tree id and damage mystery

[mquinn]

what's this lovely tree? (this one's in oklahoma and was loaded with singing cicadas - even my screeching fiddle didn't interrupt them). scroll down for foliage close-ups. http://www.missouri.edu/~quinnl/temporary/id/id.html

and what might have caused this damage? this was on the gulf near port arthur, tx. sorry the picture didn't turn out very good. the damaged area was along the highway about twice the distance of what i could get in the viewfinder. branches ripped off, not cut - lots of large wood chips strewn along the highway shoulder. somebody driving a bus fall asleep at the wheel? hurricane winds performing strange take-outs, leaving everything else unharmed like tornados sometimes do? tazmanian devil attack? something simpler that isn't coming to mind for me but obvious to somebody else?
http://www.missouri.edu/~quinnl/temporary/id/damage.jpg

 

[Stumper]

Silver poplar/Black cottonwood (gets called both depending upon locale). I don't know about the damage.

P.S. The above are local names. Latin is Populus Alba= White poplar. native of Europe I think.

 

[Dan F]

Regarding the tree damage: the picture isn't clear, but it looks like a common sight around here...

The county highway department has a large Kubota tractor with a hydraulic powered mower. The mower deck is on an articulated arm mounted on the side of the tractor. They use it to abuse the trees and brush alongside the roads that are sticking into the right-of-way. I suspect that this is the culprit that caused this mess.


Dan

 

[mquinn]

dan,

that was my first thought when i saw it. but it looks like if that's what they did, they're seriously abusing their equipment as well. the reason i say that is that the branches were snapped and torn so badly. but i don't know what kind of equipment they use - maybe it's not something that needs to be sharpened? or set/adjusted/balanced? but, yeah, it looked like woody weeds might look if you took a string trimmer to them and it didn't quite work.

sorry the picture didn't come out better. abuse is a pretty good word for the situation. a hacked and shredded mess.

if they're doing that to the trees on purpose, i guess they just see them as roadside weeds? might be better in the long run to cut them down than to mangle them and leave them standing. maybe not.

thanks.

stumper, thanks for the tree id. i'll check on their incidence of use here, if any, and why they might not be used. they sure are pretty.

m

 

[danl]

The local Hwy dept. uses a device called a Kershaw????( not sure about the spelling) that matches the description given by Dan F.
It is capable of hacking a eight inch oak tree down if it is in the hwy right of way. I have seen it cut some that large. Evidently it is intended for such use. I would love to get my hands on one for a day to use around my pasture.
They can set it just above a fence and cut everything without tearing the fence up. It does make a mess out of trees when they try to trim with it.
Danl

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

I was recently involved in some bidding on clearing brush on exsiting roadways for a local community.
The spec.s for the work were written such that they just wanted a 14 foot tall box that extended 8 feet to each side of the road. Proper pruning cuts can not be made in most cases because that would mean going beyond the town's right-of-way.
Small brush would just get cut with a brush mower, and tree branches stub cut to clear that box.
Not much in the way of credentials or special tools needed, bid goes to the lowest bidder. So there is no reason a guy couldn't just use his brush mower to do the tree trimming.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

The machine is called "The Eliminator" here in NC, commonly used on back roads. Cuts are gruesome, like when the blade scalps trunks at the easement edge. There was a big flap over its use in the mountains where tourists come to see the trees; now they try to time its use so paying eyes are not offended.

They come down my road and whack some elms that are planted at the edge of the 30' easement. Then I go out and make better cuts. Yes m-sama they treat roadside trees like weeds because that's what they are--plants growing in the wrong place. Is it better to just remove them? no, when regrowth is thick it's good habitat for birds, etc. Ideal for owner to plant and maintain trees that will not block motorists' view of the road but few of course take the trouble to do it right.

Best to do what they did in the mtns., time the chopping for late winter. If property owners don't trim the trees away from the easement then the road dept. has to.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Better to get the landowner to plant trees with good basi regeneration and practice coppicing. then they could have good 10 ft screening from the roadway too.