peoeple painted my trees

[rivahrat]

people painted my trees

hey everyone i have a lil problem yet again. i live on a camp here in Va and had the YMCA come out with their Indian guides. the painted on 9 trees around a fishing pond. 1 holly tree with a 12 inch trunk, 2 oaks with 24 and 36 inch trunks and some yellow pines. my question is how can i remove the paint (they used the upside down surveyors paint) with out getting chemicals in the water. also can you give me an estimate on what you think it would cost to do such work? ill post the pics of the trees.

 

[Stumper]

After it has dried I don't think it poses much threat to the pond. Chemical paint removers might be bad for the tree as wellas the pond(but bark is wondrous stuff for sealing out nastiness) Let's see those pics. My first thoughts are
Leave it
Citrus based strippers
Scrape gently-(don't go through the bark- the resulting blaze will weather faster than the paint will wear off.

 

[rivahrat]

painted trees

in the secont pic someone tried scrubbing the paint but it just tore off the bark. painting the holly and the oaks really pi$$ed us off tho!

 

[eyeinstine]

Ouch!

What the heck where they thinking???
Sorry i cant help you with suggestions, But i think trying the scrape the paint off the bark with a sharp knife or razor blade would be the best option. Only scraping the very top surface, dont remove the actual bark. But this would be very time consuming! Otherwise, they paint is going to be there for a long time..

I figured the pictures where going to show a small 'X' here, or a small arrow there... They really painted them trees!

Good luck,
Ron

ps. I would suggest making them come back and gently scrape the paint off the bark; but i would be afraid they would do more damage than good..

Maybe a pressure washer would work????

 

[Stumper]

I don't blame you for being perturbed. Idea number four. More paint.-Lightly cover the area with a color that is similar to the natural bark.


Don't paint on other peoples stuff! http://www.arboristsite.com/images/attach/gif.gif

 

[rivahrat]

well i think we want to know how to get rid of the paint if we just paint over it eventually it will just come backas it all wairs off and we thought of a preshure washer but did not want to hurt the trees unless we cut them down. we will probably cut the pines as they make it hard to fish the pond but all the other trees are in good locations and are hughly visible from camping arias.



i wonder if they treat the national forests the same way when they camp there? its such a shame that the people in charge cant teach the childern better by not doing things like this.

 

[rivahrat]

what about a citrus based paint stripper?

 

[Stumper]

It will work real well- at least for the men. When a Florida girl starts taking her clothes off it will be difficult to notice things like paint on trees.

Seriously that is what I would try. if it doesn't work then I'd scrape or paint over.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Shesh! Just paint over it!

 

[rivahrat]

well the aria the painted trees are in is a large camping aria. plus the camp is a renovated farm from 1831. the people who own it dont want more paint. plus the ymca people are willing to pay for removal

 

[Tom Dunlap]

If you know the company that made the paint you should be able to contact their lab to find a thinner or remover that wouldn't harm the trees. The longer you wait the harder it will be to get off the paint. Try slathering on some citrus cleaner and high pressure.

Get hold of a janitorial supply company. They have paint removers for graffiti. There must be a non-toxic product available.

Since you have the YMCA aware of the damage it might be nice to have them let the campers understand the mistake. This could be a big loss of face for the adult leaders. Tricky to make it a teachable moment.

 

[rivahrat]

yeah i agree with you tom. but hey stumper i think i would rather mess arround with the other kind of citrus strippers im not sure but i bet they cost more.

 

[rivahrat]

gut snuck out here yesterday to try to cover his @$$ and remove some paint. looks like he did it with a rock or something. now i have all these gashes in the bark of my oaks andybody know how long it takes a holley tree to get a trunk 14 inches in diameter?

 

[NickfromWI]

Can I ask why they painted them? Shouldn't the offenders remove it?

 

[bigair]

Use a power washer on a very light setting.

 

[rivahrat]

not sure why they painted them and we tried to make them remopve it but to no avain. then they guy sneeks out to do so and damages the bark.so we decided to turn it over the their insurance company.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Do not use chemical paint strippers, even if they have a friendly, fruity name. Don't put more paint over it either. Bark is like skin, it needs to breathe, not to mention you'll never match the color.
Look at the image at how close the surface is to the phloem, even on a thick barked tree.
Now that we are considering what bark looks like, its outer layer is mostly dead cells, there for protection, but down in the fissures, it's not very thick. With a pressure washer you couldn't differentiate the amount of material removal between the thick outer ridges and down in the fragile fissures.
The best method that I have come up with, and used, is to gently rub the bark with a wire brush, using vertical strokes. Only rub enough to remove the paint. A wire brush will hit the high points of the bark and not move into the fissures as aggressively.
The reason this works so well, is the outer surface of bark has layers of loose organic matter and the paint doesn't stick well. Also, the outer dead cells of bark peel off easily.
When you are done, the areas you rubbed will be lighter in color, but fade to normal within a few months.
Thin barked trees will need very gentle work, possibly sandpaper.

 

[rivahrat]

yeah that was my plan if i could not use a citrus based stripper. however when the guy came out to fix his mistake he just took gouges off of the tree. and he still left the paint. i would imagine it will take this tree a while to look normal again.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Idiot!
I recommend you apply the same treatment to his face.