View from the farm

A Different Kind of Tree Trouble

I've been mystified by the lichen/moss covered trees on my property, but I have another tree with what seems to be a different problem.

There is a double tree near the entrance to my property which is growing apart.  More importantly, the tree facing the street has lost lots of its bark in large patches all the way to the top.  The power company plans to run a power line up my property line to the 911 antenna tower.  If the tree falls in a wind storm it will take out that power line.  The power company plans to remove the tree(s) for me before they put in the power line.  My problem is I don't know WHY the tree looks like it does.  Here are the pictures.

Next is the side facing the street of the left hand tree trunk above.

This is the top of that same tree.

If anyone has an idea what could be going on here, please contact me.  I originally thought that lightning had struck the tree, but a lumberman I consulted did not think that was the case.  On the other side of the driveway to the right in this picture, many of the trees are overgrown with lichen/moss.  On the other side of the road, behind me from where I am standing here, my neighbor's property has only one or two trees effected by the lichen.

In this section of my neighbor's woods, I could only see one tree that was covered in the lichen/moss.  So, does anyone out there have any suggestions about the missing bark problem or the bigger lichen/moss problem? 
 Addendum (January 24, 2010) I actually checked a little closer, and realized that there are a number of his treess affected with the lichens, but not to the extent that my trees are.  Maybe it just hasn't moved that far yet. 

Diseased and Dying Trees

For the past few years, while we were working, I didn't have the time to stop and look around my property.  When we were here, our animals were our first priority.  After I retired this past summer, and started to get the property cleaned up, I realized that I had a huge problem with my trees.  All around me my trees were in various stages of distress, with the majority of them covered with lichens and other growths. 

Not too long after we moved here five years ago, a large tree fell on the side property, barely missing the power pole.  I could not cut it myself, and I wasn't able to find someone to do it for me, so it sat there until Woody moved it off to the edge of my property two summers ago so that he could mow.

You can see where a large chunk is missing in the middle of the tree.  Also Woody pushed over a smaller dead ash tree that just died over the winter that year.  Later that fall, a large tree on what I call the topside of my property fell over in a windstorm.  Oddly, it fell north to south, when the weather and wind generally come from the west.

You can see up the hill to the top side of the property.  The trees are growing on a rock ledge so there is not a great depth of soil to hold the roots.   The worst tree on the property right now is directly behind the house on the northwest corner.  I expect it to fall over any day now.  Most of the branches are missing.

This is actually the north side of the tree.

This is the south facing side of the tree.  You can see that it is riddled with woodpecker holes.   Whatever is happening seems to start with branches falling off.

 

Now this could just be a characteristic of these trees, but when it is coupled with the extensive lichen growth, I believe something else is going on.  ...Back to the top side of the property behind the house.  Here are some more examples.

This is the top side of the property directly behind the house looking left.  You can see that almost all of the trees are affected.  And this is another south facing view.

Topside behind the house looking right. 

 
Both of these trees fell over at different times.

 

Here is a closeup of some of the lichen and other stuff growing on the trees.

If it didn't seem to be causing so much devastation, it would be almost pretty. 

The front yard is effected too, but not as much as the topside of the property.

 
You can see that on this tree the growth isn't as bad.

And this one too.

 It hasn't completely taken over on this tree yet.

This is the tree that bothers me the most.  It's the nice big maple that shades my metal barn.  

This is the top of the maple.  I bought deciduous tree fertilizer stakes and pounded them into the ground around this tree, and I plan to do it again in the spring.

I thought that since the trees could potentially fall over, I should contact a lumberman to have them cut down.  A very nice gentleman came out to the property and took a look.  He told me that he could cut them down, but it would make a terrible mess, and would completely ruin the character of the property.  There was also no way to know the condition of the interior of the trees until they were cut down.  He asaid he had no idea what had caused the condition of the trees, but it wasn't the lichen causing the problem; they were taking advantage of already compromised trees.  He thought the original problem might have occurred a number of years in the past.

I've talked to the forestry people and someone from the conservation district.  I didn't have usable pictures at that time.  I am going to email them the link to these pictures.  Maybe they can suggest something.  I understand that a number of years ago there were two successive years of drought, and not too long after we moved here we had very bad spring flooding.  Most of my woods are on the top side of my property on a rock shelf.  Maybe that's what started the problem.  I don't know.  If anyone out there has any ideas, please let me know.  What can I do to kill off the lichen?  Would that even help?  I'm hoping the professionals can identify the problem and suggest things I could do to improve the situation.  The trees are one of the things I like most about my farm.