Yesterday, they felled Pam's lovely beech tree. It had to come down because it was suffering from a meripilus infection. This is a fungus that eats the roots of mature beech trees. They become unstable and can blow down. The fruiting bodies appear around the buttress roots. The crown remains healthy looking but the tree is unstable.
The tree was located beside our driveway, and the only safe way to take it down was to bring a crane down the drive and drop the branches down onto the drive. The work was done by Wood Matters. We were very impressed by their friendliness, thoughtfulness, efficiency and courtesy.
While they were working we were blocked from going up and down the driveway. The crane was situated right across and the only way out was to crawl through the hedge into Steve's garden, walk down his drive and past his house and then go up or down Limes Walk!
Here are photos taken as the tree came down. You can see larger versions of the pictures if you click on them.
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| The crane arrives at 7 am. |
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| Ropes are tied around the tree |
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| The crane is extended |
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| A climber attaches the crane to a limb |
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| The limb is sawn off with a chainsaw |
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| The crane takes the weight of the limb |
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| Removing the first limb |
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| On the driveway they saw up the limbs as they are lowered |
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| The crane |
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| Sawing the limbs |
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| The bare trunk from Steve's drive |
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| The bare trunk from Longhills Road |
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| A view from above |
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| Bringing out part of the trunk |
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| Taking the trunk away |
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| Goodbye tree |
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| Looking down the drive at the work in progress |
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| Crawling through the hedge to get to our house! |
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| Boy's Toys! |
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| The crane driver |
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| Loading limbs onto the trailer |
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| Our new skyline |
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| Cleaning up the debris |
