Imagine you have a fruit tree in your garden that produces the most delicious apples year after year. Wouldn't it be brilliant if you could make more trees exactly like it? That's what vegetative propagation allows you to do, and it's the reason commercial orchards can produce consistent crops season after season. Why vegetative propagation […]
Veteran Oak deadwood
9th June 2021
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This week Thor's Trees were commissioned the much trusted task of deadwooding a highly valued veteran Oak tree in St Stephen's Church grounds on Village Road, EN1.
It was suggested by Enfield council that some of the ‘dead’ limbs were shortened to reduce weight and lever action in order to reduce the risk of public harm from dead branches falling over the highway/pavement below. The tree only required some minor tree work and none of the live growth was to be removed.
Technically this work (removal of deadwood) is exempt from having to submit a formal application for tree works to a TPO'd tree. However, given that this tree is a highly valuable and significant veteran tree it was suggest that we submitted to Enfield's LPA a detailed specification of works with annotated photos showing the extent of pruning that was to be carried out. We were also instructed to carry out a Bat survey on the tree, as Enfield have a small growing bat population. Following the submission of all required documentation, we were given permission to carry out the proposed works.
All works proposed was to be kept to the the very minimum, which meant that climbing this tree was going to be a little tricky, due to the fragile state the tree was in. It was important that because this is a valuable veteran Oak tree, any pruning works was to not be to the trees detriment of health. Thor's Trees chose the method of using a Mobile Elevated Work Platform (MEWP) to carry out the pruning works, removing branches in small pieces and without the use of rigging/lowering equipment to minimise any damages that may be incurred from load bearing tree structure as it currently stands.
It was important that the branch removal works was to be kept to an absolute minimum and live growth was not to be touched as all live growth, should the Oak tree decline further, will eventually form part of a new established crown. All works were to comply with BS3998:2010 tree work recommendations.
The pruning works was completed to a success and the Oak tree, now coming into leaf, is looking great!!..
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To find out more about tree maintenance and surveys, call us on 0208 292 8992. We’re always happy to pop round or to help with a little advice.
