{"id":205,"date":"2013-07-28T15:12:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-28T20:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/?p=205"},"modified":"2019-11-27T20:15:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T02:15:15","slug":"tree-decay-and-hazardous-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/?p=205","title":{"rendered":"Tree Decay and Hazardous Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a9 guy leblanc 2013-2019 all rights reserved<\/h6>\n
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Remaining stub from fallen limb showing internal decay<\/p><\/div>\n

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As mentioned on my Pruning Tips page, tree safety is one of the two most important aspects of tree care.\u00a0 And a critical component of tree safety is knowing how to assess potentially hazardous trees or limbs.\u00a0 Being able to detect decay is a major part of that.<\/p>\n

A few things to understand right off the top about this subject;\u00a0 tree decay is caused by numerous species of fungi, and often the loss of wood strength they cause is not visible externally.\u00a0 That means that no intelligent arborist is going to guarantee the safety of any tree or limb with 100% certainty.<\/p>\n

A future post will discuss tree anatomy and physiology in greater detail, but for this subject it is important to know that the vast majority of a tree’s “business”, that is the transport of water and nutrients that keeps it alive, is occurring in the newest wood, that created in the most recent growing season, which is located immediately below the bark.\u00a0 That is why a tree can be completely hollow and still look green and beautiful.\u00a0 The inner wood (misleadingly called the “heartwood”) is largely inactive physiologically.<\/p>\n

However, if this heartwood is missing, in either a trunk or an individual limb, quite a bit of strength loss can occur, increasing the probability of failure.\u00a0 Sometimes this occurs with an external opening (frequently referred to as a “cavity”), which increases the risk of failure even more, but also making the defect much more noticeable.\u00a0 Other times, as alluded to above, there is no external sign.\u00a0 Although the tree or limb is likely more structurally sound in this case, it is also more likely to go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

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decay fungus fruiting bodies or “conks”<\/p><\/div>\n

Another sign of decay fungi is the fungus itself, visible when its fruiting body is present.\u00a0 These are sometimes referred to as “conks” but most people know them more commonly as mushrooms.\u00a0 And just like picking an apple off an apple tree doesn’t kill the apple tree, removing these conks isn’t going to kill the decay fungus living in a tree.\u00a0 That is partly why there is no effective treatment for decay fungi.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an important thing to keep in mind when hiring an arborist<\/strong> to deal with possible decay problems.\u00a0 If they are telling you they have some kind of treatment, either physical or chemical, that can eradicate decay fungi, they are trying to sell you something that will not work.\u00a0<\/strong> That is not to say that there are not treatments for many other types of fungal problems.\u00a0 There are.\u00a0 Just not successful ones for decay fungi.<\/p>\n

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Live tree with full canopy falls from root rot<\/p><\/div>\n

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Close up of decayed roots on same tree<\/p><\/div>\n

Dealing with decayed trees or limbs begins with an assessment of their severity.\u00a0 This is usually accomplished visually, but much less frequently through an internal assessment.\u00a0 A competent arborist can explain the options available.\u00a0 One of the biggest factors in determining the risk level present is simply assessing what can happen if the tree fails.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, is it in the middle of a rarely used field, or is it over a playground?\u00a0 This greatly affects whether one will decide to leave the tree or limb alone, remove it, or support it.<\/p>\n

Sometimes support cables can be a reasonable option.\u00a0 They can also be used to support limbs that have physical defects in them rather than actual decay, or to keep them from gradually getting closer to a building or walkway due to weight (the main header of my blog shows me installing a support cable for this purpose).<\/p>\n

One technique that was common for years that was discredited a few decades ago by the research of Dr. Alex Shigo (see Pruning Tips page) is the idea of carving out these decayed areas and filling them with concrete.\u00a0 This so-called cavity work was really something of an art form when done precisely, but Dr. Shigo’s research indicated that in the vast majority of cases, this work was either harmful (when healthy tissue was damaged and\/or infected by the process) or just plain useless.<\/p>\n

Trees are able to internally “compartmentalize” the decay and withstand the water often held by such cavities.\u00a0 A competent arborist can fully explain Shigo’s theory of compartmentalization to you.\u00a0 The biggest benefit to filling them is really just eliminating mosquitoes.\u00a0 In other rare instances, the filling or a metal cap over a cavity can provide a surface for new tissue to move across as the tree covers the hole, but if live tissue is damaged when applying such a treatment, more harm than good has been done.<\/p>\n

So the bottom line is that if you spot any of these types of irregularities, you need to consult with a competent arborist for an accurate assessment.\u00a0 You certainly want to protect your family and property from failing trees.\u00a0 You have a duty to protect others by taking reasonable precautions to prevent trees on your property from failing.\u00a0 This is something a knowledgeable arborist can help you do, but it it important to understand that only you can decide what level of risk is acceptable, and no assessment of tree hazards is a guarantee against injury.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 guy leblanc 2013-2019 all rights reserved       As mentioned on my Pruning Tips page, tree safety is one of the two most important aspects of tree care.\u00a0 And a critical component of tree safety is knowing how … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":502,"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treecarebyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}