Gluing trees back together

I was working as a volunteer Master Gardener at a home gardening clinic at a local hardware store yesterday. I got an interesting question, "what type of glue do I use to glue my tree back together?"

The man who asked me this explained that he has a 20 year old maple tree that had split 2 feet down the middle during a snow storm this winter. He wants to use glue or some other kind of product used in the construction industry to glue it back together, and hopefully save the tree. He then showed me a bottle of Titebond glue, and wondered if that brand of wood glue was strong enough if he put a bolt through the tree and clamped the tree while the glue is curing to hold it in place. He explained how he could force the trunk to come back together without using a cord or wrap which would girdle the tree. He could use bolts. Would this work?. And if gluing trees back together does indeed work, he wondered if any kind of wood glue could work or does it need to be an all-weather sort of glue. 

Listening to his question, my first reaction was, "that's crazy." A split-second later, my next reaction was, "if this was indeed possible, why weren't we have been trained on it during our tree management classes?" Before I allowed this kind of mind progression to go any further, I stopped myself. I remembered that I stand one and equal with this man. He asked for help. He described his problem and wondered if I could help him out. He is a real live human being standing in front of me, and he deserves my shutting down the inner dialog and just being here with him in this moment. I saw that I needed to change my starting point in answering his question. I needed to see that he's got a problem to solve and he's working out a way to solve it, and I need to walk with him as an equal. I do unto others as I'd like them to do unto myself. As I looked further at this, I stopped my reaction of rejection of the man and his idea. I went with it. "Why shouldn't you be able to glue a tree back together?" Let go of my pre-conceived attitudes and ideas about the subject, let's explore this possibility together...

First, we gotta look at the physics. The tree split because it couldn't structurally hold the snow loads that it encountered in the location it was growing in. Suppose that it didn't matter that the tree is alive. Suppose that the glue could stick to living woody tissue. I still don't anticipate that the glue would hold because wind would cause many little vibrations that would cause the adhesive bonds to break. So let's look into any of the glues and see if any are both flexible (can handle the vibration) and load bearing (can handle the weight). So far, it seems to me that the solution isn't structurally sound, but we have still have to got to walk the process of seeing exactly what isn't practical about this idea.

So, I took a look at the instructions that are printed on the wood glue bottle. I read the label and pointed out that the product "isn't recommended for load bearing applications". So this wouldn't work. He would go through all this effort and the tree would just split again during the next heavy snow storm. We took a look at the other kinds of glues. It seemed to me that if they were capable of handling the load, they wouldn't work because the bond is too brittle to handle the daily vibrations from the window blowing the branches around. 

Obviously, if glue isn't the answer. What is? 

I suggested that he talk to a "tree doctor", a licensed arborist who can see if the tree can be saved. Who knows, perhaps there is a way that I haven't heard about to glue a tree back together. An licensed arborist would know. Perhaps they have another way to cement the tree back together.

I gave him a few moments to consider this, and it seemed to me that have to had the time he needed to work this through, he had an "aha" moment. It looked to me like it "dawned on him", or he saw for himself how and why glue wouldn't work. We discussed whether or not I recommend that if it cannot be saved, if he replace the tree with another maple. I then used the opportunity to explain pruning an training trees so that they can be both flexible (to handle wind) and load bearing (to handle heavy wet snow). I explained to him what he has to do to prevent this from happening again if he decides to replace the tree with a new young maple in a nearby location. I described how trees can be pruned and structurally trained where a person looks at the tree like a structural engineer would, and nurtures it into a form and shape that is best suited to handle the snow loads and high winds. If this tree can't be saved, there is a lot that can be done to prevent the same story playing out again with the next tree.

On my way home from the clinic, I continued to ponder this situation. It is easy to criticize people for "not knowing better". But, if we really embrace the instruction from Jesus to love our neighbor as ourselves, I know that there are many times I have asked questions in my life that may appear to be just as crazy. Like the one I'm asking now, "how do we realistically, practically love our neighbor as ourselves?" Using the analogy of gluing a tree back together, there are many times that I first ask if I can use a particular quick fix solution, only to find out that there is no easy answer and sometimes it takes a painful process that must be walked instead of what I had hoped would work. And it is fascinating that most of the solutions that really do work require focused effort of daily incremental changes. Facing and transcending that which stops me from doing what's best for all in every moment, with every breath requires awareness, selecting, training, pruning, together with some good insight and training from the "structural engineers" who know what kinds of principles and practices can stand the test of time. Solid timeless practices and principles to support real change.

By walking with "man with a broken tree" as myself. One and equal. I wouldn't want my questions to be laughed at. I wouldn't want to be made fun of, or told that I should have "known better". I would want to be taken seriously as an equal and shown exactly why the solution that I had come up with isn't practical or wouldn't work. I would want someone to discuss it with me and show me what other approaches I could take instead to try to sort this out. I would want to be directed to the professionals with the background and experience of looking into how to heal injured trees like mine. 

So, I did some research on the internet and found an example.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4836852_repair-split-tree.html.

As I walk the Structural Resonance Alignment SRA course I'm taking (part of the Desteni I process), I'm learning how to prune myself. As Thomas Keating aptly put it, I'm learning how to dismantle emotional programs for "happiness" that could have never worked. I'm learning how to recognize these programs, dig out the roots within myself, and make room for something better to grow in its place. Something that truly supports all life equally. Something that steps forth from a starting point of what's best for all in all ways all the time in every way possible.