National Trust Saltram's tallest tree in garden to be felled
Mr Stott said the felling was a reluctant and difficult decision. "Every avenue to try to find a workable way to keep the tree was explored at length."
He explained the one of the cracks was growing vertically and had been measured to penetrate over 1.5m (5ft) into the heart of the stem. He said: "The crack can clearly be seen to be opening and closing during windy weather and although the tree is visibly putting on response growth to try and mitigate this structural defect, it will not be able to compensate for the weakness to the stem that the crack is causing."He added that a second crack was discovered last year as well as the growth of the cauliflower fungus.
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