Can this tree be saved?

[justaguy93]

Hello everyone, I'm new here and looking for some tree related advice. I have an Ash tree in my back yard, maybe 15" in diameter or so, that originally split three ways at the top of the trunk probably 6' off of the ground or so. A couple of years ago a windstorm came through and split one of the branches off of the tree and as it came off it striped a good portion of the trunk off. A few months later the second mail branch split off as well doing the same. Despite this the third and main branching of the trunk remains, the leaves come in fine and the bark is slowly regrowing. I've been waiting it out to see if the tree can possibly recover before brining it down but now I'm going to be doing some building on my lot and I'm thinking if the tree is doomed it'll be a lot safer to bring it down now vs later. I'd say the trunk is split to about 60% of it's original thickness and has maybe 60% of the bark remaining for a good 2-3' or so. Despite all of this the tree still looks healthy and has lasted two winters in this shape.

I hate to bring it down but I just don't know enough about trees to know if it can possibly recover from this type of damage. Could anyone offer any advice?

 

[treeseer]

60% left sounds like borderline. If you want to keep the tree, help the roots all you can so the scar tissue grows faster.

Posting a picture would help a lot--it's easy to do.