"... What i recall is that species have an average amount of height they put on yearly, (with given light availability etc.) and so, could height be used to give an approx. age?"
Sure, in a monocultural plantation. My brain plays tricks on me too. Recollections shake and quiver and spit out a simplification, and no wonder, with the gray matter shrieking for order in the chaos of nature. But it ain't that easy to find. But it can be found.
"I think it's unlikely that tree is going to make it through another 50-100 years (simply based on weights/angles/forces from the photo)..."
Well then, maybe that guesswork needs to be broken loose from the false assumption that crown configuration is constant.
We all know that with a few strokes of the saw, those dimensions are forever altered. We should know (if we are watching) that the response growth of interior buds can realign those weights/angles/forces in new but foreseeable ways.
The TRA challenge is to assess residual risk after each potential mitigation treatment. The BMP described the need, but did not describe the process in adequate detail. Maybe in 3-4 years we will see that if/then, if/then process fleshed out in a robust and compelling fashion, easy enough to follow so that arborists are comfortable in that complexity and less likely to call for Mr. Simplicity, Basil Kutz.
"...I think it would have a really good chance if there was someone who could read it like an open book, know all of it's faults, defects and needs and proscribe the ideal course of action utilizing our current tools and methods."
Boy that was so close to describing a certain fictional character! But rarely can one course be deemed ideal. Typically the owner gets a list, and yes the way the list is ordered and worde,d the arborist preference may be discerned, but still it is always the owner's choice.
"But hey, that's what we are all trying to do, isn't it? Trying to attempt the impossible as best we can."
Yes, but it is very possible to achieve the reconfiguration of trees, when we think and prune from the outside in (as nature often does), and visualize the tree changing over time.
While we're at it, let's conceive of people changing over time. Everybody has a bad day. We are too few for fratricide.
