i live on oahu and am on the board at my condo. tonight the lady from our management company said she is looking in to having all of our eucalyptus trees cut down. She spoke with an arborist who said they can fall over for no reason. is there any truth to that? i want to fight this!...maybe they are protected?
try going for a second opinion, there are two organizations that you should investigate; http://www.isa-arbor.com/findArborist/findarborist.aspx and http://www.asca-consultants.org/why_how.html
In the Los Angeles suburbs, eucalyptus trees are common at 50-60 foot heights. Had two in my yard. Never saw any in the area that had "fallen over".
We have many of these in Australia, and they are renowned for "falling over". They have very shallow roots. In high winds, and especially when there has been a lot of rain, the soil is wet, they let go easily. I had a 25 metre tree fall in my backyard a couple of years ago, and it fell with an almighty "crack". I heard over the music playing in the house, which was turned up VERY loud!! If anyone would have been in its path it would of killed them. Safety first... Ed
First question in such instances is does the "arborist" really know anything or are they just someone like we have around here - a laid-off logger who tops and cuts down trees? Next question (in this particular instance) is do the individual specimens in question exhibit signs of being hazardous, or is this a case of "if it's a eucalyptus it's dangerous because all eucalyptus fall over"?
... and to follow-up on Ron B's comment, there aren't any specific Eucalyptus species that are prone to "fall over". If planted young, the root systems will develop in such a way to anchor the tree. Larger planted Euc's have a more confined root system and don't radiate outward to anchor the speed of the top growth in some cases. So if planted properly, most Eucalypts are fine. Staked or larger potted specimen can be trouble. Soil compostion may also have a part in the anchoring process. Cheers, LPN.
They are susceptible to high winds, mine split twice and fell down in the garden from about half way up the tree when it reached around 40feet. i cut the whole thing down to a bare stump around 10 feet tall and it has all grown back very nicely in the last two years to around 25 feet again, so don't be afraid to prune and cut them back drastically, they will spring back into life. Nath
