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.