Another tree problem

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amyrip

ArboristSite Lurker
Joined
Apr 1, 2002
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Location
VA
A few months ago, we had to take out a white pine that was pulling up its roots. I thought my tree woes were over, and then my husband was playing with our dog and found that a large silver maple in our yard had a large crack in it. The tree is huge, and has three large limbs that split out from the trunk about 12 feet up. I'd hate to have to remove the tree, which provides a substantial amount of shade and is a regular home to birds' nests, and am interested in having it cabled in some way to stabilize the branches. Is that likely to work? Our neighborhood is loaded with multi-trunk silver maples and Sycamores--obviously planted by a developer who was not very interested in the long term health of the trees.
 
This is one of those that needs to be looked at in person in order to give informed advice. If you want an unbiased opinion from someone who doesn't have a financial interest in the work to be done, find a certified Consulting Arborist in your area. They will charge you to come look at the tree and will give you a written OPINION on what should be done. You can find the Consulting Arborists in your area by goint to this website-
http://www.asca-consultants.org/
 
tree is a lost cause

Thanks for the recommendation. Since my first post, the initial crack spread three feet down the trunk (yikes) and two others appeared. So, sadly, the arborist I met with this morning said there was no saving the maple. Luckily, they can use a bucket truck to take it out so the removal will only be $850 (I've never used that number in that phrase before). He was nice enough to check out our other trees as well, and happily our lightning struck Sycamore is fine, as are the rest of our large trees.

And I thought I'd buy a house and plant young trees, rather than remove mature trees
 
No waiting list--he took one look at the tree and arranged to have a crew there in the morning. When he saw it, the original crack had spread enough that I could have easily slid my forearm into it (providing I was on a ladder of course), and two other large cracks had developed where the other large limbs spread out from the trunk. I was sad to lose that tree, but it was very interesting watching them work--rather balletic. They got the tree down safely and were nice enough to make a huge pile of fetching sticks for my dog--now that's service. The pooch is ecstatic, but I already miss the shade that tree provided. Guess I need to go tree shopping this fall.
 

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