LIFE AND LIMB
Newcastle Herald
Saturday March 26, 2011
The spotted gum that is king of our backyard exudes grandeur and serenity when it is not harbouring silly possums or raucous cockatoos.I gaze at it in wonderment from the juliet balcony and marvel at the solidity of its trunk and its limbs' many intriguing twists and turns.But it was with a degree of panic that I peered out at it one recent afternoon when the wind was up to no good.We had only just moved the chooks back down the back after the beehive was sent to Siberia and the girls were finally showing signs of a fightback.So the cracked limb of the giant eucalypt, taunting them with its gnarled fingers in the full-force gale like it was auditioning for a part in a Tim Burton animation, sent chills down my spine.The said limb, and other dead branches on the opposing side of the chunk of trunk, hover several storeys above the coop.I was on the phone to an arborist post-haste. Bill Anderson of Hunter Tree Services, whose card promises "the safe alternative", was the man for the job.The first thing Bill did was show me his proof of insurance for workers compensation (with specific mention of tree work) and public liability.He says when you get a quote it is essential you ask for these two things. It is dangerous work, and you don't want to end up being sued if someone gets injured or forking out big money for property damage.Bill earmarked branches to be removed, and checked out a neighbour's equally intimidating eucalyptus with a dead branch that looms large on the western front.I asked Bill what causes tree damage."The condition of a tree generally depends on how its root system has been affected. It's not good to cut roots or cover them with concrete or tar," he says."And it's bad to lop any tree. If you've got a tree that's 40 metres high and you cut it back to 20 metres, you'll have epicormic growth that's weakly attached and can fail and come off in high winds."The wound won't seal where a tree has been lopped but if you remove offending limbs at the branch collar they will."Limbs die for a number of reasons. Mistletoe is a chief culprit and cockatoos can wreak havoc, too. They get into the fork of the tree and dig the bark away for grubs. The bark acts as a protective covering - if that is removed, water gets in and decay happens."You see this a lot in liquidambars," Bill says. "They're very easy to chew."And what about trees being uprooted?Bill can stormproof a tree by thinning the canopy to reduce the amount of drag by high winds, adding that trees blow over because people damage the root systems by digging trenches nearby, for example.Lightning is another killer. Bill says it's much safer and more economical to take a dead tree down sooner rather than later, when the increasing risks mean abseiling will no longer be an option and heavy machinery will have to be brought in at greater expense.The work at our place will take about five hours and it's not cheap, around $1000, but Bill reckons you get what you pay for in a job where experience and safety are paramount. Bill turns the sawn-off branches into mulch and takes it or leaves it depending on the owner's wishes.
© 2011 Newcastle Herald
