Transplanting A Live Oak Tree

[Sonny]

A large live oak tree is within the path of a road construction zone. Rather than cutting it down, they will attempt to move it, tomorrow. If I have a chance, I might go take pics of the attempt.

is sure to be a challenge. I'm wondering: If there is a slight wind, whether the tree will topple over during transport. Even balancing the tree, on the transport, will be a challenge. I've never known of a tree this size having been transplanted. Not the best time of year for transplanting, either.

Tomorrow evening, there may be online news video available, for those who may want to tune in for the results.... Local news outlets: KATC.com or KLFY.com

Sonny

[Lee Michaels]

It would be a lot easier to just bring in a sawmill, cut it down and make lumber. And does an oak tree really weigh 400 tons? That is 800,000 pounds. I know that green wood is heavy, but this stuff must be as heavy as depleted uranium!

[Swingman]

Damned glad the effort is being made ... Hoping it is sucessfu.

[Sonny]

A closer view:

the root ball is 50' across and 4' deep, it, alone, may weigh 200 tons.... a yard of top soil weighs about a ton and this root ball has been watered constantly, in prep of the move.

Live Oak weighs about 54 lbs per cubic foot, I think. I don't know if this measure is dry weight or green weight. This tree has, at least, a 100' wide canope. Lots of leaves on this tree, also.

Sonny

[dpb]

On 5/16/2011 8:42 AM, Lee Michaels wrote: ...

...

Well, w/o looking up, assume sp gr of 0.8 --> ~6 lb/cu-ft

That'd be very crudely a volume of 133,333 ft^3 which would be a cube of about 50-ft on a side solid.

Don't think the volume would be that, no. The tree and the root ball they'll have to excavate might be in that neighborhood...

It'll take a piece o' gear for certain and likelihood of success isn't very great most likely altho if there's enough money to followup it'd help. Being in area w/ good moisture in general, etc., won't hurt of course.

--

[Sonny]

On this link, there is a video news cast link, above the picture, stating a few details of the pending move. Stay tuned for more videos.

Sonny

[RonB]

Fascinating, and I guess I have mixed feelings. If the tree has historic relevance it is probably worth it. But if public money is being used, they are spending a lot of it. Can they really save enough of the tree's root structure to keep it going after transplant?

RonB

[Han]

Swingman wrote in news:1320392402327246248.495042kac- nospam.com@216.196.97.131:

Same here ...

[J. Clarke]

They'll likely use some kind of outrigger arrangement to keep it from toppling if that is a risk.

[dpb]

Ooopppssss...decimal point slip. Needed morning coffee first... :(

More like 60 lb/cu-ft.

...

That's down to a 25-ft cube; not totally out of reason perhaps...

--

[Han]

Sonny wrote in news:5ae286d8-6474-44c5-8f82- [e-mail]:

I thought I had seen a show about movinga fully grown tree. If not this show, then a very similar one:

[Michael Kenefick]

I expect the move will be seamlessly. They have these large tree movers that can move huge trees. I remember a golf tournament installed two 50 foot trees a few years back, to make it harder for the golfers. This was done on the 2nd day as the golfer could hit over a corner or something.

Mike > A large live oak tree is within the path of a road construction zone.

[Father Haskell]

Maryland's famous Wye Oak was made into furniture after it was brought down by a storm. Not sure if they cloned it. The process couldn't be simpler. Merely cut off a large number of branches and stick them in water or wet sand, then wait. Rooting takes between a month and a year. Each resulting sapling is an exact genetic duplicate of the parent tree, a true clone.

[Morgans]

"Sonny" wrote

a yard of top soil weighs about a ton and this root ball has been watered constantly, in prep of the move.

Check your figures. A yard of dirt is within spitting distance (30 pounds) of 1.5 tons.

-- Jim in NC

[Larry Jaques]

Nice sentiment, faulty logic in LA.

Instead of feeding/housing hungry evacuees, the ecoterrorists cause how many tens of thousands of dollars to be wasted on idiotic stuff like this?

When the time comes to move it, they'll shockingly discover one or two things. That the tree was hollow inside and any attempt to move it caused it to break into pieces, or that they tried to lighten the load and didn't get enough of the root system so it dies within a month. I hope they x-ray it before trying.

Bets?

Similar old oaks?

fell all by themselves.

LJ, who used to live 13 miles from Live Oak Park (in Fallbrook, CA) and knows that they're not a particularly beautiful or rare tree.

-- It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctively native American criminal class except Congress. -- Mark Twain

[Larry Jaques]

Why didn't they move it last Winter, when all the leaves were down?

-- It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctively native American criminal class except Congress. -- Mark Twain

[Martin Eastburn]

Why move it at all.

Has a nursery or tree surgeon been consulted ?

Trees are often root cut over several years prepping it for a move. One cuts the roots in a short sections around the tree and year after year the circle is closed.

Then a massive scoop machine moves in and cuts the dirt at the new place and then cuts the tree to match - moves and puts the tree and the massive cone of ground into the pre-made hole.

Mart> >

[basilisk]

Live oaks keep their leaves in the winter, but it would have been better to have moved it in the winter.

basilisk

[RonB]

Bureaucrats not botanists

RonB

[Jim Weisgram]

[...snip...]

[...snip...]

Having worked for a DOT for 30 years, I am pretty sure the DOT didn't agree to this easily. Usually the payment for additional right of way is first offered at fair market value, then land owners can appeal to whatever legal mechanism exists in the state. I'll bet this came about either after litigation or the owner of the tree is paying to move the tree themselves.

FWIW, about 15 years ago I served on a jury. Why? Some people hired an idiot to clear some scrub trees on their property. And the guy cut down the wrong trees, on the wrong property. Which resulted in a lawsuit.

And I got to watch videos of large oak and other trees being transplanted to other locations, to prove that it would be possible to fix the damage by transporting in large live oak trees to replace the ones that were cut down. According to the video, the trees all lived.

I would think an arborist would be asked to give an opinion on the health of a tree before someone spends $$$ to move it.