As with every Winter one part of our work continues to be managing the half a million or so trees which we are responsible for, and in the last few years have worked on nearly 3,000 of them to try to keep local residents and visitors safe, but also to try to preserve ancient trees as long as possible. Today Watchoak Tree Services have been taking down a dead sycamore in Captain’s Coppice. Had it been away from the path and a road, we would have let it rot and fall down as standing deadwood, which is a really valuable wildlife habitat found in natural woodlands. Instead it had to be safely ‘section’ felled. We always aim to get these dead trees down the same year so that the tree climber isnt climbing an unstable tree that has rotted. But NW Tree Services have also been working with us and as with Watchoak have been working on some older trees reducing their crowns to try and give them a longer life. But in the case of this ancient Beech on top of Benthall Edge that wasn’t possible due to the amount of fungal decay but it will now be left to naturally break down as a very large stump.
