Chainsaw Choices

Professional chainsaw users know just how dangerous these valuable tools can be. Unfortunately too many professionals have learned the hard way that any time you are close to a chainsaw you are at risk of injury. The typical chainsaw combines the brute strength of 3 horses with seventy five razor sharp knives. All this dangerous potential is literally in your hands when you pick up a chainsaw. Before you pick up a chainsaw you should make sure you have the right saw for the job.

First if your chainsaw is older it may lack any of the modern safety features like inertia chain breaks, hand guards and a host of other improvements. Drain the fuel and oil and donate it to your local museum. NEVER use older style chainsaws.

Home owner saws that you buy from the local mega mart may no meet the strict safety standards required by professional users. Why should you put yourself at risk?

A common and potentially deadly event when using a chainsaw is kickback, Kickback occurs when the upper portion of the tip of the chainsaw comes in contact with an object. The teeth on the tip of the bar stop abruptly and direct all of their energy back into the chainsaw. This results in it rapidly and uncontrollably spinning in an upward arc towards the user. Modern chainsaws have safety features like inertia chain breaks, to reduce the chance of injury from kickback.

Professional chainsaws come in two basic styles and a myriad of sizes. Saws are broken down into top handle and rear handle styles. As the name suggests top handle saws have the rear handle moved to the top of the saw to allow easier range of motion while climbing in the tree with the saw. If you are not climbing in the tree do not use this saw.
Even if you have come down from the tree, switch to a rear handle saw to cut up branches on the ground.

Rear handle saws, with their trigger handle in a much safer position at the rear of the saw, direct kick back energy up and away from the user. When kick back occurs a top handle saw will rotate your wrist and hit you in the head or chest. The operative work is WHEN kick back occurs, not IF.

The largest chainsaw available may be good for your ego but it will not be good for your safety in the long run. A small to mid sized professional chainsaw will provide years of trouble free safer operation. If you really think about what you are cutting a small sharp chainsaw with a 15 to 17 inch bar will do 99% of your work. Typically these saws are in the 50 to 60cc size range. Most users should not use a top handle saw.

A chainsaw safety training class should be mandatory for chainsaw purchase. I doubt it ever will be mandatory for the home owner. Industry has been forced to provide training through legislation and increasing workers compensation costs. If you use a chainsaw you should make it your mission to get at least the basic safety training. Your life literally depends upon it.

For What it's Worth

Trees have inherent value because of the useful goods and services they provide. A stack of 2x4's fours ready to turn into a new family room or that storage area you have been wanting can be taken to the till and paid for at your local lumber mart. Calculating the value of that lumber is easy! Calculating the value of a living tree is much trickier.

When you move to the services trees provide, shelter, shade, erosion control, wind, noise and pollution reduction these too can be calculated. Formulas have been developed over time to calculate these values per tree or for whole forests.

What happens when you wake up one morning and the construction crew working on the house next door is in the process of chipping up your favorite tree? Unfortunately these kinds of situations do occur and all to often they end up in litigation.

Fortunately there are arborists who specialize in this kind of tree valuation. These consulting arborists regularly deal with situations on landscapes that require accurate and verifiable appraisals of trees and groups of trees. Just as you would go to a specialist if you had a serious

medical condition, you would be well advised to go to a reputable consulting arborist if you ever find yourself in a potential legal situation involving trees.

The basic premise in calculating the value of a tree is that in most cases the landscape contributes 10% to 15% to the total value of your property. In special cases this may be slightly more or slightly less. It is not enough to take ten percent of value of your property and divide that by the number of trees and come up with a value for one tree. Doing this does not take into consideration a number of factors that effect tree value.

Consulting arborists use several formulas that allow for an accurate assessment of the value of a tree or trees. The arborist typically uses the value of the largest readily available replacement tree of the same species to start their evaluation. Next the diameter of this replacement tree and its value is used to extrapolate the value of the existing tree. Working from a chart of tree values, determined by groups of experts, a species percentage is assigned to each tree. Typically an oak will have a value of 100%. This is partly related to its value and longevity in the landscape and possibly the fact that even in colonial times oaks were highly valued. Oaks were considered the property of the king. A less desirable tree, like a box elder may only get a species rating of 50%. Trees are given species percentage values based on their attributes and loose percentage points if they have inherent problems that detract from their value in the landscape. Messy fruit, excessive branch drop, short lifespan, predisposition to rot or failure are all value detractors. Location on the landscape is then used as a weighting factor to further refine the value of the tree. The condition of the tree is then included in the calculation to take into account the physical shape and health of the tree. After a few more calculations a number is arrived at for the value of that tree. This value must than be proofed against the value of the home and the overall value of the landscape. This process continues until the consulting arborist is certain that he has a figure that will stand up in court if necessary.

If you have followed this article to this point it will be apparent that a certain degree of specialization is necessary to perform these valuations. Most arborists are able to refer you to a qualified consulting arborist if you ever have the misfortune to be in need of their services. In the end the value you put on your trees may be very personal and relate to moments in your life enjoyed under them.

How Trees React to Pruning

Trees are alive. This may come as a shock that I would have to make this statement but I think that many people forget this simple fact. Trees are made of living tissue, the wood we use to make our houses and furniture is quite simply, dead. You can carve wood, you can shape it and construct it into many useful things.

Trees on the other hand can be shaped, pruned but in some cases people carve them up like holiday hams.

The tree, being alive, reacts to these injuries in many different ways. Trees do not repair damaged tissue, they wall it off and grow around it. Like the unlucky crew members of a sinking ship caught behind the watertight doors, all the living tissues beyond the trees protective barrier are left to die. If the barrier is breached by disease or further injury the tree expends its dwindling energy to erect a new barrier. If the injury is severe the tree might not be able to recover and may just die.

Trees respond to pruning in a variety of ways. The first thing that happens is the tree has to wall off the injury location. It does this by... you guessed it erecting an impenetrable barrier to exclude the damaged tissue from the living undamaged tree. The tissues around the injury are stimulated to grow over the wound and replace missing branches with more living branches.

Pruning branches that died off for any number of reasons will generally not produce sprouts or water shoots. If while removing the dead branch you cut into the callus layer that has formed where the dead branch is still attached to the tree you will re injure the tree and likely initiate the development of new sprouts. On some trees simply nicking the bark will initiate a sprout to form. Savvy apple growers have used this to reshape crowns and initiate locations to graft onto.

Trees have evolved these responses over time as a way of making sure that when the tree is injured it will be able to form new branches and continue capturing sunlight, turning energy into sugar and ultimately new tree tissue.

So what can you do to prevent trees from developing waterspouts or suckers after pruning?

Avoid pruning to much from the crown. Twenty years ago 30% was the maximum amount you were recommended to prune your tree with out gravely injuring it. Today this has been reduced to twenty to twenty five percent. This amount is probably excessive. Prune the absolute minimum amount to archive your goals. Yes you must have a clearly defined goal before you start pruning.

If the goal is to frame a view, remove the minimum number of branches necessary to do this.

Too often homeowners will ask for additional pruning to be performed to get extra value. The logic is as follows, “ This pruning is costing me a bundle, I want a pound of flesh!”. Ultimately the tree responds by sending out growth in exactly the spot you didn't want it to. Thin the waterspouts out on the trunk rather than removing them completely. The remaining sprouts will suppress other sprouts from initiating. Use sprouts that are growing in the right direction to fill in thin or damaged areas of the crown.

When you are pruning to remove dead wood use caution to not cut into the callus layer that has formed around tree branches. Time your pruning to limit the amount of new sprout growth.

Most trees will sprout profusely if they are pruned late in the winter or early in the spring. The injury of pruning at this time mimics winter injury and is certain to result in lush bushy sprouts popping up through out the crown and where branches were removed. For more information on modern methods of pruning contact your certified arborist.

Pruning Article Reponse

We have a winner! A few months back I offered a professional pruning multi tool to one reader who sent in a tree pruning question or picture. See the original post here. The randomly selected winer from the many great questions and pictures we received is Mr. Dave P.

The question distilled to its essence is as follows; If you cut down a stand of aspen, Populus tremuloides, there is a technique of damaging the resulting suckers that will eventually prevent the suckers and kill the tree. Is this technique a valid way to prevent regeneration of the aspen or just a tall tale? Dave goes on to describe the method proposed.

Anyone who has removed aspen from their property or seen areas where aspen was harvested in the wild knows that they respond to sever pruning, cutting them down by sprouting hundreds of new shoots. These rapidly growing shoots will choke out the commercially more desirable species like spruce and pine. Typically these shoots are controlled by treating them with chemicals or by cutting them down. The technique Dave describes allows letting the shoot grow to several feet high and then cutting them partially through with a clearing ax , (pic above) at the base of the stem. You must only cut though enough to sever part of the stem and still leave enough to allow the tree to stand up right. Over time these damaged shoots will stop growing and eventually rot and break off at the injury. While they are slowly dying they will prevent the roots from sending up new sprouts and deplete the roots of energy resources.

While I spend most of my days trying to save trees the principles of botany that regulate pruning response could also be used to prevent a tree from re sprouting. Aspens are arguably the oldest living trees although their above ground parts don't last all that long. Aspen roots are know to live thousands of years. When aspens are injured by storms, harvesting, or by browsing the chemicals released by the buds and growing shoots to prevent sprouting and suckering are no longer present. The roots are then free to send up a tremendous flush of new sprouts. This continues until the new shoots are able to generate enough suppressing chemicals to prevent further initiation of shoots.

If you were to partially sever the phloem on the outside of the stem a small portion of the inhibiting chemical would still pass down to the roots and prevent further suckering. Also photosynthate would not travel down to the roots from where it is produced in the leaves. The roots would continue to provide water and nutrients from their stores transporting it upwards in the intact xylem. The roots would slowly starve to death. In the mean time the stems would begin to rot at the site of the injury and would eventually fall over and die as well. It is completely possible that this will work. The mechanisms of the plant regulators are more complicated than this but in this case this simple explanation will work.

I have seen trees with stems girdled by rodents leave out and look fine for a year or two and then just die once their stored energy was depleted. Dave, I hope you enjoy your multi tool. It may be small but you could use it to test this hypothesis! Good luck and thank you all for your questions.

Be Strong, Watch for the Signs

This time of year we have an unparalleled opportunity to look into our trees future.

Like fortune tellers you can use your powers of observation to predict the future health of your trees and shrubs. Most trees and shrubs lose their leaves at this time of year. Even evergreens lose some leaves at certain times of the year. When and how much of their foliage is lost can give you a window on the future when it comes to the plants health.

Deciduous trees loose their leaves in a set order governed by day length, genetics and most importantly tree health. Ash trees typically lose their leaves sooner than oak trees or most maples. Within a group of trees of the same species individuals will loose their leaves at approximately the same time. Trees that loose their leaves sooner than their kin may be under stress. Insects, disease and drought can cause trees to loose their leaves prematurely. If you take the time to watch your trees at this time you may be able to identify individuals that are at risk and take action.

Birch trees that loose their leaves prematurely may have birch borers and there may still be time to treat them before next spring. Elm trees that loose their leaves prematurely may have late season infections of Dutch Elm Disease and can still be tested to see if they should be removed. Maples that are infected with verticilium wilt may have been struggling all summer and heat, combined with late season drought may have pushed your tree over the edge.

The process of losing leaves takes energy. Trees must form abscission layers at the base of the petiole, where each leaf stem meets the tree. If the tree is to weak or too diseased to form this layer it will not drop its leaves, they will simply wilt and hang on the tree. This symptom called flagging, is usually a sign that the tree has expired.

In nature there is a lot of variation between individuals of the same species and even more variation between different species. A good example of this is how some white oak species will retain a significant portion of their leaves right through winter. For white oaks this means very little. If your elm tree did the same it may have Dutch Elm Disease.

Occasionally you will have an early frost and trees will lose their leaves quite suddenly resulting in many still being left on the trees. Not to worry this is just an unusual occurrence and most trees are close to losing their leaves any way and will do so shortly even if the leaves have been frosted.

If summer continues and the first frost is a few weeks or even a month late, the trees will lose their leaves before the first frost. The wheels of change are moving as we approach winter. Take this brief opportunity to look into the future and see how healthy your trees will be next year. You may still be able to help your stressed tree get onto the road to recovery. If you are unsure of your trees health status contact your certified arborist.

Tool Time

The old adage “ the right time to prune is when the saw is sharp” probably doesn't tell the whole story, but pruning with dull tools is always a disaster. The bests results come from professional-quality tools that are in good condition. Most professionals use hand bypass pruners and pole pruners day in and day out.

These can be expensive but after purchasing and being dissatisfied with several home use items I decided to purchase the pro tools and still have them after 10 years.

Pruning tools come in two basic types bypass and anvil style. Purchase only the bypass type. Anvil pruners bring a sharp blade down onto an anvil that results in a messy cut and injures your shrub. I recommend bypass pruners exclusively.

Bypass pruners work like scissors with two sharp blades opposite each other passing each other to making a clean cut. For cuts up to ½ inch in diameter a pair of sharp hand pruners work best. Bypass loppers are over sized hand pruners that will cut branches up to 2 inches in diameter.

Bypass pole pruners use the jaws of a lopper with a lever mechanism to get a mechanical advantage with out having the long handles of a lopper. This combined with the ability to insert pole sections giving you almost unlimited height makes for a very useful tool. A bypass pole pruner will work on overhead branches between ½ an inch and 1 inch. They also can be used for cutting low branches without bending over. For most homeowners 3 small 4 ft poles will be enough for shrub pruning. They are easier to fit in the trunk of your car as well. Interchangeable saw heads can be attached for tall branches.

Most pole saw heads also have a sturdy cast hook on the rear side opposite of the blade, this is used for breaking off small dead branches. You may have heard the phrase “ by hook or by crook”, this hook is the root of that statement. If you didn't have the king's permission to gather the twigs for your fire, you would fall into the later part of the quote. Another hint at the antiquity of this tool is the ring and spring arrangement that was used to secure a brush form the dark ages when all pruning cuts were to be painted over with tar. Still capable of multi tasking today the saw head can removed and used as a hand saw to cut branches larger than one inch that won't fit into your pole pruner. Professional pole saw blades are readily available and will fit wooden hand saw handles as well. Good tools will literally last you a life time so take the time to ask questions and get professional grade. If you have a pruning question or a great picture of your ancient pruning tools send them in! One question or picture will be selected at random over the next three months to receive the professional pruning multi-tool pictured at the top of this article! Send your questions and pictures from the link on the right tool bar.

Tipping the Scales

Photo: K Ashton, Lecanium scale

Your plants are having the life sucked out of them, literally!

Trees and shrubs are little more than sugar factories and there is no shortage of freeloaders that want a part of this sweet treasure.

In this case the culprit isn't some vegan vampire it may be a scale, a simple insect with a big appetite.

Scales are small insects that have evolved a protective waxy coating that protects them from the elements and predators. This waxy coating, or scale, is the source of the insects name and its secret weapon. The scale often resembles a twig, bud or the bark of its host, making it difficult to identify and confusing it's predators.

The insect spends most of its life immobile, sitting under its armor, quietly sipping sap with its mouth, firmly attached to it's host. As it grows it sheds its skin which becomes part of its protective coating. At a certain point in the year it lays eggs that develop into crawlers. These small exposed crawlers are so small that they escape predators can even blow on the wind to new host plants. Once they find a suitably delicious host they insert their mouth piece into the plumbing of the host and start their high carb diet. Some of the sap goes through the scale and drips onto the foliage or branches of the plant and leaves a stick black mess. There is still lots of energy in this mess and it is attacked by a sooty colored mold.

This black sticky film on the leaves of a plant, your patio furniture, or the paint on your car is often the first sign of a scale problem.

Scales come in two categories depending on the thickness of their waxy coating. Thickly covered scales, often looking like oyster shells under the microscope, are called armored scales. Less robustly covered scales are referred to as unarmored or soft scales. Typically the soft scales are covered in a waxy or fluffy protective coating that is thinner that their armored kin. Scales tend to be very host specific each one favoring a particular species or group of plants over all others.

Two common scales in the landscape are an armored scale on spruce and a soft scale on arborvitae. Pine needle scale, Chionaspis pinifoliae is an armored scale that prefers conifers to dine on. Spruce, pine, hemlock, yew and hemlock are all affected by this scale. This scale looks like tiny grains of white rice stuck to the trees needles.Predators will keep low levels of these in check but occasionally, in our landscapes they will reach numbers that require control. There are a number of products that can be used to control these but they all are best applied when the crawlers are active. This occurs in late June to mid July. It will take several years to get adequate control.

Arborvitae, cedars, are afflicted by a soft scale called Lecanium scale, Lecanium corni. This scale has evolved to look like a small shiny bud on the stem of the tree.

Lecanium scale's crawler stage is in mid July and applications timed to hit them while they are vulnerable are most successful. If your car is covered in sticky black sugar or if find something that looks unusual on your trees contact your Arborist. They will be able to tell if that lump on the branch is a scale and recommend a plan to thwart it's sweet tooth.