In a message dated 04/07/2006 08:02:09 GMT Standard Time,
Edmund.Hopkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.gov.uk writes:
"Oy, you don't want to do it like
thaat..."
I felled a few Ash on a development site up here and was still on site when
the 360 excavator set about digging up the stumps. It turns out the trees had
been buried about 10 feet deep with 'clinker' (a sort of expanded aggregate
that was a by-product of steel making in these parts). The soil level was not
obviously raised on the site. The trees appeared to have developed quite
substantial adventitious roots and there was no sign of any degradation of
the timber
below the adventitious roots and no signs of any distress beyond what you
might expect in urban Ash trees.
The clinker stuff is quite light and very porous so I suspect in the short
term it provided only a little change in water percolation/gaseous exchange
ability.
Don't seem to see much 'clinker' around these days.... it used to be bonded
to make 'breeze blocks' and plenty of woodland footpaths utilised the stuff;
the paths used to get washed away very easily and block drains as a result.
Sheffield being a hilly city, it is quite common to see trees that were
'saved' in the 60s by the construction of a retaining wall around 3 sides of
a tree
about a foot away from the trunk, where road building and the like demanded
changes in soil levels. A road near here was a classic example of this, some
trees there still appear content enough but a lot of them succumbed to DED
before anything else. Of course I was younger and less aware of crown decline
symptoms.....
Bill.
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