cutting one half of my forked red oak

[treeseer]

Disqualifying a company because they are large is nonsense.

Yo weasel, I refer these fine companies all the time! I only compete with them on the small jobs. "O and yes you can call bartlett or heartwood or arborguard or any other big company"--that is not disqualifying, is it? I mention them by name because I know they have done good work.

Expect to pay $50-$65 an hour for each arborist on site to mitigate this issue plus the cost of the hardware, if any.

He'll pay more per arborist if he hires me, but he'll only have to hire one. Clients save by being groundies on these small jobs.

O and that is mighty light colored bark--looks more like a white oak?

 

[Ed Roland]

[Or you can call me] [and get a better job done cheaper.]

Does your hardhat fit that head?

By the way: Good job on the Detective Dendro in last months Arborist News.

Grease, while you are motivated to mitigate the potential hazard that lead poses do not forget to ensure optimum cultural practices for the long term health of that tree. Get that light system out of it. The extent of damage from the compacted pathway should be looked at. Take a soil sample for analysis to get a ph value and a simple measure of fertility. Mulch @ 4". Monitor! watch the wound sites from the nails that held the light system up.
Opportunistic pests would rather strike where bark is not a hinderence.

The pro you have out should be able to cover all this with you. Especially if its Treeseer.

 

[BayouTree]

I noticed no one has mentioned the installation of a bracing rod in addition to the cabling.

Just curious is that because of the size of the stems, the resulting wounding to the trunk and introducing a pathway to the heartwood for decay, or has this practice fallen out of favor?

I have a similar tree in my front yard with some pretty severe included bark and i've thought about mitigating some of the risk as well.

 

[John464]

Id cable the two. reduce weight on the leaner and also prune the dominant stem to allow more sunlight on the back side of that leaner to encourage more growth in reverse of the lean. Thats one of the reasons it's leaning in the first place.

 

[lxt]

I noticed no one has mentioned the installation of a bracing rod in addition to the cabling.

Just curious is that because of the size of the stems, the resulting wounding to the trunk and introducing a pathway to the heartwood for decay, or has this practice fallen out of favor?

I have a similar tree in my front yard with some pretty severe included bark and i've thought about mitigating some of the risk as well.

See post #18

LXT.........

 

[treeseer]

Id cable the two. reduce weight on the leaner and also prune the dominant stem to allow more sunlight on the back side of that leaner to encourage more growth in reverse of the lean. Thats one of the reasons it's leaning in the first place.

100% true--directional pruning does not work if you do not clear some daylight in the direction you want the branch to grow in.

Wease, thanks--that Dendro is a fun guy. The funnest part is, all 8 of the storylines I've done were from real life jobs, and it's a whole lot more fun than writing appraisal reports. Attached are the author guidelines for the Dendro series, in case anyone else wants to write one. The door is open.

re the hardhat, yeah it gets a bit snug now and then, but I figure that if you do not have self-confidence, you cannot succeed in this line of work (or any?).

"I noticed no one has mentioned the installation of a bracing rod in addition to the cabling.
Just curious is that because of the size of the stems, the resulting wounding to the trunk and introducing a pathway to the heartwood for decay, or has this practice fallen out of favor?"

Not out of favor, only applicable to large cracks that cannot be stabilized by cabling. I use wirestops on cables, so I only have to drill a hole big enough for the cable. Smaller wound in younger tissue means less rot, I'm thinking.

If this stem is >20" below the split, the BMP's call for a 3/4" brace rod. Overkill imo, unless there is a severe crack. All the more reason to post the pics from the angles Ekka described.

 

[Ekka]

It's nasty to drill a big hole there, I really doubt that it is split coz even a ground bound tree moron would have picked that and used it to justify removal and shown the customer which hasn't happened.

You can have more than one cable up there, more the merrier, there's non invasive types.

Be good to climb up and see the top of that co-dom too, what's there, bugger all I bet.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

"and if it were to split, i dont think the cable would support it but it might slow it down a little."

3/8" EHS cable holds up to 7 tons. I think it can support this tree.

Meaning more than plenty, right?

Because if the cable could go high enough, it may only have a few hundred pounds of energy to deal with at present.

I'd imagine that person could pull the two together with two ropes by pulling, if they were positioned 80% of the way up. Just a inch or two, but the trunk tops would move a bit with tugging.

So 7 tons worth would be structural armor.