Re: Re: Fundamental Arborcultural Assumptions
106160.3417@compuserve.com
Fri, 9 Aug 1996 18:08:18 -0500
If silver maple in the US displays the same inherant structural defects as
it does (almost every union is acute with included bark) in the UK it is of
no suprise that the neighbous trees had a greater rate of failure than the
recently pruned trees of your client. You may be familiar with the respose
to thinning which is common not only in silver maple but in many other species,
that of prolific epicormic sprouts within the crown. This is not the only
response to crown thining and for that matter other forms of pruning.
Increased extension of apical shoots often results from such pruning, this in
turn produces extension of the lever arm, thus greater forces acting upon the
branch union. With regard to your second point, trees can and do adapt to such
occurences, its a relatively recent concept known as natural selection (for
more information see - Origin of Species by Darwin C. or The Selfish Gene by
Dawkins S. On a lighter note, I remember waching a documentary on a South
American tribe, the tribes people were delighted with the marvelous western
kitchen utensils they had recently aquirred. Yes yove got it in one, they were
wearing them. So much for tree surgery !
Mike Ellison