Preserving Historic Trees

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Eight, nineteen thirteen ten WI b A and ask the experts.
Brought to you by Amsarborcare online Hamsarborcare dot com. That's
H A M. M. S Arborcare dot com. They're telephone
number eight sixty six five nine six five three nine six.
That's eight sixty six five nine six five three nine six.

(00:30):
I mentioned the website Hamsarborcare dot com. Also check them
out at Game of trees dot com. That's gameoftrees dot com.
Talk a little bit about some of the cool things
available up at gameoftrees dot com. Join us this morning
from Hamsarborcare is Mester Barborist Kevin Ham. Kevin, how you
doing this morning?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Doing great Sean, another beautiful autumn game.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, it is a great day out there. And I
know you guys are are busy. You've got got a
lot of stuff coming up as well. Talk about your
next trip to Guatemala. Also talk about the TCIA convention
coming up shortly. Get some details on that. But first
and foremost, a video you recently shared to your Instagram
feed for a game of trees involves a beautiful old

(01:16):
tree heritage bur oag that I think kind of the
assessment is most people might have just decided to take
this beautiful old tree down, and you and the team
at Hams Arborcare were able to preserve this tree to
live another day. Let's talk a little bit about some

(01:37):
of these older trees and some of the things you're
able to do at Ham's Arborcare that others may just say,
you know what, it may be a good time just
to start over. Let's talk about that scenario. Kevin.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, so this actually occurred. You I might happen to
be my son in law also working in the company.
He was doing a plant healthcare treatment on this tree
and observed one a mushroom conk that had grown on
the chicken of woods. If you've ever heard of that,

(02:09):
it's actually an edible shelf mushroom, and that's an indication
of brown rods. So that's not a positive sign. We
knew that there was some decay in this tree already,
and we had done a sounding on the trunk. But
he noticed as he looked at that that a crack

(02:30):
between the two sides of the tree had begun to
open up and showing signs of failure. And you know
it was going to be catastrophic. You know, half the
tree falling off of there, and it was not threatening
the house. It was actually threatening kind of a hillside

(02:50):
that goes to the sidewalk, and so we got in
there and looked it over and we ended up tying
it up with row and they wanted to preserve the tree,
and since it didn't directly threaten the house, we thought,
let's let's go for this. And most companies, you know,
probably would have said, oh, yeah, that's too big of

(03:12):
a crack. We got to let her go, and we
we did some reduction pruning on on the bailing side
to we probably took at least one thousand pounds off
the tree at at the tips, you know, and really
architecturally you can't tell if you look at the the

(03:34):
you know, the landscape of the of the tree. And
now it looks beautiful. It still has a great profile.
And then we pulled it together with a GRCs tool,
our little leverage tool we put at the base of
the tree and we were able to crank that up.
We put four different pulleys in the tree and zig

(03:55):
zag the rigging line back and forth through the tree
and then down to the g rcs and just cranked
that thing together and we closed that crack and then
installed four cables, two on one side, two on the other,
and the crack didn't move when we took that tension off.
And success for now you know we're going to preserve

(04:18):
that tree for a while longer.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
One of the things that's super impressive as we talk about,
you know, saving how long How old do you have
any idea how old that tree is?

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh, it's pushing two hundred.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Years, so a few lifetimes there. You talk about a
significant investment in the idea that you guys are able
to preserve that tree for years to come. What a
great gift that is. And one of the things, Kevin,
that I noticed as well is in the after video
that you guys have up up on Kevin ham Game
of Trees on your Instagram, you mentioned things like cabling

(04:53):
and other things is and I don't know if they're
if they're designed that way or what, but you can't
you don't notice them until you focus in, Like you
literally zoom in with your camera on one to illustrate
that it's there, is there, like a are those like
designed in a particular way to make sure that they
kind of blend in with the rest of the tree,
because they really I think sometimes people hear like cabling

(05:15):
other things, like oh, there's going to be these cables
in these lines running through my tree. Unless somebody is
literally zooming in with their camera and focusing in on
that line, you don't see it from the ground. It's
pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, and there's kind of a you know, a two
camps in the agricultural world. A number of years ago,
they came out with a synthetic it's called cobra and
it's black. It's big, you know, like twelve strand hollow
braid plomere, you know, polyester, and it splices together. It's

(05:56):
it's fairly easy to install it apps around the branch
and they're designed to they put like a little slip
knot in there. It's supposed to expand. It doesn't expand
as the tree grows. It grows around this. I've seen it.
Of course, squirrels can chew on it. It's it's unsightly.

(06:19):
You can see it in the tree. We've never we've
used you know, we've tried it right and there's nothing
more frustrating than a steel cabley job because there's so
many details to remember. These different tools. You're always forgetting something.
We should have brought two g rcs's yesterday. We ended

(06:41):
up redirecting lines and pulling with the car to pull
the cable tight. You know, we've made it work because
our one GRCs we had to lock up the whole
tree and it had to stay there, and so we
needed another point of leverage and we innovated and got
it done. But so cabling is very difficult and people

(07:05):
don't like working with steel, but it's the in my opinion,
it's the best. We threw bolts, so we actually drill
a hole through a branch and we bolted. Now a drill,
a drilled hole has responded to very well to buy
the tree compartmentalization wise, it there's not a lot of
decay that spreads from that point. If you use a

(07:28):
bolt that's one sixteenth smaller, so our bolt slides in there,
it doesn't damage the drill hole. And then we just
screw you know, or tightened up that bolt. And it's
got a it's a cast eye, and so that gets
just grown, grows into the tree. You know, it's there
for some chipper to find someday, but at any rate,

(07:52):
it's it's a very secure method. This is burr oak,
so it's resistant to decay, so that that bolt is
going to stay stable in that spot. And it's it's
galvanized steel, extra high strength steel cable and it's it's
used in utility applications everywhere. It's it's very durable. That

(08:17):
cable will be there when that tree comes. You know
it I've never you know, I've I've had a couple
you know, pull out, maybe the tree degraded and and
finally there there it was a maple or something that
I had it pull out on and so there was decay.
Ultimately got there from a a it broke another cut

(08:41):
above and but you know in a situation like this
that that cable is just gonna be very stable in there.
I've seen we've taken down a tree years later, you know,
and that there's no decay around the bolt. In most cases,
there's it's very stable. And so we we've stuck to
that that old method, and it works very well.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
It sure it looks amazing and it's it's great to
hear you talk about preserving such a beautiful tree and
really not only preserving the tree itself, but also preserving
its appearances, it still looks absolutely beautiful. And make sure
if you are on Instagram and social media that you're
following Kevin ham Game of Trees and again you'll find
them on Instagram. They've got a great YouTube channel as well,

(09:25):
and one of the things you get to do when
you when you subscribe to these channels is follow Kevin
on his adventures. And Kevin, You've got a couple of
big things coming up. First off, you're going to be
in Saint Louis and then Guatemala, and we'll talk about
Saint Louis. We'll do them in kind of reverse order
here real quick, though, I did want to talk about Guatemala.
You've been down there a few times working in the rainforest,
and every time you go down there's there's an educational

(09:49):
element to it. What's on the agenda with this subsequent
this upcoming Guatemala trip.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, we're actually working with government entity this time, where
it was going to be a USAID project, which of
course discontinued, so but we're going out it privately and
we're going to be teaching staff from the city of
Guatemala and then the city of Antigua, which is the

(10:18):
oldest central American capital really and then uh, the basically
the National Park Service of Guatemala, and we're going to
be doing a short course on rigging sour our technical
rigging where we take down trees and branches. And just
recently in October, a large tree fell and killed four

(10:42):
people in Guatemala and something just sent me that story today.
And so you know, taking care of you know, trees
and municipalities and parks and in different places is important.
And our lat in twenty twenty two we actually climbed
into Call National Park and we we taught some rigging

(11:05):
courses there for that staff with the Park Service. And
so it's just a continuation of that that project. So
I'll be actually teaching arboriculture, not just can it be
access all time.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
That's fantastic stuff. And you mentioned previous trips and and
and you mentioned being into Call, and I know you
have a fantastic puzzle for sale up at gameoftrees dot
com Photograph from the Tree, a perspective that that you
got to experience and uh, no one will ever see
that from that perspective ever again just because of because

(11:38):
of the changes with the trees. So a great opportunity
for folks to get it. If you're into puzzles, a
really cool puzzle, you can buy that right online a
Game of Trees dot com. You can also help support
the Guatemala trip as well. Speaking of ways, do that.
If you haven't tried the biochar body bar and soap yet,
the shampoo it is absolutely amazing. Make sure you check
that out at Game of Trees dot com. That's Game

(12:00):
of Trees dot com and real quick. Kevin mentioned you're
gonna be down in Saint Louis of course the Tree
Care Association for their big annual conference down there. I
know it's an opportunity for you to share knowledge and
also gain knowledge. It is really an important thing for
people say, well, what you know, if I'm working with
an arborius, different accreditations, different groups, what doesn't matter. Things

(12:22):
like this are really important, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Kevin, Yeah, we do, you know, a weekly training with
the crew. We utilize materials from the Tree Care Industry Association.
They have a lot of training materials. Of course, they
support all the standards of the industry and we are
a TCIA accredited company, which is a rare, rare thing

(12:44):
in the industry. And we've we've gone through those hoops,
so that's a third party that makes sure we're insured
and we're doing everything right. We get audited every three years,
so it's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
It is a really big deal and it's a great thing.
As we talked this morning with Kevin ham'sar Care. If
you haven't had your trees checked out recently, get on
the calendar right now. Of course they go year round
at Ham's Barborcare, so it's a fantastic time to make
that phone call. Eight six six five nine six five
three nine six. That's eight six six five nine six
five three nine six online Hamsarburcare dot com. That's h

(13:18):
Ammsarborcare dot com. Kevin. It's always fantastic chatting with you,
my friend. You enjoyed this great day and we'll talk
real soon.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Thank you, Sean.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Take care news comes your way next year. On thirteen
ten wuib it