Mushroom conk on a red oak looked fine until last week

I was doing a routine hazard assessment on a property off Route 9 in Albany last week and spotted a shelf fungus near the base of a 60 foot red oak. Three years ago I would have walked right past it, but after watching a tree come down on a neighbor's shed in 2021 from the same thing, I tapped the trunk with a mallet and heard that hollow thud. Cut a core sample and found the heartwood was basically spongy all the way up past the first branch union. Anyone else started carrying a core borer on every job now, or is that overkill for smaller residential work?

1 comments

1 Comment

pat_harris3h ago

Good call on the core borer, that save is worth the extra weight!