The Aussie Environment and Australia communities are probably the best placed to get started on koalas. I wouldn’t suggest making a new community yet until you need to, there are a lot of unused ones due to the lack of users. Koalas suit the theme of !environment (how do I know? I posted all the posts there).
I think it is more to do with subtropical plants, they need to be actively growing to enhance the epicormic shoots where as a deciduous species forces a flow at bud burst. It’s why we ringbark in Winter, less chance of epicormic growth under wound.
Yeah, large wounds do cause decay but there are hundreds of year old pollards still existing today that would have had them. Next time you watch ‘The Princess Bride’ see if you can spot a few. 40mm is well within normal pruning cuts.
While it’s an interesting method for wood production I’m not really sold on pollarding for urban areas. Seems like a very labor-intensive method for removing most of the beauty and benefits of a tree.
Haha, that’s a very American statement. Read the book and see what you think. Technically, it’s a production pruning practice but culturally, I suppose it’s recognisable and homely. Check out some European styles, candelbra etc. Overall, I believe the technical aspect of it is very arboricutural, the cuts and callousing and it does increase age and safety of tree, but it is a style some don’t like.
Very well, but unlike deciduous stuff they have to be done in Spring to Autumn because doing them in Winter there is a chance of death. The lignotuber of some species would lend itself to better coppice. Pollarding sawlogs on ladders is relatively common in agricultural settings like Syntropic and others.
If you are cutting them as small as possible, I’d assume the tree would go backwards in health. You need lots of leaf between cuts to keep the health up. These trees were planted at the same time, a percentage got the second cut, some were on their first and the main pictured one was pushing a little too big.
I’m no worldwide expert but I have done a lot of pollards and if I’m cutting for biomass, I don’t let them exceed 40mm, and will cut annually if they reach 20-40mm within that year. If the majority of shoots are below 20mm, then 2 or 3 years. Juvenile trees often need annual cuts before setting in into 2-3 year cycles. Mulberry is an exception, on wet years they need annual cuts before bud burst.
The Oak pollards of old for shipbuilding, would have had very large cuts on long cycles. I think they cycle mosaic coupes because you need sun to hit the shoots or they die. I think with our humid Summers, too big is a risk for a lot of species but Eucalyptus with their resistant timber could go reasonably big (evidenced by old tree loppings all over).
There was a thread on reddit about it and from preliminary studies, they couldn’t find evidence it was as bad as made out to be.
Yeah, looks like shit, has risks and obviously no risk is better, but I find interesting that sometimes a short study reveals results opposite to what you can imagine.
Here is summary:
The document discusses the characteristics and effects of fungi on woody plants and trees, including cankers, root rots, wood staining, and seedling blights.
The majority of the fungi isolates are likely to be saprophytes, which are not extensively studied as pathogenic fungi.
The document mentions the identification of 83 isolates using DNA extraction and sequencing.
The study found no aggressive pathogens on the trees in urban landscapes that were tested.
The document also discusses the potential role of volcano mulching in promoting disease on tree trunks, but notes that this has not been confirmed by research.
Yep, I’m where I am, subscribed to zero communities but I can check out what’s happening nationally using Local. If the instance got massive, that would change but it’s fine as it is.
I guess the science instances, the art instances, the solarpunk instance, or even porn instances etc use Local heavily.
Yeah, I think big trees/Eucs are worth it but what I mean is that the way they are placed into the urban landscape needs improvement. Park plantings as well. The risks should be managed, not only with inspection and tree management but with exclusion zones that not only passively protect people but actively improve the health of the tree.
The 3 species of Spotted are superficially similar, with Lemon Scented and C.maculata sometimes difficult to tell apart. Maybe C.citriodora being the northeastern species, even though it’s naturalised all over, isn’t 100% suited. C.maculata seeds should be easy to import. Possibly invasive though! Hoops wouldn’t be too bad.
Since I am in an area with humid Summers and mild Winters, most of anything I suggest wouldn’t be suitable. Plenty of outliers though, western Queensland too. You probably have Brachychiton populneus there?
Probably none? The problem is that the way we design urban spaces doesn’t lend themselves to large trees and Eucalyptus are stupidly large sometimes. If they had planted TPZ/vegetation strips /exclusion zones underneath then they would be doable.
Your climate is different to mine and probably has Winter rains, E.camaludensis doesn’t occur for us. Out of all the urban Eucs, the Spotted are probably the safest where we are. Their branches are mostly inconsequential, straight bole etc. Bifurcation failures can be a problem but that’s a maintenance issue usually. It seems like Corymbia maculata (we have C.citriodora) will likely grow for you as it is in cultivation in locales similar to what you describe outside of its range. It does die suddenly for us but we have a “live fast, die young” climate.
Our big avenues that I’ve seen are C.citriodora/maculata, Araucaria cunninghamii (Hoop Pine), Flinderia australis, Agathis robusta. These fit the large, straight style with F.australis being a little wider. Beaches have A.heterophylla/A.columnaris (Norfolk Island and Cook Pine). You probably want to speak with a South Australian or Victorian. Greg Moore is in Victoria.
I just went and cut some trees in a local plot and they have E.cloeziana. I took a weird panorama and you can see how ‘safeish’ the form is and it self-prunes (none have ever died or failed in the lot):
They mention cultivars with stronger branches–can I read more about that somewhere?
It’s the first I’ve heard of it and I was going to go looking. I was involved with some dwarf Eucalyptus plantings back in the say and not sure where that ended up. Probably a PBR (Plant Breeder’s Rights) somewhere in a fancy nursery. There is an individual with the largest collection of Eucalyptus in Australia, I’ll see if he has any articles up. Problem is, most of it is locked behind FB these days especially when you have a VPN like I do.
That’s true but the person that wrote this article definitely knows about that.
What is happening in Australia is that Councils are becoming very risk-averse and planting small trees only, usually within the range of 5-8m high (16-26ft). While he writes about a lot of things, I guess he is trying to make it easy on the general public and Councils to decide that maybe some big trees aren’t all bad and scary. Spotteds are quite iconic so if people are made familiar and comfortable maybe they may get used more in urban settings.
You’ll need a local expert in techniques for those particular weeds. For example, we have developed techniques for certain weeds but if I look those weeds up, not one technique will be listed; they’re usually generic and written by people that have never done the work. And these people are sure they know everything.
But the idea you have is right, if the weed allows you to do that. Sometimes, depending on the weed, you literally can’t plant anything back in because the weed is hard to remove and doing that makes it even harder. I would consider, without knowing anything about your ecology; grasses and sedges (possibly ferns) are usually a good option as they have fine, fibrous roots, are cheap to propagate, easy to mass plant, and grow relatively quickly. Maybe you have some pioneering trees (native or exotic) that you can remove later, quick growers that are easy to kill or succeed out once you’ve got the weed out of there.
But, I’d implore you to assess the climatic zone movement that may occur (which was alluded to) and make sure your endemic/native plants have some insurance against that.
I wouldn’t take the advice of a nursery, I’d be trying to find studies from ecologists and climate experts and see what they are suggesting as possibilities.
Good luck with the invasives! I do that for work and it’s one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had, naughty plants are fucking relentless.
You’ve got access to land for regeneration? And with that, you’re going to plant tree species onto that land. You are going to pick mostly endemic species, and the planting will be diverse.
Of the endemic species, will you be provenancing them from distant locales of their range, ones that may match your assumed new climate (or at least be moving that way)?
With the Redwoods, will you be planting enough of them so that they become a Redwood forest ‘ecotype’ or will they be oddities in your forest, just poking their head out here and there?
If they’re present in your area without the issues of bugs/disease, won’t be invasive (to the detriment of all species not the fact that they propagate themselves) or harm aspects of the environment, and you like them - I would do it. I personally have vulnerable species from a long way away as garden oddities and have no issues.
But, if you are going to plant a Redwood forest (with understory) then you probably to have to do some due diligence of untoward impacts. If you are regenerating a bare paddock that isn’t attached to any native areas, I personally believe what you do, with a few caveats, is fine. But without knowing the purpose i.e. how many, final restoration goal etc, it’s hard to say.
I would say though that not doing it and watching climate change destroy large swathes of species (which is already happening, an article from 9 or so days back was a good read), you would be kicking yourself that you didn’t do enough. I’d like to believe that building a mostly endemic forest is the goal but within that forest is a foundation of other species that may be able continue the base ecological functions that are required (erosion, canopy, structure etc) if climate change has aggressive impacts on your area. Yours as an insurance policy for an interesting species is something different again.