On Apr 20, 10:28*am, Martin Brown
wrote:
john hamilton wrote:
Our local council has a lot of trees with ivy growing on them like this..
They have been notified about it, but they do nothing.

See picture on this link on Tinypic webpage.

http://tinypic.com/r/16hj0iw/5

Would ivy growing like this do any damage to a tree?

Only in the sense that it increases the wind loading in winter and may
result in the thing being blown over in storms. A healthy tree can
tolerate ivy growing on it, but the example you show is pretty extreme.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Windage is a possible problem but assuming the tree is healthy,
probably not a huge danger. I wouldn't encourage those who will seek
any excuse to get rid of a tree - with or without ivy. Trees like
that are also a valuable resource for wildlife in terms of food and
shelter - do we really want to tidy all wildlife out of our lives? I
certainly don't.
In any case we should be expected to look out for ourselves to a
certain extent and who's going to be standing downwind of that tree in
the graveyard during a heavy blow in the unlikely event that it did
fall without warnig.

Rod