The record is in excess of eight feet in diameter. The Wye oak in Maryland, before it fell, was over 10'. I have a couple more white oaks in the woods that are in the 40-60" DBH range. Majestic trees.
Thanks for the info, Jon. I can't even imagine an 8 foot diameter oak, let alone 10 feet. Would love to see that sometime. And here I was, impressed with the oak on my Aunt's property. Although, I do suspect they are VERY old, given how slowly trees grow here.
I'm wondering how the telephone/DSL company would respond to a request that they get their crews out there to remedy that situation? If they put it off, as you suspect, would they show up even sooner if the cable was to snap/break leaving no service? And an additional call saying that "Well, my fears were confirmed, the weight of the tree on the cable snapped it...when will you be here/credit my bill?" Don't think I would enjoy tacking this one myself.
That's really unbelievable. And to think there were trees like that when the settlers first came. No wonder the natives weren't too happy.
"Quercus Lobata, King Of The Valley Of the hundreds of oak species throughout the world, Quercus lobata, AKA "Valley Oak" or "California White Oak" is the tallest known of all and probably the largest by volume too. Never a widely distributed tree, Q. lobata prefers only the most fertile and deepest topsoils. The largest known specimens grow in Round Valley, south of the town of Covelo, California. This tree grows on the Fetzer property and is also known as the Fetzer Oak or Henley Oak. It is 151' tal and over 12' dbh to a massive trunk which bifurcates (splits into two trunks) at about 50'. Unlike most areas of California with good Quercus lobata habitat, the settlers of the Round Valley area did not cut their giant oaks trees for the most part. Many of the big fertile interior valleys of California with the richest topsoil had valley oaks in groves over 5km(2 miles) across, however the vast majority of these monarchs were cut down for firewood. One well known giant Q. lobata was an alleged 171' tall specimen near Visalia California which fell over many years ago. Archival photographs of this famous oak reveal it was at most about 100' tall. The crown does indeed appear huge. Perhaps the height and crown spread were mixed up."
Well, after several automated e-mails and one phone call to the right place, they are sending a technician out to look at the "problem". They're supposed to call me when they look at it. I'm guessing the tech is gonna take one look at that mess and call in a professional tree service under contract to remove the offending branch.
When an ice storm broke off my neighbors pines last year, the wires were like yours. Verizon said they wouldn't fix anything until the power company came and trimmed the trees; I explained that the power company will not trim the trees (they were not on the roadway easement), and I could not get a tree man in there for a few days. Since I only use a cell phone anymore, they just cut the connection, and never came back. Guess if I ever want a land line again, they will charge me to wire it up.
A 5 foot oak is quite large but I have a burr oak that was well over 6 feet dbh 20 years ago when I bought my wood lot. It is in a hard to reach location so I won't be cutting it but it must have gotten bigger since then. I seldom even venture onto that part of my land because it is so hard to reach.
What is it about hoosiers and tannerite? I was at a machine gun / suppressor shoot a few years back in Brown county, and the "highlight " of the day was blowing the POOP out of an old hollow hickory with a couple of milk jugs of the stuff. It was indeed fun, though.
My dad stopped by my house last night and said that he spotted a crew from Asplundh heading up the line for a look. He caught up with them and had a nice conversation. He asked if they were going to remove the snag and they said "NO WAY" - the foreman said that they were not equipped to handle that mess, they were going to take some photos and send them to the tree-service equivalent of the Special Forces/Navy SEALS. They needed expert climbers and a larger crew for safety. They also said that if I had touched it at all, and it caused any more damage, the phone company would likely bill me for 100% of the cost of removal. Of course, they'd have to prove that I was the one messing around with it. Maybe the tannerite isn't such a bad idea....
Well, at this point, the phone company gets to absorb 100% of the cost to hire a specialist. However, I imagine that it will simply get passed on to the consumer (me) through higher rates.
Looks like it was good your Dad stopped and talked with them. Moving on to any other tree now sounds like a good idea. You'll prolly get all the wood eventually... in a few years...
