You "Gotta" see this email I received today.

[M.D. Vaden]

Someone sent me an email today that for sure saw a video on my album - maybe my site.

That's not even the point of this thread.

Here's the email he sent (part of it, the rest is of the same concept). By the way, the tone of the note appeared good-natured:

ENJOYED YOUR SITE VERY MUCH.
BUT I MUST TELL YOU AND DONT TAKE IT BADLY....YOUR TREE CUTS ARE REALLY
BAD..AND SET A BAD EXAMPLE FOR THE PUBLIC...YES I KNOW YOUR DOING WHAT THE
BOOKS SAY...BUT THE BOOKS ARE WRONG.!!!!! SHAIGO IS WRONG... A SMOOTH AND
ROUNDER CUT HEELS MUCH FASTER. AND FAST IS WHAT YOU WANT. IM DOING THIS
WORK FOR 40 YEARS AND I USED TO DO WHAT THE BOOK SAID...AND AFTER INSPECTING
MY OLD WORK I CAN TELL YOU...FLESH AND ROUND CUTS ARE ALWAYS BEST. ALSO
POLLARDING IS A ACCEPTABEL METHOD OF PRUNNING TREES IN EUROPE FOR 300
HUNDRED YEARS AND IS NOT A BAD TECH. AS YOU AND HUNDREDS OF OTHER
LANDSCAPERS THINK IT IS. VERY NECESSARY IN SOME CASES. AND IF DONE RIGHT
...LOOKS VERY GOOD. AMERICANS DID NOT INVENT TREE WORK... AS THEY THINK THEY
DID...ITS ALWASYS GOOD TO LOOK AT OTHER CULTURES TO SEE HOW TREE WORK WAS
DONE ...THERE IS MUCH TO LEARN ....GOING TO EUROPE IS A EYE OPENER.. THANKS
AGAIN THIS MESSAGE IS DELIVERED WITH AFFECTION NOT AS A PUT DOWN. YOURS
GENE XXX EDITED LAST NAME OUT XXX

I think he means "flush" cuts.

Have any of you run into this school of practice?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hahahahahaaa.

 

[alanarbor]

He's correct about one thing, Pollarding and topping are two different animals entirely.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

He does assume things.

You may note he included me in the landscape group that thinks pollarding is bad.

I don't think anything on my website states that. This Gene guy is apparently not aware of a post I started on a gardening forum about pollarding and it's uses.

It was a unique email that just came out of the blue - IN ALL CAPS TOO.

 

[Tom D. Wilson]

pollarding is alright if you have a continues management plan - theres and old pollarded beech at college thts been left for a long time and although it looks nice - its a death trap - losses a branch about every 2 years

 

[M.D. Vaden]

IS THIS ONE OF YOU GUYS MESSING AROUND. : - )

I was wondering if this was one of the users here.

In reply, I sent about 2 polite lines back to this guy - basically a thank-you.

He just sent this:

YOU MEAN THATS YOUR RESPONSE TO MY EMAIL?....I FIND THAT TOTALLY INADAQUITE

At this point, I basically told the guy that I wondered if he was for real or one of you - and - if for real - to take a hike (in different nicer vocabulary)

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Okay, I gotta put the name of the guy here - this is the name "Gene Tyburn"

I tried Googling, so far I found one reference:

One reference link associated with that name

NOW HERE IS ANOTHER LINK

ANOTHER LINK

HE COULDN'T BE THIS GUY ???? OR COULD HE ????

No contact info on the ad - that's unique.

 

[Trignog]

flesh cuts hurt

 

[NickfromWI]

Maybe ISA oughtta look into yanking his certification

 

[M.D. Vaden]

I can't say for sure it's that Certified guy.

Maybe someone is using his name as a hoax. Maybe there are two tree guys with the same name. I found at least 3 people with the same name.

Makes you wonder.

Oh, and then the guy fiinally sends this really huge email after I basically indicated not to contact again. I read two lines and hit the delete button.

 

[Oxman]

Hi Mario,

Thanks for your post on Arboristsite about Gene. I used to run into him in the 1970's when we were practicing arboriculture in the same neighborhood, North Hollywood. He's definitely a dynamic individual.

Hope everything is going ok. Thanks for all your public outreach efforts. Lets talk trees sometime.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

He might be right, flush cuts do close faster. But Shigo has hammered on this for decades. Closure is less important than leaving the collar intact. If the collar is removed there is a huge gap in the physiological defense shield of the tree. When the chemical factories are gone then the nasties can move in.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Yes Dunlap...

I was impressed with reading about the hundreds if not thousands of trees Shigo and others dissected to find out what we would prefer to avoid doing to homeowner trees (cut em open like a pineapple to see the guts).

You guys read in Shigo's book where he mentions about loggers way back in something like the 1700s that knew the same stuff after a while. That flush cuts made inferior wood. Apparently the lazy logger skipped the flush cut method expected, and as time passed, it turned out that the lazy loggers lumber was better since they made their cuts outside the branch collar where the diameter was less.

We are basically in a Rennaissance about that one more time, and a few tree people are insisting on staying in the dark ages for some reason.

 

[a_lopa]

weve gone with the times,history will tell.

 

[chipper]

I agree. Flesh cuts do hurt.

 

[Stumper]

As noted above. Pollarding is a legitimate pruning technique-and Topping is NOT pollarding. Yes Flush cuts close/cover fast. The issue is decay. Collar cuts breach fewer of the tree's defenses. They also happen to be easier to perform with a handsaw.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

I wonder if the guy that emailed me drops emails on other tree services that offer information on their websites too.

It's really wierd having someone slip a message in like this guy did.

I almost get the impression from his email that professionals ignore him and he is itching to vent his "expertise".

 

[Ekka]

He also mentioned round cuts ... what would that be?

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

My guess is that English is not his first language, and he may even be using some kind of translation software.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Yeah...I didn't know what "round" meant either, and didn't want to ask.

I'm guessing the spelling changed and he meant "flush" where it says "flesh".