In the pictures it looks like there is a small Norway spruce, one of my very favorite kinds of trees, growing underneath and/or in front of one of the pines. The pines look like Scots pines, which are not the best kind of pine for my tastes.

I think you should take your time deciding. You can keep the pines for a while and prune off the Dead lower limbs and see how you like them. Or you could cut the one that is growing over the Norway spruce to give it more room to grow and then decide about the other pine tree later. If your house is 20 feet away I don't think they are too close.

Thanks for the reply. Yes the small pine growing next to the big pines, is really pretty. So I guess would cutting down the big one next to it actually be beneficial in it growing? I'm curious how its going to do though, as it has grown in the shade under the bigger pines, and now w/ us cutting down all the others it is in full sun. There is actually a few of these nice pines starting to grow all over our property. Do they grow big and nice? Fast growth or slow? thanks.

Agree with Norway Spruce for the small one, and Scots Pine for the large. Where it grows well Scots Pine is a very nice tree, but it doesn't do well with hot, humid summers and can succumb to pine wilt nematode.

Of yours in the photo, the left hand one with a forked trunk is not a good one (may eventually split at the fork) so I'd definitely remove that one. Doing so will also give more space for the spruce. The others look as though some are well worth keeping; trim off the dead branches in the lower crown to show off the attractive orange bark better, and thin them out to just the two or three best-shaped individuals, so they grow broad crowns and thick stems, rather than looking like a set of slender poles.

Resin

why are you leaving the stumps like that ..... are you planning on using LARGE machinery to regrade or move in there to remove the stumps ...

how this is accomplished may very well adversely affect the remaining trees ...

i don't use large machines.. so i have no info .... but i do know it can be a problem ....

start a new post about how to remove stumps .... as well as earth moving and its affects on trees... as well as trees left and digging basements or foundations if you are anywhere near those left standing ...

good luck

ken

Ken raises an important point - yes, the trees you want to keep and their rooting zones must be protected from heavy machinery and changes in soil level. Put in a temporary (but strong!) fence 6-7 metres from the trees, and warn the building contractors that any transgression of the fencing will result in their not being paid.

Resin

Thanks for the replies - The stumps are up like that because the excavator is going to pop them out. Like I said - the corner marker is shown in the pics, and the excavator actually wanted all the trees 30' out from foundation to be removed - except for any choice trees. There was actually some nice Pines I removed - that I now wish I would have kept - up behind the house. But too late now. This is a 5acre site that is all wooded except for a small wetland in corner. So I really don't have to worry about trees. But it stinks to have to cut the ones around the house. so now there is no shade for south view. We plan to replant thought once house is in. There are some nice Oaks that are growing that are young (15yrs), and maples. But right now the bulk of trees are Pine, Cherry, aspen, cottonwood... there are a lot of oak but they are young.

Norway spruce is variable, but for the most part they are strong vigorous trees, especially in Z5 in places where there is decent moisture. On good soils they should grow two feet per year to an eventual height of 80 feet or more if grown in the open. They often have beautiful weeping secondary branches and branchlets. On heavy soils that don't drain quickly, they can have a lot of roots on or near the surface, which for some people can be a problem.

Norway spruce growing in the shade of other trees recover quickly and grow fast when given more light/room to grow. In many areas where both are native, Norway spruce is a better tree than white pine because it is less susceptible to breakage from heavy wet snow and ice.

The scots pine is a wonderful tree in the UK where I have seen some fine ones growing. Here they grow extremely fast and strong for 6 to 10 years, and then they slow and often become straggly looking. Some trees if given a lot of room to grow, as resin suggests, can be nice trees. The reddish bark is a nice feature. I would take my time deciding to cut them down. As for the forked tree--it is my experience that scots pine here do not split as easily as white pine. Pine trees are strange in this characteristic. My red pines absolutely never split when forked, no matter how narrow and weak looking the fork is. But my white pines almost always eventually do unless the fork is a clear U shape. I am not sure what the risk is of that forked Scots pine splitting.

--Spruce

you said: The stumps are up like that because the excavator is going to pop them out.

seemingly ignoring our cautions .....

reread our replies about big heavy machines and the trees you want to leave there ...

and discuss thoroughly with the contractor ...

i cant tell you how many posts there have been over the years about trees left.. that die in a year or two ... because of such damage ...

ken

"My red pines absolutely never split when forked, no matter how narrow and weak looking the fork is. But my white pines almost always eventually do unless the fork is a clear U shape. I am not sure what the risk is of that forked Scots pine splitting."

My experience is that forked Scots Pines do split occasionally: so intermediate between Red and White in risks.

Resin

I agree with Ken. You should look into the measures necessary to protect the roots of trees from construction damage. Something as seemingly innocuous as the contractors and workers habitually parking in an area can do permanent damage to a tree's roots. As Ken said, the tree won't die immediately, but may well die a couple of years down the road.

There are things you can do to mitigate and limit damage, but you HAVE to institute them from the beginning, AND make it vary clear to your contractor that you insist on them. Setting up fences, laying down a HEAVY layer of mulch, these and other measures can help. It the fence isn't really sturdy, and doesn't include enough area around the trees, the ground can be compacted, to the detriment of the trees. Workers are easily able to say to themselves "it's only once, it doesn't count this time if I park my truck here", which may be true. The problem is, doing something once doesn't always stay with the once. It can become a habitual thing, and the damage is done.

You do need to look at what is required to protect your trees, decide which trees you absolutely want to protect and act to protect them. I know from experience that 20' from a building site means nothing when the heavy machinery gets in. And, unless you are building your house on pillars and will have only one machine in there once to auger the holes, plus the concrete truck(s), there will be a LOT of earth moving done, and heavy machinery moving around. I just had a 24 x 36' garage built, on a slab. The footprint of the earth that was actually moved and graded is around 60 x 120', maybe more. Some parts got moved more than once, as the foundation was done and backfilling needed. Between the grading, 10 truckloads of fill, and 6 trucks of gravel and 3 loads of cement, there were a lot of heavy machines in and out. If you plan on a basement, there will be a LOT more earth moving involved, including the dirt that was dug out of the basement and put in a pile somewhere - or, it was piled into dumptrucks and taken away. Plan ahead.

Ditto ken, dibbit, and resin--amen!

--Spruce

I need to get rid of two dwarf cherry tree stumps and don't want to pay for stump removal nor do I want to dig them out. I read about drilling holes and putting some kind of nitrogen fertilizer in them and covering with mulch to keep them wet and rotting faster or something flammable (might be dangerous) and burn them. I guess none of the choices are real good.

I'm worried they could affect the replacement trees I planted not too far away from them, plus they are ugly. Can they hurt my new trees, one isn't doing so well, I think it's because of the deep freeze we had, only a couple of buds are trying to leaf out and the rest of it looks dead. The other one is doing better.

Stump removal is something I have never bothered with. I just cut them flush with the ground (sometimes hard to do without getting dirt on my saw chain, which really dulls it fast) and let them rot in their own good time. If they sprout, just nip them off as they appear and the stump dies in a few months. I just have other things to do, and nature takes care of them eventually anyway.

--Spruce

aliska12000, I agree with spruceman. Cut them flush with the ground. Immediately follow that by drilling holes in one stump at a time, and fill the holes with stump killer; then, brush the exposed trunk surface with stump killer to saturate. Follow the same procedure with each stump, and wait a week or two to see if any regrowth happens. if regrowth begins in the following two weeks, drill more holes and apply more stump killer; if not, cover with 2-3 inches of mulch and ignore. If you want grass to grow over the area, cover the surface of the trunk with soil and spread seed that you cover with a little mulch.

As a contractor, I can tell you that 20' around the perimeter will probably not be enough room. You may want to think about a 30' area at the sides and back yard plus a larger area at the front. Besides equipment, the various trades are going to need a material storage area onsite. You can usually accomplish this in the front yard and hold the perimeter buffer in the side and back yard areas.

The fence idea is a good one. Make it obvious that no vehicles or materials should be stored in that area. I would use metal T posts and 4' orange snow fence and go around the root zone. If someone disregards the fencing, show up with a camera and take a few pictures while they are watching. Usually that's enough to get them to cooperate.