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Stuck between rot and a hard place…

Mark Ballard, Curator Westonbirt Arboretum

Deciding when to remove old trees is one of the hardest decisions we have to take here at Westonbirt. All of the arboretum’s trees are regularly inspected for safety reasons and we try to strike the balance between allowing old and valuable trees to remain and visitors’ safety.

As trees reach the end of their lives they tend to go into decline (known as senescence) and as managers we try to care for specimens through this process, for example by gradual crown reduction. However, we can only delay, rather than prevent, the inevitable. Sooner or later we have to say goodbye.

The time has sadly come to fell a magnificent giant redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) that has graced Main Drive since the Holford family started their arboretum in the mid-nineteenth century, as its health has been in decline for many years. We have taken the difficult decision to remove it following lots of close monitoring and some recent investigations. Although the decline of this specimen is fairly obvious, it can be tricky to get a clear picture as to what is actually happening inside a tree’s trunk.

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Date: 
Tuesday, March 17, 2015