Rosechuk
ArboristSite Lurker
Sorry if this post is too long...I am looking for some advice about this big old gnarly beautiful sugar maple in my front yard:
It may not look like it in the picture, but this is a pretty massive tree...the trunk is probably about 4-5 feet in diameter. This tree appears healthy overall, but it does have some big central areas of rot which start in the middle of the trunk and travel WAY the heck of the tree along a visible fissure up the main left leaning central part of the tree. This section leans right towards my house, of course. The tree appears strong, and withstood a pretty heavy ice and snow storm last year while it was still fully holding all it's leaves, but this large wing of the tree makes me very nervous.
I have a neighborhood tree climber & logger guy, who is a super nice fellow and stops by from time to time. We have been looking at this tree together over the past year and he is always scaring me about needing to do something about the tree and how this main major section is leaning right towards the house and "hinging" right on this central rotted area of the tree. He proposed that he cut the main "left" leaning branch of this tree about 3 or 4 feet above the first main crotch (visible in the photo about halfway up) and "dome" the tree around this height. He said this will eliminate all of this dangerous weight in the tree and that the tree will recover fine from this.
From the little I have read about this kind of thing, it seems that topping is a terrible idea, so I wanted to get a second opinion. I called another tree person randomly from the phone book who came by and looked at it while I was not here but called and said that he thought I should leave it alone and just have good home insurance (which I do). Still this advice was not very reassuring. I stopped in at the Dept of Forestry and a guy from there came out to look at it. He said that removing some dead wood stumps from it would be a good idea, but that I should also not cut it back so severely. I think that is what I wanted to hear, and so I did not ask him much more about it, but later in the day, the neighborhood tree guy came back and scared the bejeesus about of me again, pointing out all of these rotten spots and plants growing, and squirrel holes, etc etc. Now, I do not think this guy is trying to get money out of me or anything–I think he is honestly advising me to do what he thinks would be best. I asked him about just taking some dead wood out of the tree and he said he would do what I wanted, but thought that would be a waste of money and that for not much more money he would be able to eliminate my problem entirely.
What do you all think about this? Is topping this tree just a terrible idea that will cause lots more problems? Is this guy crazy? Could removing just the one big house leaning section be a good idea? I really don't know what to do here...but this guy really is persuasive when he talks about it.
Thanks for any advice!
It may not look like it in the picture, but this is a pretty massive tree...the trunk is probably about 4-5 feet in diameter. This tree appears healthy overall, but it does have some big central areas of rot which start in the middle of the trunk and travel WAY the heck of the tree along a visible fissure up the main left leaning central part of the tree. This section leans right towards my house, of course. The tree appears strong, and withstood a pretty heavy ice and snow storm last year while it was still fully holding all it's leaves, but this large wing of the tree makes me very nervous.
I have a neighborhood tree climber & logger guy, who is a super nice fellow and stops by from time to time. We have been looking at this tree together over the past year and he is always scaring me about needing to do something about the tree and how this main major section is leaning right towards the house and "hinging" right on this central rotted area of the tree. He proposed that he cut the main "left" leaning branch of this tree about 3 or 4 feet above the first main crotch (visible in the photo about halfway up) and "dome" the tree around this height. He said this will eliminate all of this dangerous weight in the tree and that the tree will recover fine from this.
From the little I have read about this kind of thing, it seems that topping is a terrible idea, so I wanted to get a second opinion. I called another tree person randomly from the phone book who came by and looked at it while I was not here but called and said that he thought I should leave it alone and just have good home insurance (which I do). Still this advice was not very reassuring. I stopped in at the Dept of Forestry and a guy from there came out to look at it. He said that removing some dead wood stumps from it would be a good idea, but that I should also not cut it back so severely. I think that is what I wanted to hear, and so I did not ask him much more about it, but later in the day, the neighborhood tree guy came back and scared the bejeesus about of me again, pointing out all of these rotten spots and plants growing, and squirrel holes, etc etc. Now, I do not think this guy is trying to get money out of me or anything–I think he is honestly advising me to do what he thinks would be best. I asked him about just taking some dead wood out of the tree and he said he would do what I wanted, but thought that would be a waste of money and that for not much more money he would be able to eliminate my problem entirely.
What do you all think about this? Is topping this tree just a terrible idea that will cause lots more problems? Is this guy crazy? Could removing just the one big house leaning section be a good idea? I really don't know what to do here...but this guy really is persuasive when he talks about it.
Thanks for any advice!
