The oak tree next to the road in Kettins has got a reprieve, although it will be having some major surgery. We had an electronic test done - basically like a sonar for trees - to check the density of the trunk. We knew there was some significant rot in there, because of the presence of 'chicken of the woods' fungus - the rather decorative fruit of this is shown below.
We'd read online that it is considered a delicacy, but we were still a bit surprised to find someone had cut it all off a few weeks ago!
The tips of many branches are dead and leafless, and there's a lot of dead timber up there which will have to come down. We are then allowed to have a 30% crown reduction, which will give the tree more wind resistance. There is a Tree Preservation Order on it, so it has all had to be done properly through the council.
Our tree surgeon did the test. There are 12 points on the tree and 12 nails. Basically it is an ultrasound test for trees.
A computer image showing the outline of the trunk is created first.
There's more info here. Once the outline is mapped, the readings can be taken, by tapping each nail in the tree in turn.
This is the image of our tree. The blue part shows the worst decay. So it isn't as bad as it could have been. The bad news is that the fungus will progress, so eventually it will kill the tree, but that could be a few decades off.
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