Cut off date for pruning trees due to birds nesting?

aka_Ciaran

Hi all,

I live in Dublin on the northside and I have a back garden approx 5 m wide by 18 m long. At the end of the garden there are 3 fairly mature trees...I have no idea what type they are but I would guess they have been there for a good 20 years or more. Problem is in the summer the branches get very full and I lose about 15 to 20 feet of the garden. So I want to cut some of the branches and give them a trim. A friend of mine said that there are certain times of the year that it is illegal to trim branches of trees, due to birds nesting, hatching etc. Is this true, and if so what are the dates?

Cheers,
Ciaran.

Oldtree

It is illegal to fell any tree over the age of 10 years in Ireland, with exceptions.

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/forestservice/treefelling/legalrequirementsfortreefelling/

The restrictions your friend may be referring to are probably listed here and refer to hedgerows and the destruction of vegetation on uncultivated land:

http://www.environ.ie/en/Environment/News/MainBody,19790,en.htm

The law is there to protect the nesting birds and not the trees.

Pruning is a different matter.

From the point of view of the correct time to prune trees the optimum would be winter, followed by summer. Spring and autumn are not good times to prune trees. I would suggest you leave it until next winter esp if there are nests in the trees.

When you do prune "Target Pruning" is the most appropiate type of pruning. see here for a brief idea of what to do:

http://nhaconsultants.co.uk/naturaltargetpruning.aspx

What colour and size are the buds at the moment? It is important to know what type of tree you are going to prune before pruning them.

saying all that the tree law in Ireland leaves somthing to be desired, have a read of this:

http://archives.tcm.ie/westernpeople/2007/12/12/story39070.asp

it would appear that ignorance of the law is an accepted defence in irish courts!

aka_Ciaran

Oldtree wrote: »

What colour and size are the buds at the moment? It is important to know what type of tree you are going to prune before pruning them.

Hi Oldtree thanks for the update. Most of what I've seen so far seems to apply to hedgerows in rural areas, and also felling trees. I'm talking about cutting back some overhanging branches at the bottom of my garden in an urban area, so I'm not sure if the hedgerow stuff applies, maybe it does.

As for the buds, some of the trees are starting to flower at the moment and they are a slightly pinkish colour. Maybe I can take a picture and post it which might give a better indication of the type of tree.

Oldtree

I was just trying to cover all the angles. There is no law against pruning trees provided the trees belong to you. If they are overhanging from your neighbours side you can prune them back to the fence but not so much that you kill your neighbours tree (and leave yourself open to litigation). If you do prune neighbours overhanging branches you must offer to return them to the neighbour as it is their property.

Again timing of the pruning will have an impact on the trees ablity to recover from the wounds and I would also avoid intruding on nesting birds.

Pop the photos on here and I'll give it a go to ID, and maby some other advices.

aka_Ciaran

Hi Oldtree, here's some pics. Hopefully they're clear enough to give you an idea of what they might be. The whole garden is a mess and really needs a facelift...I have no clue about gardening so any suggestions would be much appreciated....

Ciaran.

snowman707

Oldtree wrote: »

It is illegal to fell any tree over the age of 10 years in Ireland, with exceptions, without a felling license

!

fixed that for you,

Oldtree

Thank you mr/mrs snowman (I won't argue the point that a felling licence is in itself an exception!) :p;)

Ciaran, it looks like flowers on your cherries at the moment and possibly a tree covered with ivy. Cherries do not take a pruning well and tend to get diseased very easily after pruning.

If you could take a close up of branches of all trees from about a foot I would be surer.

It looks like a mound of stuff has been put under the cherries. This can affect the feeder roots of the trees.

If you could take a few shots of the full length and breath of the garden I would be happy to give you a few ideas.

Have you been in the house long? The trees do afford you a certain amount of privacy both in the summer and the winter. If you are determined to prune then be aware that the trees can respond by putting out fast growing shoots. This happens as a tree is a self balancing system, balancing roots to shoots. If you decide to harshly prune, if you remove more than a third in one go of a tree then it could get a severe shock and die.

aka_Ciaran

Hi Oldtree thanks for the info. Yes the tree on the right is covered in ivy (is it an ivy tree...is there such a thing??), and yes there is a mound of clay that I put down the end temporarily 2 years ago (!) which I plan to get rid of soon.

I'll be in the house 4 years in July. The trees do give good shelter and privacy alright. Problem is I'm thinking of building a wooden cabin to use as an office down the end of the garden, pretty much the full width or as wide as possible, so will need to take back some of the space.

I'll hopefully get some more pics up after work tomorrow evening.

Oldtree

No ivy tree as such. For starters look at the base of the tree with the ivy in it. Distinguish between the Ivy and the tree stem(s). Cut the ivy stem and remove a section of about 10 inches long of the ivy stem. Take care not to damage the bark of the tree. This will kill the ivy. Depending on the amount and weight of ivy in the tree it may be prudent for you to remove all of the ivy from the tree. In the countryside I just leave the ivy in the tree to rot away slowly. This will allow a huge amount of light into your garden and may change your mind about removing too much of the cherries/other trees.

If you are digging for a foundation for the cabin take great care with the support roots of the large trees.

aka_Ciaran

Hi again Oldtree - I've attached some close ups of the cherry branches and a close up of the base of the tree that's covered in ivy...hope you can make them out. There's a 5 pic limit with attachments so I'll post some of the garden in general next.

aka_Ciaran

Ok here's some of the end of the garden, as you can see it's a bit of a mess so would love some suggestions for a facelift. Going from left to right the shed is on the left and the ivy covered tree is on the bottom right. The last two pics are further back, taken from the back door. I'll probably knock the wooden shed as it's a bit of an eyesore, then remove the mound of clay at the bottom, but after that I have no clue what to do. Size wise it's about 13 metres long by 8 metres wide.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Oldtree

Don't have broadband and the download speed has gone right down in the last few days so I will have to leave it to the wend to have a look at the pics. Will give you a few suggestions them