Tree stump growth and treehouses

[Notmyrealnam]

If you cut down a 40-foot (12-meter) Norway maple to a height of 6 to 10 feet (about 2 meters) and you build a platform on the stump (either on the cut trunk or just above where the trunk branches in two) for a child's "treehouse" (actually a "stumphouse"), will the cambium layer continue to grow and tend to make the platform unstable?

We're having this tree removed because it is a squirrel magnet and we have squirrel damage to the roof of our house.

One of the tree removal people gave us an estimate of $950 to cut the tree down and an additional $1,200 to remove both the stump and the large, extensive roots.

I then described my "stumphouse" idea, and he said we shouldn't do this because the cambium layer will continue to grow, especially since we would be removing most of the aboveground part of the tree and leaving the root system to supply lots of water. I don't understand this because I thought a tree that has no leaves "dies".

I'm wondering whether he said this because he has an ulterior motive - getting hired to remove the stump and roots. Or is he being a good guy and looking out for the safety of my child?

[gen2]

At this time of the year, much of the tree's energy resources will be stored in the roots and come springtime, the sap will rise (as far as it can) and promote new growth at the top of the stump. This treatment of a tree is called pollarding. Vigorous new growth will push upwards from the cut end of the stump.. I have seen this happen in sycamore (a relative of maple) in the grounds of a local church where they had the trees drastically cut back a few years ago.

On the other hand, an ash tree in my grandfather's garden died after being cut to a stump of about 10-12 feet.
Maybe it depends on the time of year it is cut? or maybe the species?

In your case, you can prevent growth at the cut end of the stump by ring-barking it at a lower level. Any new growth will then occur at this new lower level and you can cut shoots off as they grow if you want to continue to restrict the growth of the tree.

[wildwood]

If the tree is not near others, could you not attach a sheet of thin galvanised iron around the trunk, about 2' high, and keep the squirrels out that way? Find someone artistic in your family and with a bit of imaginative painting you'd hardly notice it. It seems a pity to destroy a tree just for the sake of the squirrel nuisance.

[Notmyrealnam]

Thanks for the ring-barking idea - that sounds promising. (I know of that as "girdling", but hadn't thoguht of it.)

As for just putting a metal collar on the tree to keep the squirrel sform climbing it, I do hate to cut it down, but a collar wouldn't solve the problem.

For one thing, its branches are very close to the power lines, which the squirrels use as a highway system, and pruning wouldn't fix that.

For another, the squirrels have parties in the tree - five or six of them will hang upside down eating the samaras (helicopter-shaped seed pods), and then they leisurely scamper all over the roof , exploring any holes that already exist and making new ones simply because they're there and they feel the need to gnaw (squirrels need to wear down their teeth on something). They sit on the peak, hang their heads over the edge, and make a hole in the fascia board. Or they start digging in the valleys of the roof and get in there.

Last winter I trapped and killed four squirrels that were living in the eaves. (It's illegal here for homeowners to transport squirrels off their property, in part because that can spread diseases; they come back "home" anyway if transported up to 20 miles or so away; and if you take them farther away they tend to invade somebody else's house because they are "rogue squirrels" that have learned to prefer houses to trees in the winter.) I don't want to go through that again - I'd rather kill the tree than more squirrels.

But I might put a metal collar on the stump (once it has a platform on it), in case they still like it and use it to get up on the roof a lot. The point is that they can get onto the roof with or without the tree - they can use the power lines or downspouts, and I'm pretty sure that I've even seen them go right up the brick wall of the house in the past - but the tree's samaras make it the favorite neighborhood hangout joint.