How to mount to a tree with out killing it.

[jason lambert]

Sorry I knw the is not quite the right forum but everyone being wood people someone has to know and I don't belong to any arbor forums. I want to mount a bracket for a security camera on a arm to a tree it will probably screw in. What is the safest way to do this not to harm the tree is is a oake tree that is about 3' round. I will also have to secure the cable up it.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd use stainless steel lag screws. Straight steel, or even galvanized steel, will likely rust in the wet interior of the tree. Stainless doesn't interact with the chemistry of the tree.

[John Mark Lane]

Jeez, I've found so many strange old metal things in trees, I have a hard time imagining much of anything really hurting most trees, unless it cut off a very substantial amount of the water/nutritional flow. I used a couple of galvanized lag screws recently in a moderately large elm. I don't think it will hurt the tree, although only time will tell.

[Anthony Whitesell]

In order to "keep things out of the tree", mounted the camera to a piece of wood then bolt the wood to the tree. As the tree grows around the board, you can remove the bolts and the camera and leave no metal embedded in the tree.

[Gary Radice]

You can attach just about any kind of bolt or screw. I'd use a treated deck screw so it doesn't rust or be corroded by the wood tannins. Just don't wrap anything around the tree, like a belt. That will definitely kill the tree as it grows.

[Mike Cruz]

From the title of the thread, I thought this was about being a tree hugger. :D

Mount it with whatever you want. I doubt you'll harm the tree. Just know that the tree WILL grow, so if you do use screws, you will have to periodically loosen them.

Now, drilling the hole from the base of the tree up to the camera to fish the wire might do some damage...;)

[mickey cassiba]

Dogone it Mike...I was gonna say that!

[jason lambert]

Wow mike that is a great idea! Totally hidden and vandel proof wire.

[Ted Jay]

Wow mike that is a great idea! Totally hidden and vandel proof wire.

Go with wireless cameras.

[Neal Clayton]

sounds like a good way to fry your security system when the tree gets hit by lightning. then you got two expenses instead of one.

agree on wireless.

silliest thing i've ever seen in a tree trunk: model T carburetor ;)

[Mike Cruz]

Unless you local vandals wield chain saws...;)

[Myk Rian]

I agree with using stainless.


silliest thing i've ever seen in a tree trunk: model T carburetor ;)
3 horseshoes that a branch had grown around. We never found the 4th.

[Ellen Benkin]

Probably 10 years ago I put a hose reel on a tree in the front of my yard using deck screws. It doesn't seem to have harmed it at all. I can't imagine that the screws for a camera would bother the tree.

[Mike OMelia]

I agree with using stainless.


3 horseshoes that a branch had grown around. We never found the 4th.

Some poor smuck will find them years from now as they are cutting it down. Better put a sign on it!

[Cliff Holmes]

Attaching something to a tree with screws will harm it not a bit. In fact, boring down through the middle of a tree to fish the wire would be fine :)

All a tree's "life" is really in a relatively thin outer layer. If you wrap something tightly around the tree or allow it to grow until something that was loose is now tight, you can suffocate the tree (girdling). Also, if you cut a tree all the way around and sever this layer, you'll kill it.

The bark and center of the tree are essentially dead, so the screws would only hit a tiny portion of the important part.

[Eric DeSilva]

I agree with using stainless.


3 horseshoes that a branch had grown around. We never found the 4th.

There was a tree down the street from where I used to live that had an old metal wheelbarrow embedded in it. Thing was stuck between a tree and a phone pole or something and the trunk had swelled around the lip of the barrow for a good 6" or so. I just can't imagine watching that happen as you mowed around it for--oh, say, 40 years--and not moving the dang wheelbarrow.