Trying To Preserve Our Old Oak Trees

On our little 5 acre patch we've got nine large oak trees. Four of these are huge and none have had any work done to them in a long time.

The large branch on the left is the one with a split right up the middle

Separating two of our fields are three of the biggest oaks which are quite beautiful. The middle of these has a long branch that is split right down the middle, the branch itself is the size of a tree and I was worried that if it breaks it might rip a big section of the trunk out with it.



Roping in

 So I called an the expert. My expert! It's quite handy having a brother who is a fully trained tree surgeon. He decided that I was right and the branch needed some work on it but to remove the whole thing would make the tree unbalanced, So instead he removed the last 25ft or so.


Spot the brother

I'm under no illusions here, although I'm fine with heights, there is no way you could get me up there wielding a chainsaw!

An April morning up a tree

A much lighter branch a few weeks on

 He did a really good job and having the weight removed from the branch seems to have made it much better. Hopefully now when it's in full leaf it won't catch the wind the same and it should last a few more years!

Some firewood into the bargain

All I've got to do now is burn the brash and split the firewood! If we can do a little bit of work like this every year then we should make these old oaks last a lot longer and provide the material for keeping us warm over winter!