Today was a day of mixed emotions, as we had to take down the big sycamore tree that stands over our stables. The recent high winds tore one side of the tree off, revealing really significant rot in the centre of the tree at its base. Often this isn’t a worry, if there is solid material around the outside of the trunk, but in this case, the solid wood didn’t make it all the way round, with the result that a very sizeable tree was being kept up by a partial ring of 2-4″ thickness. We couldn’t risk the now weakened tree coming down through the middle of the stables, and on to an 11kv power line, so decided to pollard it heavily, keep it alive, and see what new growth it puts out come the spring.
It has been cut back heavily at some stage in its 200 year life, and this will hopefully enable it to see out another 100 if we are lucky. Chris the tree surgeon is highly experienced, and he is pictured above, climbing up to begin taking the top of the tree out. Before long, huge sections of tree were being lowered. We captured the job on camera and here is a time-lapse video of the process.
Sycamore no more from Lackan Cottage Farm on Vimeo.
