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Pine tree - time to cut it down?

last year

The tree doesn’t look too great and an arborist mentioned to me a couple of years back that the tree will eventually need to come down. Please share your thoughts.

Comments (5)

Anna Devane
last year
I agree with the arborist…..it‘s top heavy and has seen better days
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
last year
its been telephone poled.. the grade is covering the root flare ...

this is basically a dead tree standing ... it needs to go... sooner the better imo ....

tree time is counted in decades ... so there is time.. it doesnt have to be tomorrow or some such.. but i would prioritize it soon..

there is a lot of good fire pit wood there... have the trunk cut to pieces.. and rent a splitter for an afternoon... and have a LOT of firewood... pine isnt the best for the indoor fireplace ... in fact.. it is usually recommended against ...

ken
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I agree with Ken. You should look into the measures necessary to protect the roots of trees from construction damage. Something as seemingly innocuous as the contractors and workers habitually parking in an area can do permanent damage to a tree's roots. As Ken said, the tree won't die immediately, but may well die a couple of years down the road. There are things you can do to mitigate and limit damage, but you HAVE to institute them from the beginning, AND make it vary clear to your contractor that you insist on them. Setting up fences, laying down a HEAVY layer of mulch, these and other measures can help. It the fence isn't really sturdy, and doesn't include enough area around the trees, the ground can be compacted, to the detriment of the trees. Workers are easily able to say to themselves "it's only once, it doesn't count this time if I park my truck here", which may be true. The problem is, doing something once doesn't always stay with the once. It can become a habitual thing, and the damage is done. You do need to look at what is required to protect your trees, decide which trees you absolutely want to protect and act to protect them. I know from experience that 20' from a building site means nothing when the heavy machinery gets in. And, unless you are building your house on pillars and will have only one machine in there once to auger the holes, plus the concrete truck(s), there will be a LOT of earth moving done, and heavy machinery moving around. I just had a 24 x 36' garage built, on a slab. The footprint of the earth that was actually moved and graded is around 60 x 120', maybe more. Some parts got moved more than once, as the foundation was done and backfilling needed. Between the grading, 10 truckloads of fill, and 6 trucks of gravel and 3 loads of cement, there were a lot of heavy machines in and out. If you plan on a basement, there will be a LOT more earth moving involved, including the dirt that was dug out of the basement and put in a pile somewhere - or, it was piled into dumptrucks and taken away. Plan ahead.
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We have many cabbage palms in the swampy areas of our 3 acres. Also there are many water oaks, some live oaks and many pines and a few swamp magnolias. I suffer for sun here. The main planting areas are near the house and they are somewhat shaded by two very large pines. Next to them is a lone cabbage palm that shades this area too much for my needs. The other co-owner of the property will not let me cut that palm down. Unfortunately for them, it is succumbing to a strange thing that is slowly killing the tree..... On the other hand, this person wants the pines down and as soon as we gather the funds it shall be done. But, it will be done in a way that serves the roses. I have an E Veyrat Hermanos, grafted to fort. This rose shall be pillared onto one of the pines that will be topped and left with a fifteen foot stump. These pines leave a very strong core of "fat wood" that takes a VERY long time to decompose. So I expect the pillars to last. I have not decided on the rose for the other pine. To have a tree topped here is quite a bit cheaper then having them completely removed. We were quoted $600 for this work on these two pines and included was another pine that will be taken down completely. It is not healthy.
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krnuttle
last year
What is the history of your lot and the area of your addition? From the amount of pine straw and the trees in the picture, it looks like you may live on the south eastern coast, the Carolinas to Georgia.

This type of thing quite often happens in areas of old 2nd or 3rd growth pine forest that are cleared to build houses. It also happens in areas that are cleared as part of forest management. I know several managed forest areas where they will leave a tree like this so it will seed the area and create the next forest.

In judging the health of the tree, do not look at the canopy and the trunk. I have lost more trees to termites and and wood eating ants, that the obvious damage to the trunk. One case, I had what I thought was a health tree, based on the appearance of the trunk an canopy. One day I was working in the area, and casually placed my hand on the tree and it fell over.

As for keeping it it is up to you. The tree could stand for many years and continue to grow. If it is in the area mentioned above it could be brought down in the coming hurricane.

Taking a tree of this size down is fairly expensive, as there is a large amount of wood that will have to be removed and disposed of. Our neighbor took a dozen trees down because he did not like pine, and now has probably over 100 cord of wood stacked in his 3/4 acre back yard as he can not afford to pay to have some one come in and haul them away
bengz6westmd
last year
As krnuttle says, it could be a leftover from a crowded condition & would explain the lack of lower limbs.
BillMN-z-2-3-4
last year
last modified: last year
There're surrounding trees that will benefit from the one in question being removed. The one in question most likely would fall on your fence as it appears to be leaning in that direction.

I don't know what kind of pine it is, but some are not long lived.

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