Why is there concrete in base of large tree?

[wahoowad]

Last year I had a large oak dropped - it was two trunks coming up from a large common base. The tree guys left too much of the stump sticking up so I paid a guy to come cut it flush since my saw is way too small for a job like that. He hit a rock inside the stump and had to stop.

I was able to identify the perimeter of the rock and cut around it, which still left a substantial mini-stump sticking up. Yesterday I put a burn barrel over it and burnt most of the mini-stump down and learned the rock was a football size chunk of concrete.

I believe my neighborhood was built on an old farm about 35 years ago. Why would a tree have concrete poured into it? Clearly it was done when the tree was much younger but I don't see signs there was a cavity or anything. Are there certain reasons why people may sometimes do this?

 

[cuinrearview]

The tree grew around the concrete

 

[homemade]

I’m sure it as done if the tree had a large wound. Sometimes people put foreign stuff in trees that have deep wounds thinking the tree will heal better without that hole.

And sometimes people are dumb.

 

[Del_]

40 years ago it was thought the concrete would inhibit the spread of decay. It's been shown to have been a bad practice.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

People pour concrete into tree openings, believing it will save that tree by sealing out water and stopping decay. Not so good on chains or stump grinders.

 

[svk]

I cringe when I see concrete, bricks, etc used in trees.

Like this one

 

[Deleted member 117362]

I cringe when I see concrete, bricks, etc used in trees.

Like this one
View attachment 775446

That's the beginning of a tree house!

 

[woodchip rookie]

I cringe when I see concrete, bricks, etc used in trees.

Like this one
View attachment 775446

aw come on...you love treasures like that

 

[svk]

aw come on...you love treasures like that

I removed a big hollow maple from a farm yard. Amazingly I didn’t hit anything but holy crap you should have seen the metal in there that was exposed during burning.

 

[Brushwacker]

Tree services be careful about contracting trees with cement unknown. I knowed a guy that done so and after ruining some chain had to hire a wrecker to pull the stump.

 

[buzz sawyer]

I had a similar problem with an old Norway Maple. It had a cement patch about 8 feet long. We finally cut enough of the base so we could raise the dump bed, chained the trunk to it, break it off and lower the bed with the tree attached.