Originally posted by wct4life
Yeah, Our company has been flat siding trees away from houses.
An ins. co.pays for preventive mutilation, and increasing the chance the trees will fall the other way? I can understand butchering for utility clearance, but does this flatsiding seem like the right thing to do?
I wasn't able to get a good look at this tree,
The only way you can assess lightning damage is to climb the thing and see how much bark is killed and if there are deep cracks. "Just wait and see" is not a good approach to tree safety, or tree care in general.
a guy that does treework on the side told them that he'd remove it for $500 and take away the limbs/logs.
That guy must know that most ins cos will pay up to $500/tree, and many will pay that toward removal no matter how trivial the damage is.
If the tree has any value at all to your aunt, see below:
A TALE OF TWO OAK TREES
Lightning struck twice in Wake County, NC last year, and two big oak trees bore the brunt. What happened next tells a tale of Scrooge-like assumptions, and how Great Expectations can go awry.
A white oak grew in an undisturbed area. The blast had torn off a spiraling streak of bark from top to bottom. The arborist saw that the open wound was no more than 12” wide, and tapped the bark on either side of the wound with his rubber mallet to see how much more had been detached from the wood.
The total bark damage at the bottom indicated the tree might be saveable, so the next step was an aerial inspection. He climbed to the top and trimmed away (“traced”) the torn bark on the edges of the wound on his way down. Bark that was sound, yet detached, was stapled back to the wood so it might readhere, shrinking the infection court. The roots on the blasted side were inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi and fertilized.
The tree was nominated for an award in the Meritorious category by a member of the Capital Trees Program. The registered forester who came out to inspect it said “Bah, Humbug!” Nominated trees must be in good condition to receive an award, and the forester assumed all lightning-blasted trees are rendered useless.
Nevertheless, treatment went forward. The arborist removed two of the damaged lead branches from the crown. He sprayed exposed xylem with eucalyptus oil to repel opportunistic woodboring insects. Over 2” of scar tissue has grown over the wound in one season, and the oak leafed out fully next spring. Well on its way to recovery, it was finally granted a Meritorious Award. During the second growing season the callus thickened remarkably and closed over up to two more inches of the xylem. The wood was sprayed once more with botanical repellent.
The second oak majestically defined the edge of the historic district in Fuquay-Varina. Two years before, the Capital Trees Program had given it an Historic Tree Award. Scant lawn in full sun covered half the root system, and little of the rest was mulched. The lightning damage seemed just slightly wider than the first, so the arborist started treating the wound as before.
Below some old pruning cuts halfway down, a portion of bark over 4’ square was detached. Curiously, it wasn’t near the lightning wound! Insects had entered wounds made by climbing spikes and eaten away the cambium. That climber must have dug in his spikes to keep his balance as he cut, with Great Expectations that those little holes couldn’t possibly hurt that great big tree. Aggravating this injury was the bare ground underneath. Oaks being ring-porous, the roots that were needed to help repair this damaged side of the tree had too many problems of their own to perform that function.
Added to the lightning wound, this human-made injury put the total dead bark area over one-third of the circumference. Despite insect control, fertilization, and, belatedly, mulch, the prognosis was poor. Little scar tissue grows, and half the crown is pale. The tree’s useful years were over, clearly due to the use of climbing spikes and root abuse.
Lightning may someday inflict a Twist-ed scar on your trees, but you can keep storms, disease and insects from picking your urban forest’s pocket. A healthy root environment below organic groundcover costs less than a cup of gruel. The tree provides it for free when it sheds its leaves. That, and lack of damage above the ground, can keep your trees growing great Lightning may scare the Dickens out of you, but it’s nothing to lose all your trees over.
