Rod wrote:
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

I am inclined to think looking at the amount of ivy on that particular
tree that it is *not* in the best of health. A decent tree canopy in
midsummer will prevent the ivy getting quite that far up. So if there
are partially rotten or dead branches I'd say all bets were off.

Horse chestnuts along the roads in Belgium have succumbed to the nasty
fungal disease and brittle limbs would drop onto passing motorists from
time to time when it was windy. There were some fatalities.

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.

A chunk of tree is more likely to fall, but do not underestimate how
much damage a 4" diameter bough falling 30' can do.

Regards,
Martin Brown