On 11/26/2010 8:51 AM, Arkadiy wrote:
Hi all,

Is there a formal way to determine how bad a tree cavity is?

I have a gorgeous tree on my backyard, probably a hundred year old. I
needed to do some pruning, so I invited a few different people for an
estimate. It turned out the tree has a cavity at the base of the
trunk. One person strongly suggests to remove the tree, since it may
be dangerous -- the tree is huge. The others say it's not too bad.
The tree looks perfectly healthy othewise.

All of them do their evaluation by just looking at the tree. What I
am wonderig -- is there any formal test that can determine how bad the
problem is?

Thanks in advance,

Arkadiy


There are tree cutters and there are arborists. I'd trust the latter's
advice.

For me, what would the tree damage if it were to fall? I don't like big
trees that threaten my house if they were to fall and have removed
otherwise healthy trees because of this.