Power company trimming Oaks right now

[lindy rig]

We live near a power line easement. Bunch of oak trees along our property line. Today some guys came out and started cutting a bunch of oak. We asked and they said the U of M lifted the oak wilt ban right now.

Anyone know anything about this? Seem odd in middle of summer?

[Dotch]

Hmmm...had not heard anything about lifting of a ban. The latest U fact sheet which granted is getting a little long in the tooth (2002) says less chance during July - October so I suppose one could read something like that into it. Still seems like the best policy to wait until November.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/environment/trees-woodlands/oak-wilt-in-minnesota/

[leech~~]

I think the power guys are really only thinking about power service and not much about how the tree grow! The Maples in my back yard have a large V shape cut right out of the middle of them. Tree trimming is not their best asset!

[lindy rig]

It's annoying too because apparently they just changed their rule from 60' from center to 75'. So they are taking down 15' of additional woodland.

Not sure how 60' can be good enough for years and years and all of the sudden it needs to be 75'. Like most things it's B S.

[Meyer8043]

Yup they lifted it. Were trimming oaks in St. Paul also

[delcecchi]

http://www.myminnesotawoods.umn.edu/2010/03/oak-wilt-risk-status-in-minnesota/

(Low risk, as of July 15, 2014)

[Dotch]

Thanks del! So in other words, nothing has really changed and keep on doing what I'm doing. That's not pruning until November or later since I really like my oak trees. In my mind, they take a long time to grow so why risk screwing them up? I'd like to leave them as my legacy for the next generation.

[delcecchi]

Winter is probably best for sure.

[LwnmwnMan2]

I live in Oak Wilt country.

Wyoming to Ham Lake to Isanti to North Branch.

Trimming has nothing to do with the spread of Oak Wilt. Carlos Avery has been devastated by Oak Wilt, no one is trimming trees in Carlos Avery.

Trenching does nothing to stop Oak Wilt. The neighbor trenched his whole yard, still lost all of his Oaks.

The best solution we've seen is to cut down all the infected Oaks, plus the next layer of healthy Oaks around it.

We've gone into 30 acre plots and cut down over 500 trees that were dead because people just let it go.

That link has a lot of false information.

We only cut down diseased trees, bring them back to our property (mainly Red Oak) and cut and split the trees, stacking on pallets with no cover for the wood to dry.

We had previously stopped the spread of Oak Wilt on our property by the above method and other properties. We have other neighbors continuing to lose Oaks because they don't do anything about it. We've offered to remove the trees for no charge to stop the spread, but they hate the fact our kids ride 4 wheelers (on 20 acres, well within city ordinances away from other's properties and within the legal times) so they won't deal with us.

There is another fact sheet from a different part of the U that follows what we do.

We've had as much as 100 full cord of oak split, stacked next to all of our Oaks and we still have the Oaks.