Survey of Parkland Trees After the Great Storm of October 16, 1987

Decay development in living sapwood of coniferous and deciduous trees inoculated with six wood decay fungi

“…into the sapwood formed after wounding, was used as a distinguishing feature for defining strongly invasive wood decay fungi, as observed for K. deusta and T. versicolor in beech and sycamore. In this respect, other studies considered the wide host range of K. deusta as an indicator for its behavior as a facultative parasite (Wilkins, 1934(Wilkins, , 1936(Wilkins, , 1939Campbell and Davidson, 1940;Ko et al, 1977Ko et al, , 1982Prljincevic, 1982;Greig, 1989;Gibbs and Greig, 1990). Nevertheless, this finding contrasts with previous studies which documented the absence of discoloration or decay in the wood formed after wounding (Shain, 1967;Shigo, 1965Shigo, , 1972Shigo and Sharon, 1968;Sharon, 1973;Pearce, 1982;Wilkes, 1985;White and Kile, 1993;Torelli et al, 1994).…”

“…Whilst it is now clear that this is a considerable oversimplification (Pearce, 1996), it remains true that in high forest and amenity trees heart rots are still a major cause of economic loss and deterioration rendering trees hazardous (Schwarze et al, 2004). In this regard, although heart rots are usually known as weakly invasive, under natural conditions and in the sapwood of some standing trees they were found to behave as strongly invasive (Wilkins, 1934(Wilkins, , 1936(Wilkins, , 1939Prljincevic, 1982;Gibbs and Greig, 1990;Schwarze and Baum, 2000;Baum and Schwarze, 2002), thereby posing a serious hazard to trees.…”

“…tree age, tree growth, wood anatomy, and heartwood durability, if formed) (Pearce, 1996;Lonsdale, 2004) and environmental factors (soil quality, water and nutrients availability, pollution, etc.) (Gibbs and Greig, 1990;Gregg et al, 2003) are known to affect tree vigor and tree response to fungal infection.…”

A Discussion of the Failure of Weak Forks

“…A DISCUSSION OF THE FAILURE OF WEAK FORKS Rodney Helliwell* As reported by GIBBS ( 1990) in a survey of parkland trees after the Great storm in southern England in October 1987, one of the most common types of failure of trees is due to weak forks or weak branch junctions.…”

Determination of Strain Patterns Across the Root-Stem Transition Zone in Trees

“…Predisposing factors can also increase the likelihood of tree failure during wind events even under mild wind and weather conditions (Kane 2004, Smiley 2014). These factors can include prior root damage from wind (James et al 2013a), unstable soil conditions and compromised soil properties (Gibbs andGreig 1990, Genet et al 2005), intrusion of the rooting zone resulting from construction (Moore 2014, Smiley 2014, forest stand thinning for silvicultural management (Krause et al 2014), improper planting (Genet et al 2005), poor arboricultural practices, and the mechanical properties of individual tree species (Neild and Wood 1999). There is a lack of empirical data on tree stability and one goal of this research is to improve the evaluation of the likelihood of failure so that we can better manage amenity trees, rather than simply erring on the side of caution by removing such trees.…”