Dreaded Dutch Elm.

[tiderus]

Greeting all, I moved into our present house some 35 summers ago, and had a few large Elm trees.

After a couple of years they had the dreaded Dutch elm disease.

The trees were dying from the top, so I called in the forestry commission.

They confirmed what I suspected, and advised me to take every other one out, and replace it with a different type.

This way we would still have some now, and remove the other later when these have grown a bit.

I never did follow their advise, but let them go.

One by one they died off, and I still left them.

One day i was seeing a friend off through the front door. when we heard a cracking sound.

As there was some wind it was comming over.

We realised straight away what was happening so we shot outside.

Grabed some scaffolding poles, and quickly braced the tree up.

Just in time as my boat and two cars were underneath. this gave me enought time to move them all, and we let it go.

I found out later that after five years the roots rot, and over they come.

To get to the point of this post, I couldn't bring myself to cut the last couple down.

Then after another couple of years they too got the disease.

For the next couple of years the large one slowly died from the top down.

Them strangley it began to re-grow, and also dozens of small ones also appeared around it.

As the forestry guy said they had spent two grand a tree,

to try and save the ones on Porthmadoc high street, and he thought mine were the last in the county.

So I contacted quite a few commision etc, on the net, to see what they thought. As they may have become imune to the disease.

As i had quite a few shooters all around. Some were 12 feet high, and they were definately Elm trees.

I had varying replies from we have finnished that project now, and don't want to know.

To a letter from a lady reminding me that it was illegal to remove any kind of tree from my garden?

So much for trying to be of help. ( Me and the dog love trees).

Am I on my own, or do others feel this way about out tree heritage.

Must go now as Roland has his teddy and he's tucked up in bed,

me next.

Rgd's Graham.

 

[Teffy]

What a beautiful photo! Sweet little thing.
Sorry to hear about your trees, it's really sad when a tree has to come down. I foolishly planted a eucalyptus at the end of my little garden, not realising how huge they grow. It was a gorgeous tree, it grew pretty fluffy white flowers but no koala bears! Eventually we had to have it cut down, then three new trunks grew from the stump. I thought that was good because they were a lot smaller but unfortunately they were weak and blew down in a gale. The tree man who came to take them out said that when they grow from the stump like that they don't have proper roots to hold them up. So I had to get him to kill the stump, as it was too large and inaccessible to get it out.

 

[ricc]

im no tree expert but there were a lot of elms arround here before dutch elm , all the big ones have gone but i m sure ive seen little ones growing again from the roots... trouble is the farmersnow tend ton keep their hedges topped so trees dont get time to develope.
logically if the dutch elm beetle killed all the elms it wouldnt have anywhere to live in the future? so youd expect some sort of balence .with new growth. in my limited experience most tree roots will shoot again if the top is removed

 

[Kath]

We have an Elm tree that over hangs our drive. It drops it's leaves and sap all over the motorhome. It is a large tree with a Council TPO on it, so cant touch it, it's a real pain in the ar... If anyone knows where we can get some of the Dutch elm tree bugs from, please let us know.
Kath

 

[ricc]

first thing is use google to find out what a tpo prevents and what can be done...you can bet the council tree huggers wont tell you what you can do.

then time for lateral thinking... if cats, rabbits, deer , bears or whatever managed to scratch the bark off in a complete ring round the trunk at ground level it would probably kill the tree then you can say its dangerous and needs removing.

 

[Kath]

first thing is use google to find out what a tpo prevents and what can be done...you can bet the council tree huggers wont tell you what you can do.

then time for lateral thinking... if cats, rabbits, deer , bears or whatever managed to scratch the bark off in a complete ring round the trunk at ground level it would probably kill the tree then you can say its dangerous and needs removing.

Ricc,
believe me when I say Rochdale MBC love trees more than they do the homeless children that reside in the area (re: recent child abuse/grooming rochdale, Asian gangs, jail time, etc)
We had the RMBC guy round the other day, can't even cut a branch off without planning permission (£20,000 fine) and if that is granted the work has to be done by professional/registered tree surgeon.
Oh, and by the way, haven't seen any deer or bears round these parts for ages
Kath

 

[n brown]

there's a place called perfect view in bath but the view was completely blocked by rubbish but protected trees. suddenly they weren't there ! seems a lumberjack relative of one of the houseowners came over from canada for the weekend,and had a bit of a tidy up to please his hosts as a surprise !they were very shocked and apologetic of course,but alas the damage was done.poor old trees were down,the lumberjack back where he belonged and the view was back.there was a rumour that the lumberjack never existed,but of course this was nonsense,though how he got his chainsaw through customs is a bit of a poser

 

[sasquatch]

Trees in the wrong place are no better than weeds in fact sycamore saplings are called gardeners weeds. I do wonder where these so called conservation officers are trained. I used to live in a conservation area and there was a house with Leylandi which were becoming enormous, but the TPO said they couldn't be cut as they were in a conservation area. When it was pointed out that the roots were in danger of undermining the footings of a Victorian villa,it tok a short while but eventually success. The tripe he came out with apart from the conservation aspect,was if bats were in the trees or birds were nesting in them,like I said at the start where are they taught.

 

[ricc]

The Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation)(England) Regulations 2012

ive only had a quick read through.... but dead trees can be removed...any drains or wires near the tree is a reason for pruning, i cant see anywhere that it says you have to employ a tree surgeon to do the work. the 5 day notice to the council might be a problem ..but if you post a letter stating the tree is dead with insufficient postage... or the stamp fell off it should get returned to you in about a month. ie two weeks after youve removed the tree... or just keep a copy of the letter.... pity the one you posted got lost. after the tree is cut down and removed they cant prove it wasnt dead.... remember council dont work on the weekend,

 

[Deleted member 2636]

Elm will regrow from the roots and push up shoots and that's what you're seeing. They will even start to become trees again until they reach about 20ft in height. Then they seem to become suseptable to the beetle that causes the damage and the cycle repeats itself