New National Champion White Ash Taken Down

New National Champion White Ash Taken Down	Scott Wade
	Oct 25, 2007

== 3 of 8 ==
Date: Thurs, Oct 25 2007 6:02 am
From: "Will Blozan"

Scott,

Bummer! Sounds like a weird trunk form; was it a fusion of five stems into
one trunk like the Bedford Poplar? I guess you will find multiple piths if
it is when you see it. Let me know!

Will

== 4 of 8 ==
Date: Thurs, Oct 25 2007 6:04 am
From: wades@

Will, I will find out, but the crane operater (mostly tree work) claims it was a single stem. We'll see. Scott

== 5 of 8 ==
Date: Thurs, Oct 25 2007 6:09 am
From: "Joseph Zorzin"

Where was it located? In a park or other place where "liability and fear" is an issue?

Joe Z.
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== 6 of 8 ==
Date: Thurs, Oct 25 2007 8:10 am
From: James Parton

ENTS,

You see the " Liability & Fear Factor " quite often. A neighbor near
my home cut down a nice 3ft diameter Tuliptree about a year ago, being
afraid it had core rot & it would fall on his home. After cutting it
down I examined its cross section. It was healthy and 92 years old by
tree ring count. I never cut a tree without good reason. In fact, he
has cut down alot of forest in my local area for pasture & a good
view. I prefered it the way it was. Forested & with plenty of privacy!

James P.

== 7 of 8 ==
Date: Thurs, Oct 25 2007 8:57 am
From: wades@

The tree was located in Merion Station. It is a built up, older
suburb of Philadelphia. The tree could of hit two houses if it had
split. I recall the owner stating the worries of the neighbor about
the tree. I guess those worries finally won out.

== 8 of 8 ==
Date: Thurs, Oct 25 2007 4:31 pm
From: edfrank@

Scott,

You should see if you can get a cookie from the tree, or at least a core or ring count. The oldest whit ash listed on Neil's Old-list is 136 years. If you have 150 years then to paraphrase Jon Lovitz (A League of Their Own) - "That would be more wouldn't it?"

Ed Frank

== 3 of 13 ==
Date: Fri, Oct 26 2007 8:17 am
From: dbhguru@

Randy,

I've noticed the.phenomena that you describe. Human fears are often irrational and arise suddenly. Logic plays no part. It is a manifestation of that small crocodillian portion of our brains.

Bob

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== 4 of 13 ==
Date: Fri, Oct 26 2007 8:53 am
From: wades@

the other part of it is that when a professional tree company is
called (Davey) in this case, and they are asked what the condition of
the tree is, or "is it safe" "will it fall down" they can't answer
it properly due to liability to their company. If there is
documentation from a company that says yes a tree has a cavity and it
"could " be a problem, then that is the final blow for these trees.
They are instructed to point out all defects in the tree, and then
they can't write that it will stand for this many years. No one knows
when a tree will fall. It is stupid. A tree company told me an
american beech was "critical" due to a cavity. That was seven years
ago and the tree is still standing. When I meet an arborist that can
tell me when a tree will fall (besides from a chainsaw) I will form a
church around him. I think the term is willful negligence. When you
know about a problem and don't do anything about it, you can be sued
and/or go to jail if something happens. Too many trees lose their
life because of it. Rant over.

== 5 of 13 ==
Date: Fri, Oct 26 2007 9:06 am
From: "Joseph Zorzin"

Trees don't very often fall over. Often they die and remain standing for years.

Ones to watch out for, however, include poplar, spruce and hemlock. Poplar are very weak trees and often break. Spruce and hemlock are shallow rooted- if nearby trees are taken down or die, they'll often no longer be able to resist wind- and fall, even if very healthy.

Trees with hollows- I don't consider the hollow to be a warning that the tree may fall over. Many trees live for centuries with hollows- the solid parts of the tree are "engineered" to contain the stresses. And, hollows are invaluable for wildlife- they should be valued, not feared.

More likely than a tree falling and hurting someone- is falling branches- which can happen on healthy trees too.

Trees usually die from the top down- so it's not difficult to see that a tree is near the end of its life. At that point, if it's in a yard or park- it probably should be taken down to prevent injuries from falling branches. If the entire tree comes down- that usually happens during storms and people should stay away from trees anyways during storms. Any dead or dying tree near a building or power line ought to be dropped ASAP.

I've seen trees killed by foresters and loggers by girdling. Some remain standing for a decade or more- other than poplar which will usually break at the cut line within a year.

Joe

==============================================================================
TOPIC: new national champ white ash taken down
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/5ea22e15e32d4fa8?hl=en
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Nov 9 2007 7:29 pm
From: "E. Daniel Ayres"

What makes this all the more "sad" for me is that I've watched ALL the white
ash in our area disappear! It turns out to be the most suceptible to the
Emerald Ash Borerer, and for those at "Ground Zero" for what is now at least
three state epidemic, a real sad situation. I personally felled a beautiful
straight 105 year old that had died on my friend's 40 acre farm. The tree
showed no signs of internal rot, etc., etc. It simply died of being girdled
by the insects. We didn't even bother to measure the length of the tree or
estimate its' volume, but now I wish we had. From your pictures, its' trunk
was of similar diameter or slightly larger. Look out, Philadelphia, the
bugs are coming your way! They are almost all the way across Ohio, have
invaded Illinois, and have migraged into the UP in Michigan. Department of
agriculture signs at the border of Ohio did no good, the Michigan state
legislature dawdled for years and then funded disposal sites for the dead
trees.

The practice of removing "threatening" trees in residential neighborhoods is
promoted in many places by a combination of homeowner ignorance and
entereprenurial "door knocker" tree removers, often not certified or in some
cases not even insured. They prey on the elderly and target neighborhoods
with mature trees. The losses are horrible. A neighbor down the street
from me had one of the biggest cottonwoods I've ever seen growing almost on
the property line of a small 1950's bungalow in an area which was obviously
developed long after the tree was established. The tree was perfectly sound
and provided shade for his house and his adjacent neighbors in a way which
I'm sure significantly reduced his air conditioning bill and probably
actually helped with heating as well through its contribution to the
microclimate. A count of stump rings there showed 152 years with perfect
wood at the stump height. He spent thousands to have it removed, he
claimed in part because of the fear it might drop a limb on his roof and in
part because the annual cotton storm bugged him. I'm beginning to believe
that we need municipal "tree preservation" legislation so that tree removals
become a matter of public concern.

Flying over Ohio several years ago in the peak of an early warning "global
warming based" drought, I was struck that the only places where there were
significant indications of forest and where things were still green was in
the towns. Single row "windbreak" tree plantings were almost as dried out
and brown as the fields, but the urban tree clusters had a more extensive
microclimate which provided shade and probably contributed sinificantly to
the abillity of the towns to fight the draught.

E. Daniel Ayres

http://home.comcast.net/~eayres

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