Tree oddities

I found this today while removing a still-alive broken branch from an oak tree.
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The left piece was attached to a large limb. The right was hanging vertically. The hollow on the right only extended about two inches inward. The hollow on the left extended into the opening at the break. The branch had been broken at least two years ago.

The hollow looks very similar to ClimbingTN's post 197.
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You can see where the callous is closing the gap on this one :) Also check out the rings closely on ClimbingTN's to see the matching halves.
 
So this is a pretty weird one and the picture really doesn't do it justice if you aren't familiar with doug fir forests. Doug firs, when grown in a stand with other trees, usually lose their lower limbs due to being shaded out, and won't retain even deadwood in the lower 40-80 feet when it comes to trees of this size. Just look at the fir to it's right for what is 'normal'. This one however has, and has retained, deadwood whorls of limbs and live whorls of limbs even in the lower section, literally from top to bottom. And this tree is like 140' tall, 5'dbh and 120 years old if I had to guess. Very unusual structure.

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27RMT0N said:
So this is a pretty weird one and the picture really doesn't do it justice if you aren't familiar with doug fir forests. Doug firs, when grown in a stand with other trees, usually lose their lower limbs due to being shaded out, and won't retain even deadwood in the lower 40-80 feet when it comes to trees of this size. Just look at the fir to it's right for what is 'normal'. This one however has, and has retained, deadwood whorls of limbs and live whorls of limbs even in the lower section, literally from top to bottom. And this tree is like 140' tall, 5'dbh and 120 years old if I had to guess. Very unusual structure.

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Take a cutting and graft it? I have a ‘weeping’ hemlock on my daily route, I was given permission to take a few cuttings years ago. Every time I drive by I think ‘welp the tree is still there should get around to it’
 
That would be interesting, yah. I was actually back there yesterday and climbed in it to give a better sense of scale, still in person it feels a lot bigger than this picture looks like.

About 200' away from it was this awesome alder. Pretty unique compared to the way the usually grow in stands and single stemmed like the third photo here just down the road.

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@southsoundtree No doubt, yet one of the biggest issues with getting that point across is so many of the old ones are hollow. Not unlike bigleaf maple.

I think it’s that and some of their wrap for ‘widow’ makers has an element to how they can be hard to ‘read’ or unpredictable…. Meaning I’ve been certain that a decaying strip that looks legitimately bad must mean the rot goes pretty deep and it’s basically a horse shoe of good wood. WRONG, it’s literally just half an inch in depth and it’s pretty solid.
Other times it might look fine but for an alder it’s pretty darn bad.
Around here they are being attacked by a bark beetle, that brings in a fungi which is quickly fatal. Tops wink out rapidly and some just will have a half dollar sized black ooze spot and blink out in one to two years.
Some are crazy good compartmentalizers others are utter trash.
More so to the layman, painting them all with the broad brush of, junky trees, weed trees, widow makers, and they only live to 40-60 years anyway. Mow deem weeds down..

@27RMT0N have you read the fire scar data from Waldron island? Continuous control fires about 8-10 years apart, the introduction of small pox spaced them much further out, and then when whitey finally colonized the area they essentially ceased. I wonder if that tree started its life in open grown prairie? Got a read on the age of the neighbors? Any old charcoal ‘stains’ on the butt?
I’ve heard many of the oaks were leveled to feed the kilns post settlement.
lifeonorcasisland.com

The Lime Kilns on Orcas Island - Life on Orcas Island

You’ll notice some structures overgrown with ivy or eroding on the lapping shore near town. They are lime kilns. Our boys have had a sudden interest in them, so we’ve visited the three we know of a few times now. They reek of mystery and intrigue, but their past is … Continue reading
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Serf Life said:
4 cords a day for the kiln, woof that's a bunch schlepping.
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X ~60 years and that’s just one company.
Many small lumber mills around here had conveyors feeding waist into giant burn pits, I’ve read accounts where the whole area looked like Mordor.
About 1.5 miles from us is a man made lake, a mill caught a peat bog on fire and it burned for more than a year. The good ole boys got sick of it and diverted a creek to put the fire out.
 
Not that crazy, but I thought it was funny how it looked like the tree was floating just above the ground. The cuts were made the year after I moved to the neighborhood, and I never saw whether those were branches or roots, away from which the ground had eroded.

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