree is good for wildlife. It could be left as a snag for critters if the client wants that, and if our man Eric wants to climb up and lop the top off.

Easier to use the ratchet winch though. Does ironbark wood have any salvage value or does it get dumped?

Eric Frei

There's a mill of sorts in Beaudesert that said they take good log but all these are bad.

So looks like firewood.

What's happened is it's a small street and they all got together. One guy has a bobcat etc and they'll clean them up. But they're too risky to fell for the home-owners so I do it @ $100 per tree.

At that price all felling is from the ground and damage to fences or other trees is OK, just dont hit houses or power lines.

Many regret not clearing their blocks when the dozers cut the pads for the houses, but they say the cost was pretty high.

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Drouin Tree Service

Cable them all eric,Im sure the customer would agree!!!

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

treeseer

Remove them all, Jason. I'm sure you won't run out of work!!!

Not.

"Get your hand off it"? Class outfit of wankers you got here eric.

Eric Frei

Wankers!

These are the good guys, I'll show you some real wankers if you like.

Guy, a video is up on how I dealt with 8 of the weeds.

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jim1nz

Hahaha good little debate going on here guys.

All you can do is give options but your the professional and if the client has any sense they will take the advice you recommend, dont forget that.

I installed around 12 cable static braces and about 60 cobra dynamic braces this summer. Im so proud to be able to save a tree when and where ever i can. Its important to advise the client about bracing trees and the ramifications of it.

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SPEED ALWAYS FOLLOWS TECHNIQUE