Could a woodpecker have done all this? The holes are on the backside of the trunk also. The tree is hollow and the top of trunk leans towards the road. I drive under it every day...I will drive under it faster from now on. 😬
What else would it be ? John T.
Pileated woodpecker no problem, one dug out about a third of a poplar stump in about a half hour. Must have been a great meal for the bird.
I would say a woodpecker and then the tree rotted.
Seems someone trimmed the limbs, as evidenced on other trunks. They trimmed the limbs too close to the trunk, hence the cut areas rotted, allowing better access by woodpeckers. A properly trimmed limb would be less apt to rot or rot so fast, but usually heal over itself. Another aspect of limb trimming is the time of year the limbs may have been trimmed.
If the tree is in the right of way of the road, maybe the local authorities will remove that particular tree. Give them a call? If it were the local authorities that trimmed the limbs in the first place, then, yeah, drive faster.
Sonny
Sonny, Thank you for your post! I "didn't know what I didn't know" about pruning trees. For anyone interested in this, I found the following site informative:
Getting the local authorities to trim right-of-way trees is next to impossible around here. There are so many old growth trees - dead, alive and of unknown condition - in our right-of-ways that that's all they would be doing, year round. Heck, the number of trees is one of the main reasons we bought our house in this neighborhood
35 years ago.Here's an example of the result of my asking that a right-of-way tree be trimmed. I asked at least 4 times over the past 3 years.
The ironic part was that there was a huge project to trim back trees by our electric utility about 5 years ago. The limb that fell on SWMBO's car wasn't touched because it wasn't near any wires - until it came down. It took out the power to my house and about 4 more houses east of mine.
That's also the second of our Honda's that's been crushed by a tree. The first one was mine when I was parked at work.
I'd be inclined to buy a good chain saw and do some side work. If conditions are that bad, folks up and down the road might be willing to pay some handsome/reasonable fees.
I'd need a chain saw and a bucket truck...and probably a lawyer.
I'm pretty sure they'd frown upon a resident trimming town owned trees, especially for profit. Oh, did I forget to mention that any trees in the right- of-way are owned by the town?
Back when the utility was doing the trimming, I overheard the foreman discussing cutting down some of the trees completely. I grabbed my phone and called the town hall. Luckily the town arborist was nearby since he was overseeing the project. Whoever I spoke to at the town hall contacted him immediately. He came right over and put the kibosh to any "cutting down".
They do a number on cedar siding, also. Perhaps I had some kind of insect in there... now parts of my cedar shake are just full of holes. Sounds like a spring project... if that isn't enough to keep my busy, the recent wind storms have pieces of my 20+ year old porch roof asphalt shingles scattered through the yard. Fortunately the main slate roof is OK.
The ass hole town arborist needs to be fired for not doing his proper job for the safety of the community.
Sonny
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