Expert: Jim Hyland - 9/13/2006

Question
I am buying a house with a huge, beautiful redwood about 15' from the side of the house. At its base, it is about 15' in circumference. Near the bottom there is about a 2' stretch where the bark was damaged - it is gone down to the hardwood. It must have happened at least a year ago. The tree has semi-healed at the sides of the break. First, will this kill the tree? And second, just above the break is some loose bark that isn't really attached to the tree. Do I need to remove it so that insects don't live in there? And last, there is a lot of ivy and Virginia creeper on the tree. Do I need to remove it?

Thanks, Andrena

Answer
The tree will heal itself but to help it I would cut the loose bark back to the wound. Do not put anything on the wound this will slow the healing. This will make the healing process faster. Yes remove the ivy from the tree ti will eventually cause health problems with the tree.