Re: [Fwd: Acacia et al.]



On Sun, 22 Nov 1998, Charles E. Dills wrote:

> +++++-----------------
> 	The problem is that many people buy a tree in a one or five gallon
> container, "Oh isn't this a cute tree". Then they bring it home and plant
> it as though it were a Shasta Daisy, three to five feet fron the house.
> They haven't a clue what it's going to be like when it grows up!

I think the ultimate in this vein was a dwelling I looked at when
house-shopping several years ago.  A house, less than 20 years old, had a
Sierra sequoia planted on 18-inch center from the foundation.  And the
tree butt was an inch or so from the house when I saw.  A living Christmas
tree, and an owner who just couldn't bear to cut it down??

I suppresed the desire to go by occasionally to see the house slowly
tipping over..

On "coppicing": yes, this is usually defined as cutting to a ground-level
"stool".  The reference was to what is called "pollarding" in the US.
Every arborist I've ever met finds this cutting back to a lolly-pop
hideous, and I'd certainly agree.

Both coppicing and pollarding were practised as a means of croppinga
season's growth for forage [or basketry], I believe.  Here, it's only
cropping for a landfill.

loren russell, corvallis, oregon
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