cerviarborist
Very stable member
- Location
- Florida, USA
Before taking any action, it's best practice to first see how well the tree has solved the problem in its own way. Once it completely overgrows the rope, the wound wood and/or reaction wood the tree has developed by that point, will actually be significantly stronger than naturally occurring and non-reactive wood grown in other areas. If you can peel the rope away without much effort, do so, otherwise, the tree has been addressing the problem on its own for a long time and is probably quite close to completion of its adaptive task.
Granted, it's very poor practice to girdle a tree with anything over an extended period, but once the tree has heavily invested in its own solution (ie: an old poorly placed pruning cut placed well outside branch bark collar, with decay at the cut point, or the OP situation with a girdling rope), It's also bad practice to eliminate the work the tree has done for years to solve the issue and move it back to the starting point once again.
Short point: In the absence of reaction/wound wood, fix it.. in the presence of reaction/wound wood, it's likely already been fixed.
Granted, it's very poor practice to girdle a tree with anything over an extended period, but once the tree has heavily invested in its own solution (ie: an old poorly placed pruning cut placed well outside branch bark collar, with decay at the cut point, or the OP situation with a girdling rope), It's also bad practice to eliminate the work the tree has done for years to solve the issue and move it back to the starting point once again.
Short point: In the absence of reaction/wound wood, fix it.. in the presence of reaction/wound wood, it's likely already been fixed.
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