Hi Tom.

Does the same apply to deciduous trees? The first tall tree I ever climbed back in 1983 has decay on one side of the trunk at the _base_ from where someone had a bonfire too close to its trunk many years ago. The dead cambium and a good deal of the heart wood on that side has rotted and been eaten away by insects over the years. The decay has also spread a couple of feet further up the trunk inside the living cambium _layer_ above. the tree is still structurally sound but could the decay be halted for several years by applying a weather and insect-proof coating of some sort to the exposed wood while some of the cambium grows back? If so then what would you recommend?

Michael