Help with Sick Horse Chestnut Tree

[nightshade]

Is the tree in a public place or alongside a footpath? or is it soley on your own property or land a little more explanation of its location would help

[hobble]

In Cornwall if a tree has a PTO on it and the tree is deemed to be sick, the council can be called and the tree owner applies for a Dead/Dying/Dangerous notice. This gives the council the chance to survey the concerns/disease etc.
If the tree is on your land you are responsible for the cost of taking the tree down, if agreed with your council.
Or call your council and ask for a tree officer to give his/her advice and take it from there.

[Adam Cheeseman]

The general rule of thumb is that if a tree poses a significant health and safety risk to persons or property, any TPO on it is usually nullified as a consequence.

Cheers,

Adam

[Si_Bucks]

Additional Info

The tree is in my land. I have not asked the council to pay for anything done on the tree. I have paid over £1100 since I moved to the house five years ago to do two crown reductions. The Council tree man acknowledge the tree is sick but he thinks it will have many years to live. I provided photographic evidence and he still refused despite him inspecting the tree. The decision hinges on one man. The worry I have is a dying tree is weak and can fall on the house hurting occupants or cause damage.

Regards

Si

[John Harcombe]

Si, only just come across this now, so you may have already resolved the problem one way or another. Anyway, I am an Environmental Consultant and worked with an Arborist last summer carrying out Tree Risk Assessments for a large private school in Somerset. While there he told me of an alarming rise in cases of Bleeding Canker in Horse Chestnuts, which sounds like the problem you have.

I believe you are right to be alarmed as this often leads to the tree dying, especially in larger trees. The fact that the LPA Tree Officer does not see it as a risk suggests two things, one that he did (at that time) have little experience of this disease and it's effect of Horse Chestnuts or that he believed your tree was not infected with this disease.

Which ever is the case the best approach would be to appoint a qualified Arborist (not just an experienced tree surgeon) to carry out a detailed tree risk assessment. If there is a danger of the tree or a major limb falling then the report will highlight this. Present this to the council officer and he will have little reason to refuse you consent. If he still refuses consent, then I believe you would be well within your rights to give the officer 3 months warning, conduct the necessary ecology (bat and bird) survey and fell the tree anyway, as it is a significant risk to life.

With regards replanting, take advice from the same Arborist, as to which newly planted tree would not be reinfected with the same fungus that has infected your existing tree.

If you do not know any affordable arborists, I can recommend a company called Chris Groves Associates. They are outside your area but may travel that far or can at least give you more qualified advice.

John Harcombe, Harcombe Environmental Services, Somerset

[Besnard Lake]

Si,

I am an arboriculturist working in the private sector. I'm also a public sector tree officer.

What you probably have is Bleeding Canker - Pseudomonas syringae pv aesculi. It's ubiquitous among horse chestnuts right now. Just because your tree has this does not mean it needs felling. Do not take this advice from a tree surgeon unless they have professional indemnity insurance and are willing to put it in a report.

Horse Chestnuts are recovering from this without intervention from man. Some, admittedly are dying.

The tree is protected. Do you know when the TPO was made? If it was after 1999 then any damage the tree may cause is redeemable through compensation from the LA. Your LA tree officer who looked at the tree is obviously aware of the tree's condition and is happy that it is in a safe condition.

Your next course of action should be to hire the services of an arboriculturist (not arborist - they are tree surgeons). An arboriculturist is a consultant, trained in identifying weaknesses in trees and advising on remedial works and legal issues regarding trees.

Do not over react. The tree will not fall on your house. It's as likely to do that as a plane is to fall out of the sky onto your roof.

All the best

Besnard

[wanlock dod]

The advice I received regarding a horse chestnut with bleeding canker was to remove it. The tree had a TPO in place, but was close to the house. The recommendation to remove it, as I understand, was that should it die then it would be likely to drop branches because the timber of this species is not terribly robust. The local tree officer came to have a look at it, although I suspect it was merely an excuse to get out of the office and rack up a few mileage expenses as he had already seen a variety of photos of the affected tree.

It probably depends on the local situation quite a lot, I think that the councils main concern here was to maintain some trees in the area, and whilst there are still others about those that are close to houses and diseased are clearly not high priorities for protection.

Replanting was required, but it will probably be a couple of decades before any of the recently planted trees are of any appreciable size, but hopefully some of the remaining mature trees will still be standing then too.

Dod