As a tree ages, the amount of damage it can endure diminishes, just like me, I guess. Radical changes, be they mechanical, cultural or environmental takes its toll in an exponential way as age progresses.
Remember falling off the merry go round at the park playground when you were a wee tot? No biggie when you are six, but at sixty, things get dicey. Hell, stepping on a Lego would put a codger like me in intensive care for a week!
Trees in an “advanced state of maturity” (old) just can’t take the same kind of hit that they would have shrugged off when they were six…
This is an important aspect I consider when evaluating your beloved tree. All trees, like people, become more complex and vulnerable as time goes down the road. Look at Ali when he was in his prime, he was “The Greatest” heavyweight fighter on the planet. Even though he had a cast iron jaw and could take brutal hits from the likes of Frazier, Foreman, and Liston, there is the real fact that we call “cycles to failure…”
Some types of trees can take a hit, especially when they are young. The same tree with 300 years behind it, not so much.
This line of thought should be foremost when protecting older trees from construction impacts. A good rule of thumb would be the older it is, the further out you should move the protective fence. Not just because the organism is larger, but because it is also more fragile and just can’t take the hit.
Without exception, nothing pisses me off more than a stately old beautiful tree shrink wrapped with a cheesy plastic orange excuse for a “tree protection zone” that somehow passed muster during the planning stage for a construction project. I would fire every single person responsible for such a disaster, and give ‘em a boot in the ass on their way out the door.
The time to make the most changes in a tree’s life is when it is young. Heavy pruning (more than 10-20 percent of foliage), transplanting, root pruning and the like should take place in the first decade. The exception would be fruit trees and bonsai specimens, but even then taking age into consideration is warranted and justified.
Skydiving when you are in your 90’s is fine, hitting the ground at 20 mph in your 90’s will not be cool at all.
Trees are on the offramp right now as they need a little time off from working all summer but will provide the thankless task of rewarding us with a fall color display, so enjoy the autumn and as always,
plant high and often…
