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Are sycamore trees the best wind-breaks for seaside West Highlands?

Started by ship69, December 16, 2015, 11:22:23 AM

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ship69

Hello

What trees would you recommend to plant to act as a seaside wind break in the West Highlands of Scotland?

The trees need to:
- Resist salt spray from the sea
- Not break/fall over in strong winds
- Grow reasonably quickly

The soil will be fairly acidic (peat/sand). There will be heavy rainfall. The ground is bumpy / rocky but the rocks are not very alkaline - the local water has always been very soft, certainly. Mostly the ground is slightly raised and so should drain reasonably well. In places it may be rather boggy. The trees will be planted inside a deer-proof fence.

Background
We have a small farm very near the sea, in a pretty exposed place in the West Highlands of Scotland, that currently has mostly sycamores growing on it.  The young sycamores seem to grow fairly fast, however the adult trees seem to get quite 'leggy' and a lot of the more exposed upper branches seem to be dying. The trees are in the grounds of a big old house. In the last few years we have lost a lot of the bigger older trees to storm damage. We have tried pollarding some of the upper branches, which has helped somewhat. The presence of trees does slightly help shelter the main house itself from storm damage.

Other species growing locally oak, scots pine, silver birch, copper beech tree, rhododendron, spruce, holly, hazelnut.... We have been told that willow could be good for biomass, if we want to do that at some point (we're not sure). 

Should we carry on with sycamores - as a wind break?

Many thanks

J




beenthere

j

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.

That is an interesting question, to answer and also cover all the bases.  ;D

How about some pics of the scene where you are looking for some windbreak, and what your landscape looks like now ??  We like pics, and some of the other species may help as well. Your species may grow up a bit differently there than here.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Ljohnsaw

On the coast out west here, you see lots of Eucalyptus, brought over from Australia.  Grows extremely fast but is rather trashy - sheds bark, the leaves are thick/tough and don't seem to rot quickly and the weird little acorn-like pods last forever.  It is a very strong tree, just try and split it! ;)  They grow very tall and are very dense.  Not sure if you would be allowed to import a non-native, somewhat invasive tree, however. :-\
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

ship69

Quote from: beenthere on December 16, 2015, 12:02:17 PM

How about some pics of the scene where you are looking for some windbreak, and what your landscape looks like now ??

When I next go back up there I will take photos however sadly I don't have any photos to hand and we wont but back up there for several weeks possibly months... 

For now can anyone shed any light on sycamores? For some reason my brother seems to think that sycamores are particularly good at surviving salt spray, however although saplings seem to be growing well, on the adult trees the upper branches keep dying off.

sawguy21

Welcome aboard. This is interesting. The Canadian west coast has similar conditions to yours, conifers Douglas fir in particular are very common and seem about the only type that can survive such a harsh environment. I am not at all familiar with sycamore but hardwoods don't seem to do as well, the don't have the flexibility to withstand strong winds without breaking.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Ianab

What's the climate like?

The classic seaside trees here in NZ are Norfolk Island Pine and Pohutukawa, but they are frost tender and don't like the temp dropping below about 1C.  I think your climate is more like the Southern parts of NZ, although on the coast it may not be as cold? But those handle the wind and salt situations better than almost anything.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

ship69

> What's the climate like?

Regular gales of 80-100 mph.  It is also very near the sea so lots of salt spray. Cold / temperate/ wet.
The Gulf Stream keeps the average up to about 6 C in the winter. Snow and frost only occasionally. Only very exceptionally it can go down to -10 to -16C.

In the summer it averages about 16-18C. Rainfall about 1700mm (67 inches - 5.5 foot) per year.

J

Ianab

Those heavy frosts are a problem. Where I am it might frost down to -4C. You can get Norfolk Island pines established with that, but it's too cold for pohutakawa. Without the frost they would handle the other conditions. 
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

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