Myerscough Tree Clearing for New Build, October 2001

We are now in October 2001. Myerscough College are to have a new two-storey laboratories and classroom block built on land just at the side of my office and the area is currently covered by trees, both great and small.

To make things slightly more difficult, the tree on the left, one of the larger trees, is a Canadian sugar maple, rare in the UK and a "listed tree" in the same manner that buildings are listed. The college could not just cut it down but had to plan to move it complete with branches, foliage, root ball and all to a new suitable site elsewhere on the campus.

9 October 2001. The more common trees can be cut down and chipped - a useful training opportunity for the Arboriculture students.

10 October 2001. The smaller trees are being cut down. This has to be done in stages, with acensions up the tree to cleear the larger branches first so that the tree trunk can be safely cut in sections according to the size of the tree. As building foundations have to go down on the site, the roots have to be removed.

This is achieved using an air spade - which blasts air down giving a bit more force than your foot! In this photo, the staff and students are digging around the rootball of the sugar maple. You can see the size of the rootball from the distance they are away from the trunk of the tree. Following the digging, the rootball has to be protected and nourished through hessian sheeting to keep the tree alive.

23 October 2001. The five more important trees are lifted with this massive "tree spade" that is folded around the trunk and then digs down around the rootball lifting all at once. The first few attempts lift the front of the vehicle before the roots are freed! They are then transplanted elsewhere on the campus grounds.

9 January 2002. The sugar maple is massive though - far too big to be lifted in such a simple manner and it is closer to the existing laboratories so there cannot be any risk of it falling onto the roof of those.

The potential new site will mean it has to be carried around the end of the building from where I am taking these photographs at my office window. When that happens my building will have to be evacuated just in case. It will take a full 24 hours involving bringing a crane onsite in order to build yet another crane large enough to lift the tree and swing it aroud our building. Join us next time...!

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