Sidmouth church trees given the chop
Pollarding gives Sidmouth trees new lease of life
TWO large horse chestnuts and a sycamore tree in Sidmouth parish church’s grounds, have been pollarded and pruned this week by tree surgeons.
Work started on Monday and continued this week.
A tree officer at East Devon District Council explained the two most easterly trees – the sycamore and one horse chestnut – had historically been managed as pollards and re-growth needed to be removed, back to the pollard knuckle.
He said: “This is a routine form of tree management. Left unmanaged, the pollard re-growth will be come increasingly unstable, possibly leading to branch failure.”
A fungus has been seen growing at one metre and 2.5 metres on the sycamore, which causes a white rot, turning the wood soft.
The horse chestnut has a cavity formation at historic pruning points.
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The larger, open growing horse chestnut further to the west, had its crown lightly reduced in volume.
“The tree has shed two branches and the re-pollarding of the two immediately adjacent trees will increase the chance of further branch failure,” said the officer.
“The crown reduction will reduce the chance of further branch failure to a reasonably acceptable level.”
