Any help for this Doug fir yard tree?

T

Tree Lady

Participating member
Location
Dunsmuir, Far Northern Cal.
Removed about 15 dead/dying limbs with beetle sign.
Exit holes are oval 4-7mm wide. Galleries are up to 1 cm wide, mostly in sap wood. Frass is fine, white to tan colored.
Flat headed fir borer?

Tree is 70 ft with dbh 32".

Took pictures of some girdling rings on the middle portion of the stem. Woodpecker activity, sap, and reaction wood/swelling. The highest ring has loose bark.
 

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Bugs are my weak spot... any chance this tree was used for rigging? looks like it could have been girdled buy sling compression, then colonized by bugs... I've mostly known borers to well bore into the stem, and this wouldn't explain the ring... I do see what looks like a pitch tube in the first photo.
 
ATH said:
I don't know western tree pests so well...but if that were here, I'd say almost all of that looks like sapsucker damage.
Click to expand...
I would agree on that, I sure see a lot of sapsucker looking damage too. I’m also curious about the rings on the trunk, was something wrapped around it for some time? Cables to support grapevines or something?
 
How high off the ground is the "ring"? It does look like some serious sapsucker feeding. I have seen similar rings on Hickory.
 
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Regardless of the cause the tree was essentially girdled or nearly girdled at that point. I don't know of any insect capable of doing so in such a organized fashion (also doesn't make sense biologically to kill the host that quickly), a heavy attack could kill a tree very quick but not in such a organized manner as this.
Obviously there are many bugs in this area, and it might be a little chicken and the egg, but my guess is some type of mechanical injury with a subsequent beetle/borer attack. While possible it is caused by birds I'd caution this might be after the fact. Simply preying on the bugs?
Just my guess, as this doesn't fit any common pattern I see about 600+ miles away
 
I'm in the general region, and I have never see a Douglas with rings like that that didn't have embedded wire, usually from fencing. That high up, I don't know who else but one of "us" could have put wires around the trunk like that, so I am leery of jumping to that conclusion. Is the homeowner looking to try to avoid removing this tree? I wouldn't want to keep that thing with all those issues, and would avoid putting my saw into those rings.
 
It is sapsuckers. Willamson's sapsuckers like doug fir. I recently spotted another just like it (without the beetles) at another job (in another town.)
They definitely want to keep the tree, if it can be saved from the beetles.
 
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From the photos and my experience it looks like girdling most often when I see like that its due to a steel cable wrapped around the stem. One point here it was common practice to top a tree and install a TV antenna to pick up Seattle TV stations. So I see a lot of damage consistent with that from human.. Regardless of the cause, the tree is girdled to some degree at those rings.. Sapsuckers up here don't seem to do that to dougs but I can't see why they couldn't elsewhere..

Prognosis without cause is it is a stress riser, and if the tree is going to break it will likely be at one of those rings (unless there is some greater defect).. Can't really quantify how likely that is... But it's a weak link in the chain, which will break given the right loading stresses. I'm sure yall know this but when wood is put on it comes from the top down with the new ring.. Only thing that could be done outside of beetles and getting the birds out of there is reduction pruning of the limbs, consider the same for the top depending on the site. Not good for the tree, but short of removal its the better option.
 
Tree Lady said:
Removed about 15 dead/dying limbs with beetle sign.
Exit holes are oval 4-7mm wide. Galleries are up to 1 cm wide, mostly in sap wood. Frass is fine, white to tan colored.
Flat headed fir borer?

Tree is 70 ft with dbh 32".

Took pictures of some girdling rings on the middle portion of the stem. Woodpecker activity, sap, and reaction wood/swelling. The highest ring has loose bark.
Click to expand...
You are probably correct on the borers. what does the crown of tree look like? Any dead branches? Are trees needles looking light green instead of healthy dark green? Judging from amount of pitch running to cover wound I would say tree is fairly healthy. Sapsuckers can weaken younger tree upper crowns by hammering out their patterns for pitch for sweet sap flow after repeated usage. Not big deal in a healthy forest as birds need to eat. Tree must be a bit compromised in some way whether it is off site, near road, bldg., droughted etc as a 32" DF is usually well over 100". Am not an arborist but I know DF trees.
 
Needles look good except on at least two branches. In the right light, you can see that they are "off". I will go up and remove them and any others that develop, late winter. I removed all the dead branches. It's a yard tree, near a retaining wall/sidewalk/road on one side. The rest is 2/3 lawn/landscape 1/3 wild.
 
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