I was walking in the woods in Cold Spring Park yesterday and came across a half dozen trees with curious red bits on them.
The red was applied to either exposed roots or to spots on the trunk where there was no bark. It gave them a sort of eerie and mysterious look – as if the red was the tree innards. I was completely stumped :-) whether this was an artistic undertaking or whether the red was some kind of treatment to protect bits of the tree that had been damaged.
Can anyone shed light on this mystery?
As a runner who has tripped over many a root in Cold Spring, I originally thought they marked the roots to make them more visible. I read either in the Newton Highland google group or in Newton Nextdoor that it was a measure to protect the trees. Maybe someone who reads this will have a better recollection of the specifics.
These are trees that have some rot and are under stress. The red “paint” (which can also come in other colors) is likely the work of a tree expert that has removed the rot and painted the rot to help bring it back to full strength. The paint serves as a protective layer and also deters animals from making the problem worse.
I saw several of these a few years back climbing while Mount Monadnock. A Park Ranger told me it was to protect the trees from insect infestation. The trees on Monadnock with these paint markings were big and they looked quite old. I don’t know how you scientifically categorize trees that are “over the hill”, but this non scientific definition pretty much sums up the way they looked to me.
@Bob:
I guess you and I had better stay away from people with red paint cans!!!!
:):):)
@Point taken Sallee.
That red paint looks very tough, so I assume it’s to protect bare wood from insects, etc. I hope that’s the case, because a quick Google search says that “red is used to indicate the boundary within which the timber harvesting is to take place”!