- Location
- Orange, MA
So I've got a rather large red oak in my back yard, partially over the house. Being the big tree hugging tree worker I am, I've elected to leave it mostly be, besides deadwooding it as needed, and its scheduled for some cabling in the near future. Its certainly a mature tree, and has obviously seen some troubles in its day. The trunk last I recall from last spring is a little over 16 feet in circumference at chest height, and is single trunked to about 20 ft where it then splits off into 5 main leads. Tree is probably a solid 90' tall, with a spread of at least 80'.
So aside from a few large pieces of deadwood off the back side of the tree, over nothing important, the "center" lead of the tree appears to have an old tearout about 8 feet up from the main split of the larger leads. It was always old wood in the wound, and you can tell its spent many years putting on callous wood and nearly closed it over, save for a probably 10" by 30" long cavity which was backed by old wood inside. So I go out today, and notice a big streak of sawdust down the side of the tree, starting from that old tearout, and sure enough see a raccoon head poking out the hole, and waiting a few more minutes, see a few babies in there too.
Now aside from sugar maples and porcupines, havent really dealt with wildlife in trees before. Obviously I want to do what I can for the tree, if there is any chance the raccoons are going to do any damage to the live holding wood inside the cavity, yet I dont have plans to set up shop and shoot em dead either.
Seeing as its likely a mother with a few newborns, is this a long term problem, or do they take up shelter short term while the pups mature? I dont have any problems letting nature take its course, and filling the hole after they vacate to avoid having bees or anyone else taking its place after they leave, if they in fact, will leave at all. Or am I going to have to go find some have a heart traps and deal with it that way?
So aside from a few large pieces of deadwood off the back side of the tree, over nothing important, the "center" lead of the tree appears to have an old tearout about 8 feet up from the main split of the larger leads. It was always old wood in the wound, and you can tell its spent many years putting on callous wood and nearly closed it over, save for a probably 10" by 30" long cavity which was backed by old wood inside. So I go out today, and notice a big streak of sawdust down the side of the tree, starting from that old tearout, and sure enough see a raccoon head poking out the hole, and waiting a few more minutes, see a few babies in there too.
Now aside from sugar maples and porcupines, havent really dealt with wildlife in trees before. Obviously I want to do what I can for the tree, if there is any chance the raccoons are going to do any damage to the live holding wood inside the cavity, yet I dont have plans to set up shop and shoot em dead either.
Seeing as its likely a mother with a few newborns, is this a long term problem, or do they take up shelter short term while the pups mature? I dont have any problems letting nature take its course, and filling the hole after they vacate to avoid having bees or anyone else taking its place after they leave, if they in fact, will leave at all. Or am I going to have to go find some have a heart traps and deal with it that way?
