Too much of a 'hair-cut' for trees?

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Amoeba

What I don't understand is how these trees did so well for millions of years without our assistance, but as soon as we come along they don't grow so well unless we start managing them?

Doesn't anybody else see something odd about this?

in addition to whats already been said - trees manage fine in their normal form but once a tree has been pollarded once it needs to continue to be pollarded as neglected pollards tend to developo too much top hamper and are likely to split under the weight of the branches and be suceptible to storm damage

[Amoeba]

Hmm... like the one on campus with what looks like a giant bird's nest just below the crown? It's basically a thick tangled mass of twigs, most dead.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Amoeba

Hmm... like the one on campus with what looks like a giant bird's nest just below the crown? It's basically a thick tangled mass of twigs, most dead.

that soundsd like its been pollarded too often - for poles you do them every five years or so - doing them every year results in what you are talking about.

talking of product use willow poles are in demand for river bank revetment work as willow spilings - while other brash can be used to make faggots for the same purpose

[The Woodman]

I first came across the Willow-leafed Pear growing in a campus quad, Coventry I think, they were huge and looked like a birds nest with a mass of closely intertwined branches.

I subsequently bought one and have to prune it hard every year as it is a very vigorous tree.

[Adam Cheeseman]

These look like Crack Willows to me. Personally I would have liked to have seen the stumps a little shorter back to the bole.

Cheers,

Adam

[Oxford patient]

I have learned so much from your guys.



Here is a photo of the same willow trees, after last time pollarding three years ago in the following summer. Are they just attractive ?

Cheers,
Oxford patient

[Amoeba]

I always thought it made them look kind of ugly.

[Monkey Orchid]

When I worked in a local nature reserve, we used to pollard old willows growing along a river on a regular ten-year cycle (cutting about 6 trees in any one year out of the 60 or so trees we had growing onsite).

We didn't have a practical use for the pollarded timber on the reserve... (We weren't able to make use of it as spilings for bank stabilisation, as the river was a flood relief channel and its bank management was carried out by the Environment Agency.) So we stacked the cut timber onsite to make habitat piles, which were quickly colonised by invertebrates, fungi, small mammals etc.

We also did leave a few willows unpollarded as an experiment. Most of them grew to a good size until the weight of the branches split the trunk, producing some interesting collapsed trees with lots of nooks and crannies for wildlife.

I guess that recently pollarded trees look a bit 'savaged' to some people, as do coppiced stumps in woodland. But it extends the life of the tree and provides more diversity in a habitat, which in turn increases the potential biodiversity on a site.