Trees

[altivo]

Ugh. I spotted another almost dead giant oak tree in the woods on the property line. I think this one stands on our nutty neighbor's side of the line, but much of it overhangs our land. Fortunately it is also in the woodlots and not a serious hazard like the one out front. That makes four big trees dead this spring. I hope it isn't a trend, but I'm afraid it may be. The effects of the long summer drought of 2005 are beginning to show. This last tree has a huge Virginia creeper on it, which is why I didn't notice it before now. The vine has leaves. The tree does not.

These oak trees are probably close to 100 years old. Many of them stand 70 feet or more in height. It makes me dizzy to stand and look up into the canopy here, it's almost like a rain forest in some places. We have already begun to plant young trees in anticipation of losing some of the large ones. We are encouraging some volunteers too. The oaks and hickories produce plenty of acorns and nuts about every third year or so, and the squirrels plant them all over. When one sprouts in a place where it will do no harm, we let it grow there. There is little danger of this land ending up looking like a naked cornfield.

However, there is major risk from falling branches if this sudden tree die off continues. I'm starting to think about a cow pasture up near Harvard that I pass on my way to work in the morning. I think the cows girdled the oaks, of which there were quite a few in there. Most are dead, many have fallen over or dropped large branches in the last five years. It looks desolate and depressing.

Comments

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Its happening all over here unfortunately, the long drought is killing even some big Gum trees :( If we don't get some rain soon more are going to die, the lady over the road lost 3 trees this year, and its a suburban plot.

I didn't know Squirrels plant trees O.O still it makes sense :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Squirrels plant everything. Most of what they eat consists of seeds in one form or another, and their way of storing food for later use is to bury it. One out of three or four years here we have a gigantic crop of acorns, hickory nuts, and walnuts. We could rake them up by the bushel, and do in the horses' area because they will eat them and too many can cause problems. The squirrels get rid of all the rest by carrying them around and burying them, one at a time. Naturally they never dig up all of that and eat it, so a couple of years later there are new oaks and hickories sprouting all over the place.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Would they respond to heavy fertilization?

Or is this a case of Tree Doctor or Lumberjack?

>.<

[altivo.livejournal.com]

In this case, I don't think the trees can be saved. Two of them are totally dead, the other two are so close to it that nothing will save them. I'm confident that the drought of 2005 was a major contributing factor, though as trees go, burr oaks are only moderately long lived. Unlike some members of the genus Quercus, the burr oak grows very rapidly, pushing up two or three feet a year at first and reaching heights of as much as a hundred feet in a century. At that age, it is nearing the end of its lifespan anyway. We estimate the age of the second growth oaks on our land at somewhere between 80 and 100 years.

It's a dilemma because I simply can't afford the cost of taking these trees down in their entirety. Removing just one of them is going to squeeze us badly. Meanwhile there are others that need trimming. Oaks drop dead branches all the time. Large branches can weigh a hundred pounds or more, though the typical falling debris is more in the one to five pound range. Even that can do a lot of damage to a building, vehicle, or person when it is dropping from 70 feet up. Last night a foot long chunk of lichen covered oak landed on the windshield and front hood of my car, for instance. No permanent damage, apparently, but last year a similar chunk made an actual dent in the hood of my Jeep.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Last October we had that unbelievable storm
that killed at least twenty percent of the
trees in the area. I wondered around outside
about five the next morning and you could still
hear the trees cracking. A guy on the radio
put it best; "It sounded like musket fire".

My car got hit with a branch but the snow, in
an ironic twist, was so heavy it prevented
damage.

However the branch was so heavy I had to get
my son to help me take it off the car.

Trees dying and hitting your vehicles is not
goodly.

Maybe someone or someones would come by if
you donated the wood for something? I dunno.