September was weird dude.

I chipped a rope for the first time (and last time). Jack fell in a pool while throw-lining (we have video evidence). I drove everywhere and back again, mind numb from all the windshield time. Jack and Rachel got married. September was cool but fast. Really fast.

Anyway, I’ve been hunting down an explanation for a certain feature I’ve seen more than ever lately. Looks a bit something like this:

Maybe you’ve seen this decay feature (no, not a ‘defect’) on the base of trees too. I don’t really know what to call this. We’ve got a few trees with this syndrome under our care.

I've tried to explain to some clients that I don't really know what causes it, but I know trees with this condition aren't necessarily screwed.

Of course I’ve casually wondered about these features, but with work and focusing on other things. I can’t focus on every interest I find. But once I realized I might’ve landed on a pattern I decided I didn’t want to let this curiosity go until I was satisfied.

I’ve seen this feature on other tree species too, but this month I keep seeing it on red maples, freeman maples, and the occasional silver maple.

What you're seeing is a column of dysfunctional wood encircled by the living wood in this tree’s trunk. The dysfunctional column’s extension down into the root plate is a key hint here.

Currently working on a video script explaining what ‘sectorialism’ is in trees, and how I think it might explain these features.

Firstly:

A predominant theory many who work in trees are introduced to is how healthy trees respond to their limbs being removed. An important and extremely complex subject that is quite poetically simplified for the practitioner. The author of this theory, Dr. Alex Shigo, was quite the wordsmith. An unintended result of that keen ability to simplify, some of his simplifications have mutated into dogma (a whole separate topic I can gripe about).

His descriptive theory was called the Compartmentalization of Decay in Trees, or CODIT for short. Modern practitioners now swap out ‘decay’ for the word ‘dysfunction’ instead.

One of the criticisms of the CODIT model is its inability to apply its concepts of compartmentalization to dysfunction in the absence of a wound. CODIT’s limitations are quite obvious when you look at heart rot, drought induced cavitation, etc..

Fundamentally it is a wound-response metaphor that describes how healthy trees deal with external wounds. Many trees are not healthy, and dysfunction occurs in many different ways to trees besides mechanical wounding to their exterior.

I think sectorialism complements the CODIT model well, but making the synergy in plain English is extremely challenging.

The video should go over not only what sectorialism is, but use its explanation also as a way to nudge the arboriculturally-minded viewer that there are more advancements in the study of trees and in the thinking of trees beyond the CODIT model.

I realize I haven’t gone into what sectorialism is at all in this email. And would you look at that? It’s time to go to bed. Looks like you’ll have to wait for me. I hope I’ll have a video created soon.

That is all for tonight. Get some rest.

Jeremiah & TF