When is a tree considered "dead"?

Question

With humans there is a specific point in one's life where they are considered unliving....when their heart stops beating. But for a tree, is there ever a specific time where a tree is dead and has no chance at returning to life.

Or is there just no term for the exact moment a tree is dead?

Answer 1

How do you tell if a tree is dead? While this may see like an easy question to answer, the truth is that telling if a plant is truly dead can be a difficult task sometimes. Plants do not have vital signs, like a heartbeat or breathing in and out, that would make it easy to tell if it is truly dead or alive. Instead, you have to rely on more subtle clues.

If your plant has lost all of its leaves or the leaves have all gone brown, don’t panic. If you suspect your plant is dead but you are not sure, the fastest way to tell if it is dead is to check the stems. The stems of the plant should be pliable and firm and will have a green cast on the inside if they are still alive. If the stem is mushy or brittle, check the roots for the same conditions. The roots too should be pliable but firm. If both the stems and roots are brittle or mushy, the plant is dead and you will simply need to start over.

Is the plant really worth saving?

The next step is to decide if you really want to make the effort of nursing the plant back to health. Keep in mind that a plant may still die dispite your best efforts. Also, the plant will look utterly pathetic for weeks, month or even years. Is it worth spending the time to recover what may be a lost cause, or could you get a comparable but healthy plant at the local nursery or store for a reasonable price? If this is a plant that has sentimental value or is hard to find, than it is certainly worth saving. Otherwise, you should just start over again.

What to do when only the roots are still alive

If the roots are still good, but the stems are dead, you will be hoping that the plant re-grows from the roots. Cut away the stems a third at a time. You may find that as you get closer to the roots, the parts of the stem may be alive. If you do find living stem, try to leave as much as possible. If you find no living stem, leave at 2 inches of the stem intact above the soil.

Place the plant is conditions where it will get roughly half the amount of sun that is normally recommended for that plant. Water only when the soil is dry to the touch. If the plant is able to, you will see new stems sprout from around the remaining stem in a month or two. If you do not, recheck the roots to see if the plant has died.

What to do when the stems are still alive

Trim away as much dead stem as you can find on the plant. Place the plant is conditions where it will get roughly half the amount of sun that is normally recommended for that plant or in indirect light. Water only when the soil is dry to the touch but do not let the soil dry out completely. In 3 – 4 weeks, maybe less, you will hopefully start to see new stems or leaves being produced where the old leaves were. As the leaves and stem become more fully developed, cut away any parts of the stems that are not producing leaves or stems.

If you do not see any new leaves or stems after a few weeks, recheck the stems on the plant and prune away the dead wood as the stem dies.

Even with all the love and attention in the world, it is sometimes not possible to save a badly damaged plant. Sometimes you just have to start over and try not to let what happened before happen again.

Answer 2

When it loses all of its leaves and has no foliage of any kind, needles or leaves, in Spring and Summer it is a goner, the tree. It needs those for photosynthesis. That is a good sign it is a dead tree. Also when it becomes very brittle. The branches just snap right off and don't bend. No moisture. You could say the plant cells are dead cells, no living tissue, as a biologist; or a horticulturist view may be closer to the former view.

Answer 3

That's essentially the question a federal appeals court is deciding in a lawsuit pitting conservationists against the U.S. Forest Service.

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel heard arguments Tuesday in Portland in a case that could decide how the government is allowed to log old-growth conifers burned by fire on the eastern slopes of the Cascades.

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The three-judge panel took the case under advisement after a brief hearing.

The dispute began in 2004, when environmental groups accused the Forest Service of violating its own rules prohibiting the harvest of large, living trees in a burnt area of Oregon's Malheur National Forest. The latest case is over a similar logging plan in Umatilla National Forest in Washington.

The practice is known as salvage logging. After years of often severe wildfires across the West, the Bush administration has aggressively sought to harvest scorched timber before insects or disease make the lumber worthless.

To do that, federal foresters have been using a set of mortality guidelines to determine whether a partially burned tree would die, either immediately or by succumbing to insects or disease.

Critics of the practice say that the agency often tagged healthy trees for harvest and that trees marked for cutting continued to thrive years after a fire.

The 4-year-old legal dispute has largely focused on the Forest Service's definition of the word "live."

At Pioneer Courthouse on Tuesday, Ralph Bloemers, an attorney representing the Spokane-based Lands Council, said the Forest Service's rules governing old-growth logging say trees larger than 21 inches in diameter have to be dead before they are cut. But under the mortality guidelines, the agency has been approving logging of trees it predicts are dying.

Bloemers told the judges the practice used flawed science to justify logging for financial gain, not forest health. And he said the Forest Service has "chosen to short-circuit the public process" because it did not hold hearings on the new guidelines.

But David Shilton, a federal lawyer representing the Forest Service, argued that the guidelines have proved to be accurate, especially after several amendments that require more rigorous standards for testing whether a tree can absorb water after its roots are damaged by fire.

The issue was argued before a federal judge in 2004 as well as the same panel last year. So far, the conservation groups have prevailed.

In 2004, a federal judge in Portland rebuked the Forest Service. Judge Garr M. King wrote, "The plain meaning of 'live' is still living, in other words, 'not dead.' "

Answer 4

I didn't notice your question when I was asking it again so you can check here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

to see if anyone answers me

hope this helps you too