Arborist struggles with struggling specimen

[treeseer]

Just to show an arborist and a community with tolerance of compromised trees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGDCZA-tpMc
Blair does a good job w his vids imo.

Nice job showing care of an abused tree. The initial pruning did not conserve health but went way back to big laterals, which steepened the decline spiral. What happened to the other walnut?

At 1:02 you speak well of the battle between decay and new growth, showing burls from callus with fresh pruning wounds from sprout removal--why were these sprouts removed?

Trenching roots was one problem hard to remedy, but soil compaction and fill on the flare (evidenced by the "telephone pole" look) can be mitigated by clearing the flare and root invigoration.

If the pull test opens that crack too much, what to do?

 

[ATH]

....Trenching roots was one problem hard to remedy, but soil compaction and fill on the flare (evidenced by the "telephone pole" look) can be mitigated by clearing the flare and root invigoration....

Absolutely. Hard to believe that has not been addressed... the need seems pretty straight forward.

 

[Pelorus]

I think that poor tree should be replaced with a new specimen.
It's continued existence in a decrepit state likely inspires folks to top and practice hackerry of other trees. This tree has lost it's dignity. It is gonna fail, either by outright dying, or shedding a large limb. The hapless motorist who gets clunked by said tree will likely not care that it was an historic tree periodically inspected by a certified arborist. Neither will her lawyer.

The preservationists would prefer to wait till the walnut calls it quits. I would encourage a more proactive approach of replacement. You gotta be smarter than the patient you are treating. Blair certainly has a vested interest in treating his geriatric walnut until it has given up the ghost. Unless his work is pro bono, he is likely getting paid to do whatever he does.

 

[treeclimber101]

Absolutely. Hard to believe that has not been addressed... the need seems pretty straight forward.

The "need" you are referring to removal , that tree lost its dignity along time before this video was ever made

 

[treeclimber101]

The replacement trees should have been planted decades ago and that ugly excuse for squandering finanical resources that should of been better spent should be long gone.


Wonder how many dollars spent?


Projects like this cast a poor light on modern arboriculture.

Too many , at this point .

 

[Pelorus]

The arborist states at least twice in hat video that the tree."looks pretty good when it has leafed out" or some such similar nonsense. The rest of the year it looks like hell, of course.

 

[treeclimber101]

The arborist states at least twice in hat video that the tree."looks pretty good when it has leafed out" or some such similar nonsense. The rest of the year it looks like hell, of course.

It's walnut , they leaf late and drop early , rest of the time they resemble haunted house trees , believe me it's no loss at this point ....

 

[ATH]

The arborist states at least twice in hat video that the tree."looks pretty good when it has leafed out" or some such similar nonsense. The rest of the year it looks like hell, of course.

Then he showed pictures of when the tree was in leaf (granted, they were old...but he said that is about what it looks like now) and the tree looks just as bad.

I wonder if they have collected seed off of the tree (if it is even healthy enough to produce seed). They could also graft some of the branches as a means of "preserving the tree" into the future.

 

[Pelorus]

Yeah, it's like keeping the family dog around, even though it is 14 years old, diabetic, incontinent, blind, arthritic, and sleeps 18 hours a day. For sentimental reasons, of course.

 

[Pelorus]

The sad thing is that it is the veterinarian (arborist) that is telling the owners that ole Rover is in reasonable shape given his age. Let's not euthanize Rover as long as the owners are willing to keep forking over money for facelifts, Botox, and tummy tucks for this arboricultural Joan Rivers.

 

[imagineero]

Your tax dollars, wasted