Arboricultural Association - Monoliths: A Layman’s View

The Oxford dictionary says a layman is a ‘non-professional, non-expert’ with no have to stay up to requirements. 1. My expertise with dead standing timber started not less than eighty years ago, climbing them as a boy. Duncan prefers to call managed useless standing bushes snags and Wood Ranger Power Shears coupon dislikes the time period monoliths. However, Philip Wilson in ‘my bible’, The A-Z of Tree Terms, defines snags as stubs, and non-arboricultural and Wood Ranger Power Shears specs Ranger Power Shears USA non-forestry dictionaries have included a number of different meanings for the phrase, even ‘debris snagged up in flowing water’ and ‘clothing torn or snagged up on thorns or barbed wire and Wood Ranger Power Shears coupon so forth.’ Therefore, while I agree our frequent language is stuffed with words which have several typically completely completely different meanings, absolutely here's a case the place in tree phrases - and just about confined to arboricultural use - a lifeless standing tree may very well be described using a significantly better term than snag. Philip Wilson’s A-Z defines a monolith as ‘a tree diminished to its foremost stem’ and in his definition it may nonetheless be alive.



English dictionaries outline a monolith as ‘a single block of stone, especially shaped like a pillar or monument, a large block of concrete or thing like a monolith being huge, immoveable or strong uniform.’ Mono clearly means single and lith is stone. Surely all we have to do is discover a easy descriptive term that may solely consult with a managed lifeless standing tree? Let’s hope the ideas that comply with inspire some thoughts from arbs. This kind of tree management belongs to the arb world and the arb world should claim professional possession by discovering the precise term for it. As lith means stone, why not name a lifeless standing tree a mono-stub or mono-stump? Mono-trunk or mono-candle (French is chandele) are additionally choices. Mike Ellison has instructed mono-ligna, mono-lignum, mono-lig or mono-stack. 2. Oak root plate with what remained of the supporting root system after the tree had been standing lifeless for maybe a number of decades.



3. William the Conqueror’s Oak at Windsor, maybe 1000 years old. How on earth can you name this a part of our nation’s historical past a snag? 4. Ancient useless elm monolith. My wager is the occupants of the house who determined to go away this tree standing had been very interesting people, contemplating the safety paranoia and senseless obsession with tidiness that prevail in the 21st century. Bring on the younger generations! 5. Dead standing oaks where Roy Finch did plunge cuts in limbs and Bill Cathcart’s group at Windsor then winched the limbs off to go away monoliths with fairly pure-trying damaged stub ends. My expertise with dead standing timber began at the very least eighty years in the past after i climbed into the lifeless hollow standing oak in picture 1 and collected both a barn or a tawny owl’s egg. In those days, all small boys residing within the countryside collected birds’ eggs. The tree continues to be there at the moment, and obviously the encompassing timber are now of a considerable dimension and probably increasingly provide it some safety.



Also, oak has durable heartwood and therefore it's most likely that any supporting lifeless roots will decay much slower than in other species. Whilst we're on the topic, it is interesting to notice how many arbs never differentiate between timber with heartwood and ripewood when it is quite obvious that the distinction could be very relevant within the case of lifeless standing bushes, and the supporting root systems of conifers cannot be forgotten: it is more than doubtless they decay slowly like oak. Many picturesque scenes of the Scottish glens have lifeless ancient granny pines, bleached and seasoned, that repeatedly withstand Wood Ranger Power Shears coupon very high winds. Photo 2 reveals an oak root plate with what remained of the supporting root system after the tree had been standing useless for maybe a number of a long time. It begs the question were such seasoned buttress roots used by early man as plough Wood Ranger Power Shears coupon? Sadly, Duncan’s footage show trunks during which all the limbs have been eliminated by the very outdated technique of flush chopping to the primary stem (‘Towards steerage on snags’, ARB Magazine 198). I say ‘outdated’ as a result of a special approach was developed as long ago as 1997. Bob Warnock, Manager of Ashstead Common for the Corporation of London, Wood Ranger Power Shears coupon wished to take care of dozens of useless standing ancient pollard oaks (which had been tragically killed in a series of bracken thatch fires through the years) for historic, conservation and well being and safety reasons.