From this distance, the symptoms are indicative of Verticillium Wilt. Is the necrotic bark distributed throught the canopy?

Possibly the stopper to Pandoras flask that Sunak has casually discarded.

Quick question, do you have a saw to go with that?

It’s really heartening to see such interest in ancient and veteran trees; if you get the chance book on to a guided walk with the ATF, if you’re really lucky Ted Green and Jill Butler will be present. We went round the Killerton Estate Park a few years back, great to fondle ancient trees alongside likeminded people. For those near Saintbury, nip over the hill to Chippy, the B4035 betweeen the Ebrington crossroads and the Charingworth turn has some nice examples of hedgerow Ash that have been through several pollard cycles and most now have extensive hollowing. If you’re looking for big examples of a species, whether that is girth or height, the Tree Register of Britain and Ireland (TROBI) should be consulted, however like those in the ATF register not all the trees are accessible to the public.

This is a bit of a shameless plug. Arboriculture is deperately short of people, particularly the technical side and moreso of Local Authority Tree Officers. LA surveyors can now earn more than £22,000 and TO’s are generally paid a little more. You are generally advocatimg for trees and often by extension green spaces; this might not be about retaining each and every tree but maintaining and hopefully growing a healthy and diverse tree stock for the benefit of all.

In short, it is not a threat to your wood store or your existing Beech. The fungus is not one that is of arboricultural concern, that is not sat that it is not of interest. At risk of sounding like do your own research; fungi/host interaction, it’s a fascinating part of arboriculture and in my opinion well worth studying. You could probably start and finish with Lynne Boddy, an absolute mass of work made really accessible.

Years ago was stopping at the Eric Byne site, went to the Robin Hood and got talking to a group up from London, one of which had his Abyssinian cat with him. Apparently it went all over the country with him, including an early morning walk up to Birchen Edge, about 10m to our left bounding through the undergrowth. It could solo quite well too.

Tom’s Field was entertaining, not least the night the right-on couple next door, who expressed every middle class hippy cliche, put the cherry on the cake by her letting the whole campsite know that he was performing at least adequately with an increasingly voluble ‘Yes, Yes’. There was a lot of childish sniggering from those who couldn’t get to sleep. Next morning they were sat outside, reading the Guardian, like nothing had happened while everyone around was very British and made pleasant conversation with them whilst avoiding eye contact.

Seems to be one of the joys of plenty of sunshine, an early crop of Blackberries. It’s not only people from cities that are disconnected from the natural world; came across a Prunus domestica cultivar with a nice crop whilst inspecting the trees of a small Oxfordshire village, one of the residents stopped me to ask what I was eating as they thought it was a Crab Apple and so inedible. Cherry Plums seem to be abundant too, probably easier to find in the urban environment.

Crataegus crus-galli Inermis is supposedly thornless, the species is commonly known as the Cockspur Thorn. In truth it is a striking small tree, the thorns are truly impressive and can be avoided when pruning if some care is exercised.

Lots of nice choices suggested so far, to add a couple you could consider Viburnum plicatum, or for a flatter inflorescence Viburnum plicatum ‘Maresii’. If you are still considering a Magnolia take a look at Magnolia stellata or Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’. Stone Pine would let you make your own pesto in a few years time though may eventually get too tall, perhaps Common Juniper would work, tough as old boots and not too fussy with respect to cultural requirements.

I would reiterate many of the points made already. The OP should take the opportunity, if it arises, to participate in EFAW+F training. Our team recently completed this, for the second time it’s value is so great, in the woods at the top of Luxulyan valley which are not that remote but are difficult to access. Not only does it highlight the value of such services, it will also teach you the correct actions if found by a rescue dog. Ours was delivered by Matt Evans for Hi-Line.

Depends what you’re cutting, hardwood or soft, felling or processing timber, how much of that 5hrs is trigger time, how often you plan to stick the 20″ bar on it and not least your budget. You won’t find a new saw that isn’t covered in plastic but what are described as professional are still made of metal where it counts. Realistically I would be looking at either a Stihl or a Husky, if only for the number of dealers to service, in the 60cc range to comfortably run an 18″ bar. At work we use MS362, 16″, and MS460, 20″, at home I use a Husky 550xp but only with a 15″ bar, and the subbies use Husky 550XP, 562XP and a 585 for larger dismantles.

The TMA app is a good bet, otherwise posting on the tree health care forum on Arbtalk may well bring a positive ident. Why and where have you spread the mulch, as you may have invited an Armillaria species in to the garden, if it wasn’t there already. As a group they are difficult to differentiate, not helped by having a highly variable morphology. The main problem is that some species, notably A. mellea, are more pathogenic than others.

1. Not taking the tent pegs for a weeks camping at Tremadog, fortunately the weather wasn’t too bad and alternative solutions were found.
2. Same trip, top of Bwlch y Moch, we decided to ab down rather than scramble, neither of us checked that the rope was round the anchor, threw the rope off the top of the cliff, fortunately it was retrievable from the trees after a bit of searching.
3. Hitched up to Chee Dale with a mate from Leicester, we had doubled up on everything apart from a belay device.
4. Went to for a fortnight to Scotland, packed two back wheels, at least I had only to buy a wheel not a wheel and a cassette.
I do sometimes wonder how climbers survive.

Are the jumps on the Wedge road still maintained?

If your friend is temporarily moving to the city, you would be surprised where you can reach in 2 – 2.5 hours, after a life time of climbing and now cycling I really miss just being able to nip up to the Peak, and Wales isn’t much further. However for local jumps or jumpy trails it might be worth talking to some of the LBS, other than that I don’t know if Leamington 4X is still rideable and the same for Bishops Tachbrook pump track.

There is some useful advice given above, some less so; there is no tree exempted from having a TPO placed on it solely by virtue of its species. With respect to the tree I suggest that you consult an arboriculturalist, however the London Tree Officers Association website has a useful resource page or if you can obtain a copy there is Mynors: The Law of Trees, Forests and Hedges. An arboriculturalist will be able to advise on the extent of any root pruning which may be undertaken and on the possibility of installing a root barrier.

Not come across much whilst riding, though why the harvester in the woods above Nevis bottom station should be more interesting than the, apparently, two kilometers of forestry machinery I subjected my partner to at the APF show a few years ago. I was involved in the enabling works for the trail built near Swan Pool in the Sandwell Valley. This wasn’t installed just for our convenience but also to help reduce antisocial behaviour, the number of inappropriately shod men who felt the need to get closer to nature was astounding. They were remarkably persistent too, our work just drove them up the hillside and you quickly learnt to be careful where you put your saw, some of the detritus was educational. At another site we found that lacy underwear make excellent chain blocking material, takes some picking out of the drive sprocket.

Assuming that the stump was left at an agreed length and is stable, reiterating many of the above comments, standing deadwood is a valuable habitat. It might be interesting to document changes to the stump over time if you do choose to leave it standing.

Congratulations on not feeding the neighbourhood cats.

Basically what Jamiemcf said, I suspect he may have been a poster on Arbtalk in the dim distant past. Planes can take some pulling over if you are felling the stick rather than chunking it down, the tree in the clip looks to have a fair bit of side lean with a bit to the back, I think you can see the bar get pinched just before it goes sideways off the stump, reckon he over-thinned the hinge and the remaining fibres tore as it started to move. At least they didn’t have to worry about stopping the traffic with that lump in the road.
If they had adhered to their method statement it would have probably specified a lane closure with lights and a sectional fell, road closure for this kind of work is unusual. Without seeing the tree with its crown on I would guess that they had been expected to have done that in half a day, not to excuse the corner cutting.

That was some felling, looks like the hinge got cut through trying to thin it enough for the lads to pull it against lean. Still can’t understand the total lack of risk control; well I can, they probably had to get another one done to make the day rate.
Anyway, back to the Sycamore, you don’t appear to be too attached to the tree and removal split three ways should max out at about £300 each. Should you decide on this route and given that Sycamore is a tough old tree and will grow anywhere you might want to carry out a basic soil analysis to help guide your replanting choice.

As it is not a hedge you cannot be forced to undertake work on the tree, however you do have a duty of care to persons using you land, invited or not and to persons using surrounding land if they may be affected by the escape of something from your property. It’s a Sycamore though and generally fairly tough, if it has tight forks it is not uncommon for those to split out. With regard to the cost, if you have straightforward access to your garden a team of competent arborists would probably charge between 300 – 500 for a reduction depending where you’re located. Beware of giving the job to anyone who turns up in a vehicle advertising lopping and topping, they could be be chancers or just experienced, if you care for the tree and want keep it ask them some questions about best practice, a heavy reduction will take more than 30% of the foliage off but they should make you aware of this and provide options, definitely avoid if they can’t tell you about BS3998. It goes without saying make sure they carry the correct insurances. Removal and replacement, if the garden is not huge you will probably have to consider stump removal, you can do this yourself but I have been to more than one stump with a dry moat around it. Soil type will have some effect on replacement selection particularly if it is at the ends of textural spectrum, pH range or shallow over chalk.

Ash Dieback is as common as they say, so much so that movement restrictions have been eased.

Enjoy your tree for as long as possible but familiarize yourself with the indicators that your tree may be infected. The tree surgeon you had round may be playing on Ash’s reputation for brittleness when dry, I may have been lucky but have never experienced this myself. Our local authority is implementing a policy of removal once 50% crown death is evident if the tree could fail onto the carriageway, this may help in deciding when to put it out of it’s misery.
It has been heartening to see so many people keen to retain their trees, it darkens the soul to repeatedly hear “I like trees but …” followed by a litany of reasons why their’s should be butchered or removed.

Congratulations, no damage to the gnome. If you prune any other branches of a similar size or smaller you could use a step cut prior to the final cut, essentially you make two cuts either side of the branch separated by a couple of inches, this depends on species and is informed by experience. With respect to the leaves, have you experienced any frosts recently? With respect to crown asymmetry as long as the root system is sound at this moment I would not be unduly worried by removing dead branches from the other tree. It is not a particularly tall tree and does not look to be exposed to high winds. It is surprising the horrendous damage which can be sustained by a tree and yet still survive. Much as I would like to, I can’t really ask you and your family to stay off the root zone but anything you can do to avoid further compaction would help both trees. You might find sectioning the larger limb a bit testing with your hand saw but if the branch has been dead for some time it may well be dry enough to behave like seasoned wood.

For those that were expressing interest in trees and arboriculture, if you have time the Arb. Association are running a series of freely accessible lectures by Andy Hirons, A.A. membership not required.

Generally the accepted thinking is to minimize the total exposed wound area, one of the reasons for several small pruning cuts than one large one but this has to be, in this instance, offset against providing fungi with a ready food reserve by leaving a stub. In this instance assuming that ultimate longevity is not a principal concern I would say that you could remove the dead branch at the position you have marked. The presence of the stub in the image may indicate that the tree has been infected by Chondrostereum purpureum, keep an eye on the foliage take note if it starts dying and has a leaden sheen. In some sense it is lucky that you are asking about this now, as pruning members of the Rosaceae family should be undertaken in the Late Spring / Summer particularly when this pathogen is suspected to be present.

Planning constraints aside, the tree is not subject to a TPO or within a Conservation Area? Could the platform float on the supports which allow movement of the primary branches. The anchors will eventually disappear from view but will ever be a potential point of failure, ongoing crown reduction to control wind loading may be necessary. As an experience climb up into the tree a little way when the wind is blowing a bit, it’s interesting to feel just how much even large diameter sections move. Maintaining the ability for this movement will encourage the tree to lay down wood, secondary thickening, for somewhere near normal growth, this would be particularly important should the tree house be removed at some later date, you don’t want the cost of cable bracing to install and maintain.
However I think it’s great that you are doing this for your kids, hopefully it will engender a sense of wonder for trees and the natural world that will last a lifetime.

As above the tree is not particularly large so depending on the equipment that you have access to I would go with a qualified yes.
The tree looks like a Judas Tree from what little foliage and flower that has flushed, it’s a shame that die back has extended this far and if it fails to show some recovery it may well be terminal. I suspect that it may be suffering from Verticillium Wilt, if you inspect the cut end of a branch the presence of dark brown to black rings are reasonably indicative. If this is confirmed you could replant with a more resistant species, Katsura has similar shaped leaves but not the flowers in the Spring, has lovely Autumn colouring though or if you have the space Liquidambar makes a wonderful tree.

Jamiemcf do you have a copy of BS 3998:2010, it has a good diagram illustrating the position of final pruning cuts, particularly where the neither the collar nor the branch bark ridge are well defined. I think this would be useful for Northwind as I assume he’s not familiar with these features. Most of the diagrams on the net show clear ridges and collars not present on the images of Northwind’s tree. Not entirely sure about flagrantly breaching BSi’s copyright and I am a little too far to let him have sight of my copy.

Vicki Bengtsson delivered an interesting lecture at last years Amenity Arb. Conference. It covered many more techniques than coronet cutting and natural fracture pruning, if you haven’t yet visited Killerton House there is nice example of some them used on a veteranised Oak in the park. Had the experience of being guided round the estate at an ATF event with Ted Green, interesting.

Might be tricky to produce an effective coronet cut in this instance as the facility to plunge cut would not be available without a chainsaw, but working from the ground perseverance and wood chisels augmenting the handsaw could work.

There doesn’t appear to be dead bark beneath the union but if you give it a tap, preferably with a soft faced hammer, it will sound flat or hollow depending on how detached it has become.

Now to the nitty gritty, I assume that you intend to remove the large diameter branch and not the small one that looks to be about 60mm diameter. If this is so I strongly recommend finding someone with a chainsaw and the competence to use it, failing that obtain something like a Silky, make sure that you are not alone, attach a rope a reasonable distance up the branch, double check that the branch is in no way hung up, cut a gob with at least a 90 deg. opening and with a depth about 1/3 the diameter of the branch, the plan is for the branch to remain attached to the tree until the tips are resting on the ground you don’t want to put the butt through the fence, the apex should be clean with no bypass. For the direction have a good look at the shape formed by the branch tips the hinge you are going to form needs to allow for this shape to cleanly exit from the rest of the tree and also not damage anything on its way down. You can now start the back cut, this needs to be level with and parallel to the apex of the gob, bring the back cut up to form a hinge with thickness about 1/10 the diameter of the branch. Now assuming it hasn’t barber chaired on you get out of the way and use the rope to pull the branch over. Congratulate yourself on a job well done and get the brash monkeys to clean up the mess you’ve just made. Tidy up the stub and have a mug of tea.

Count Zero is correct about avoiding a build up of material close to the trunk, best practice according to BS 8545. Let me know if you can get a straight answer regarding the optimal way to construct a habitat pile or even if there is one.

Do you have access to a pole saw and long reach loppers? Looking at the tangled mess if you just severed the dead branch experience says that it would probably just sit there. As for removing it. well standing deadwood is one of the rarer habitats, it depends on the cause of death. Is there a strip of dead bark beneath the union? It would also be wise to do something about the brash at the base of the trees. Is the Collared Dove roosting or looking to nest? The gnome might need moving, it’s a bit of a target.

Are you proposing to keep them in a pot or planter?
If you have space or can find space, preferably not guerilla gardening, they will do much better planted out. Bear in mind that should they survive weakening by leaf blotch and leaf miner and attack by bleeding canker they could go on to be majestic.
At the moment just ensure that they have sufficient room for root growth without girdling, perhaps about 15 litres, keep them watered if there is low rainfall. If you can find a copy of BS8545 a good guide to industry best practice. Arbtalk could be worth a visit, just beware the reactionary nature of the place.

It is an Ash, unfortunately seem to come across a fair few with included unions, the evidence of which is clear at the top of the wound and from the appearance of the union to the right of the dominant leader.
Assuming that it is not subject to any planning constraints, the question you need to answer is ‘How much does this tree mean to me.’ As has been stated any work on it other than removal will be ongoing unless Ash Die Back gets it first. The wound itself will require monitoring though this can largely be undertaken by yourself to note any significant changes. Replanting with a suitable species will also require maintenance if you want it to survive and perform to its best.
Is there evidence of a natural brace still supporting the union, see the work of Duncan Slater, as this may affect the work specified?
From the images and on the presumption of retention, an up to 2m reduction would probably be recommended.
Arbtalk has a forum where householders can seek advice.

If ultimate size is less of a concern you could also consider Liquidambar styraciflua, generally regarded for Autumn colour, tolerates dry conditions. A couple Acer sp. worth considering are A. davidii and A. capillipes, interest across more than one season, tend not to grow too tall. Used to have a Paulowonia tormentosa, interesting foliage and will produce flowers as it matures, in the front garden of a house in Coventry, this does/did really well. Which brings up another point to consider, given the indicated planting locations you may at some time be required by the L.A. to maintain clearance over the footpath and/or highway.

Used to climb for Beechwood Trees and Landscapes, based not too far from Coombe. They were selling seasoned firewood when I worked there.