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 Hazard
Tree Evaluation is a professional and scientific way
to determine whether or not the health and safety
of a tree is adequate for the surroundings that it
is growing in. There are many targets in our urban
forests from houses and streets, to people and even
power lines.
If
the trees are to be left to grow to there full potential,
we must make sure for safety reasons, that they are
healthy and are present with little risk to the public.
Several tests are performed on a tree. Applying the
data gathered to certain calculations, a conclusion
is achieved to let the client know in their opinion,
whether the tree in question should be removed due
to safety reasons. Sometimes a tree's health is obvious
to the trained eye and tests are not necessary, but
for the ones that are in question, two different tests
can be performed. One test is a drill sample test,
which enables us to examine the colour of the tissue
inside the tree. If the colour of the wood shavings
that come out of the tree are white, it is healthy
tissue. If the shavings extracted out of the tree
are brownish, black, or even discoloured in any way,
it may indicate that there is decay present inside.
The second test can be performed by an instrument
called an increment borer. This device will be manually
drilled into the tree's interior and a core sample
can be obtained to examine the tissue colour for decomposition
of the wood. |
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Drill
Core Sample Test
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Increment
borer test with sample of tissue.
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Core
sample taken will show if there is any internal decay.
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There
are many things that cause a tree to decay internally,
from poor soil drainage, to man made wounds caused during
construction. Sometimes the tree may calus over
a wound as a natural healing procedure, but most of the
time the decay process has entered through the entrance
of the wound before the tissue has closed. Over
time, the decay increases and the health of the tree deteriates.
A tree may appear to be healthy, with a full canopy of
foliage, but in fact there may only be a small amount
of living tissue on the interior, just under the bark.
This would be considered a hazardous tree, due to the
fact that there is very little core strength to support
the tree. Only tests that would be performed, could
determine how much wood is actually present. These
drilling tests are a last resort to determine how much
wood is at hand, and does inflict wounds to the tree.
It is not a test that should be performed on a tree that
is not suspected of being a hazardous tree.
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