Welcome to my blog!

Hi, I'm Ellie.

This is a blog I created as my final project for Spring Tree Care class at Portland Community College. In it, I show pictures of ten tree problems I found in my neighborhood (NE Portland), and explain them to the best of my ability.
I hope that you enjoy these posts and find them interesting and possibly informative.
Read on!

Tree #10: A Hot Mess!

When I first saw this tree I just stopped and stared. This is the most messy, ugly tree I have ever seen still standing!

Again, I don't know what killed this tree, but I can clearly see widespread decay in the trunk. The top is gone and the upper trunk is shattered. All the branches have been removed- or fallen off, who knows? And all that remains is a huge (and likely unsafe and diseased) mess full of epicormic shoot growth.

This tree is another obvious candidate for removal. It has clearly severely declined and is not going to come back. The epicormic shooting is weak growth, and there are no real branches left. It's an eyesore and really should just be taken down and replanted.

In fact, it appears that an attempt at removal was made! Here is what I assume to be a chainsaw cut at the base.

Tree #9: Dead Leader

I noticed this tree while I was waiting at my bus stop one morning. It is tucked in with a few others so it doesn't stand out as much as it might if it were alone, but the top is clearly dead. When I got closer to take a look, I could see that the whole leader was dead and only the lateral branches lower on the trunk appear normal.

I'm not sure why the leader had died, and it was on someone's property so I couldn't examine it up close, but it's pretty clear that this tree should be removed. There is no way a conifer would come back from something like leader death all the way down the trunk.

Many broadleaved trees contain latent buds hidden in the bark, and when the tree is stressed (like by a pruning cut), they erupt and sprout branches directly from the trunk. Coniferous trees don't usually have these. If a conifer loses its leader it will not grow another one. The only real course of action is to take a high branch and train it into the position of leader.

In this case, since such a huge portion of the tree is dead, and there is no chance of retraining a new leader, it should be removed and replaced.

Tree #8: Regrown Pollards

In my last post, I talked about why I don't like pollarded trees- they're unattractive and do not serve a real purpose. While walking around Hollywood, I came across several trees like this one, which had been pollarded at some point in the past and then let grow. This creates a bizarre aesthetic of multiple small branches attached to large nobs halfway up the main branches.


Not only does it look strange, the branches are not very strongly attached and are more likely to be damaged or to drop completely than a normal branch. One more time: don't pollard trees!

Tree #7: Don't Pollard Trees!

I know that a lot of people like pollarded trees, and technically, it is not a tree defect. However, pollarding a tree means that for the rest of its life, it will require 2 to 3 times as much work to maintain, it should never be let go (see next post), and there really is little reason to pollard trees now.
People first began pollarding trees - cutting back the main branches every year to encourage a flush of cane like growth - in Europe in the medieval times. Several epicormic shoots (growth from hidden buds in the bark) sprout from each cut branch. These were then cut off and used for animal food, fodder, and basket weaving.

These days, there is little reason to prune a tree like this unless you're living on some kind of homestead and you make your money weaving baskets. People use pollarding now to keep trees smaller than they otherwise would be. This problem could be much better addressed by planting an appropriately sized tree.

I consider pollarded trees not very attractive, and they don't provide as much shade in summer because they're so stunted and the crown is so small. Don't pollard your trees!

Tree #6: Weak Branch Attachments

I mentioned in my last post that the wider the angle of a branch attachment, the stronger it will be. I recently found this tree in the Hollywood District:All of the branches where they attach to the trunk are attached at very narrow angles to the tree. Many of them also show signs of bark inclusion with other branches, which could indicate that they are likely to fail in the future.

Tree #5: Co-dominant Leaders With Bark Inclusion

The main vertical stem of a tree is called the leader. Many trees have forms which are naturally multi-trunked, and that's okay, as long as the branch attachments are strong. The wider of an angle a branch is at from the trunk, the stronger that branch attachment is likely to be. Problems come when trees form two or more leaders with included bark (where bark is included in the branch attachment). The weight of the leader combined with the weak branch attachment makes it much more likely that the leader will fail.


This is a fairly young tree I found near PCC Cascade on Killingsworth. It has four equally sized branches emerging from the main trunk. This is not in its self a structural danger.



















However, when this happens, it is a problem. This creased, folded look between two of the leaders indicates that bark is included in the branch attachment. This, combined with the very acute angle of the attachment, makes it quite likely to fail later in its life.

Given the relatively small size of this tree, it could quite easily be removed and replaced, solving the problem immediately.

Tree #4: Wrong Tree, Wrong Place

Many people plant trees without thought to eventual size or nearby structures or utilities. This is why we eventually have ended up with so many trees with awful utility pruning. Here are two examples.These conifers were planted probably because of their tall upright form, adding formality and framing the driveway well. Either the power lines were not there when the trees were planted, or no one thought of the trouble the trees would cause when they grew tall enough to interfere with the lines.
The trees have been practically shaved down one side, drastically reducing their live crown ratio (from 80% to about 50%), and they have also lost a lot of their value. They're also just not so nice to look at anymore.

This Horse Chestnut is another great example of the wrong tree being in the wrong place. As you can see, a deep 'U' shape was cut into this tree when it was about two feet shorter, as the power lines now go directly through the center of the tree. This tree now not only looks bad, but has lost a good portion of its photosynthesizing machine (the leaves!). This also could have been avoided by paying attention to the utilities surrounding the tree and finding the truly best spot for your desired tree before planting.

Tree #3: Decay

The Hollywood District is known for its streets lined with mature trees. Unfortunately, not all of these trees are healthy, and the fact that they're large and in close proximity to houses, cars, and people makes the unhealthy trees more of a risk.

This tree immediately jumped out at me as I walked by, due to the huge amount of decay where a very large branch was removed. Upon closer inspection, there were at least two more pockets of decay where branches higher up had been pruned off.



If a tree has a 'problem branch,' it is much better to remove it when the tree is young. The diameter of branch you have to cut is much smaller, meaning the wound is smaller too. Trees never heal, but they do compartmentalize (wall off) damage and decay. A smaller wound means the tree has a better chance at walling it off before organisms find their way in and begin eating away at the tree.

Tree #2: Suckers Gone Wild

I see this tree every day on my walks to and from the bus stop, and it always catches my eye. There are three huge suckers- one is almost as wide in caliper as the tree trunk itself. There are a few really funny things about this situation, though.

In this close-up picture, you can see that these suckers have been pruned! Yes, pruned, as if they were separate trees! Especially on the main sucker, most of the little branches have been cut down to nubs.

If left unchecked, these suckers will probably grow much more vigorously and wildly than the actual desired tree, and there will most likely be issues with crossing branches. There may also be lack of vigor in the tree, because of all that energy and sugar being invested in the suckers.

Lastly, I'd just like to point out the old black plastic left from when the tree was planted and tied to stakes. If left, the bark on the trunk will eventually envelop the plastic. Bad!

Tree #1: Terrible Utility Pruning

There used to be a beautiful little group of Empress Trees outside my apartment window, until about a month ago. Unfortunately, these trees were growing around power lines. I knew that at some point, the apartment complex or the city would probably send someone out to prune around the lines, but I did not expect this to happen.


Two men showed up early in the morning and started hacking off branches and limbs. When one of them cabled up the first tree and started removing the top, I actually began worrying they were just going to remove the trees- but what actually happened might even be worse.

As you can see, both large trees and even the small one have been completely topped. On the largest of the tree trees, it appears that two thin to lateral cuts were attempted, but the laterals (especially the top one) are most likely too small to assume the role of leader. The pruning was too severe. These trees were beautifully shaped, and minor branch removal would have served the purpose of clearing around power lines.

This pruning will most likely result in major sprouting and epicormic shooting, but I do not think this tree will ever recover enough and will probably just have to be taken out completely in the future.




Perhaps the most puzzling part of all of this is that the arborists responsible for this job left the branches which are actually putting weight on the power lines!