I was doing a forest inventory for a management plan in a woodlot this morning and came across this burl on a hard (sugar) maple. I have seen lots of burls before but not one at ground level and one that completely surrounded the entire base of the tree. The tree's diameter at breast height wasabout 30 inches.
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Wade
Great find...!
With the tree being healthy and not have any specific and justifiable reason to have it cut (yes, having such a burl, doesn't make it "justifiable" to cut down, even though I admit, is hard not to...!
In fact, that burl has just the ideal characteristics to be partially harvested by someone that knows how its done, the safest way and the way the tree will recover quickly (5 years) and doesn't put the tree's life in risk is to harvest about 1/3 of it, one single cut/slice from the tree bark edge, straight down.
Those burls "normally" grow as a "ring" around the tree bark, this mean that, there will be about 1/3 or more of the burl under the ground but, in a similar shape as it show above ground so, the side where the burl slice is to be harvested, the soil needs to be dug out, just to clear the rest of the burl's slice to be cut, bottom so, you will endup with a very close to "turtle shell" shape slice...!
There are also organic sealers that are made to cover the wound and prevent rot or other nasty contamination, these products work like a artificial skin until the tree re-grows it own that, will be more burl, in this case...!
So that you know...!:wink::biggrin:
Cheers
George
