WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? This beautiful sugar maple recently “failed” in the Town of Shandaken after a storm. We have covered “structural” issues before, but this tree really sends the message home. Open-grown sugar maple are especially susceptible of codominant leaders and can fail miserably. Co-dominants are whereContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Got a chance to really drive around over the weekend and observe some of the tree damage from last week’s ice storm. Tree failures or damage mostly occurred on over-extended limbs or worse on co-dominant stems or leaders. In order to prevent this fromContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? I recently saw this sugar maple tree “fail” near Napanoch in Ulster County while driving around. Typically, large maple trees that are open-grown have structural defects caused by co-dominant leaders. These co-dominant leaders develop tight-crotches at their unions which cause cracking since they areContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Does a fallen tree in the woods make a noise? Well, if no one is around to hear it, then who cares? A fallen tree in the woods normally isn’t “hazardous” either since the chances of it causing harm to property or persons isContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? On my way home the other day from Sullivan County, I saw this catastrophic tree-failure over a playground. The tree split where a tight-crotch or included bark had created a weak union. If this tree were in the woods, then it would never beContinue Reading