# How Was This Cut? A Stump Mystery



## slowp (Oct 18, 2008)

While marking out trees to cut for skid trails, I saw this old stump. Most of the stumps have evidence of springboard holes in them. Not this one. It is about 8 feet tall, and is an old Doug fir. Took me a couple of minutes to figure it out. My brain was impaired by paint fumes.  You won't have the advantage of seeing everything. How did they cut it without springboards?
The original shot has been cropped and brightened up.


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## Rookie1 (Oct 18, 2008)

Im clueless.


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## tomtrees58 (Oct 18, 2008)

man that's a stump my 630 b wood take a week tom trees


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## splittah (Oct 18, 2008)

They stood on the backs of the woodtrolls me thinks.

:jawdrop:


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## ShoerFast (Oct 18, 2008)

Is the scar in the bark facing us damage from skidding logs past?

If your marking an old skid trial, there would have been a lot of debris that they could have stood on?

Taking that tree may have been an after-thought from the damage?


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## 1I'dJak (Oct 18, 2008)

snow?


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## ShoerFast (Oct 18, 2008)

1I'dJak said:


> snow?



I thought of that, once stepped off of snowshoes and fell up to my neck, my feet never hit ground and had a hard time getting back on the snowshoes! 

My hats off if they did!


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## joesawer (Oct 18, 2008)

Maybe like this?
Snow and debris sounds logical also.


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## John Ellison (Oct 18, 2008)

Maybe a windfall that stood back up?


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## tek9tim (Oct 18, 2008)

I'd be on the snow bandwagon, I've cut a few hazard trees in the winter at normal height, then come spring the stumps are taller than me. But I thought for production they usually dig out the bases of trees prior to cutting... dunno.


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## Jacob J. (Oct 18, 2008)

Like in Joe's picture, I've cut a bunch of high stumps when I've had to fell trees up the hill that ended up rolling down into standing timber (for whatever reason, but it's common on thinning jobs in decent timber).


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## slowp (Oct 18, 2008)

John Ellison said:


> Maybe a windfall that stood back up?



We have a winner.     When you look closely at the roots, they look like it was a tree that stood back up. I'm pretty sure that's what happened.


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## Metals406 (Oct 18, 2008)

I would have said snow too... I've seen some awful high stumps, from cuttin' in the deeps.


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## slowp (Oct 18, 2008)

Nope. When the snow comes, and I think it was the same then, it is time to move to the low country and log. This area would not be low enough.


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## Metals406 (Oct 18, 2008)

slowp said:


> Nope. When the snow comes, and I think it was the same then, it is time to move to the low country and log. This area would not be low enough.



I wish that was always the case here. We were on a unit 40 miles from the highway, at the top of the world... And 5 foot of fresh snow, merely made your day more "interesting". You just had to drag a grain shovel down the set with you, so you could find your logs. LOL


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## Crofter (Oct 18, 2008)

Could it be a photo shop project?


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## stihl 440 (Oct 18, 2008)

*easy*

Easy....just stand on the skidder roof. Beats me WHY they would cut it that way, but maybe there was a reason.....:greenchainsaw:


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## turnkey4099 (Oct 19, 2008)

slowp said:


> We have a winner.     When you look closely at the roots, they look like it was a tree that stood back up. I'm pretty sure that's what happened.



I don't agree for a couple reasons.

1. The stump is standing too verticle for a 'stand-up'. I have never seen one regturn fully to original positon.

2. If it was a blowdown where they could cut it like that, why waste about 5 ft of log?

Harry K


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## Gologit (Oct 19, 2008)

opcorn: With only one picture and very little description it's hard to tell. Too bad that stump is so far away. I'd like to walk all around it before I made up my mind.


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## slowp (Oct 19, 2008)

What really made it look NOT like a blowdown to my nearsighted eyes was an old log chunk that looks like part of the base. It isn't. Then you walk closer and see that the roots look like the tree sat back up. Guess it is only a theory, can't prove it, don't know who cut it. But MOST of the other stumps have springboard notches that one still can see. I didn't ponder very long, I had skid trails to skip up and down and paint to slap on trees. 

No, I don't have photoshop. I'm cheap.


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## Bushler (Oct 19, 2008)

I might be able to tell from how the face was cut if it was a windfall or a standing tree when it was cut. On the ground I'm logging, grandpa's cutters used hand saws on the old growth fir and cedar.

To cut a face they'd cut in the first face cut, level, with the hand saw, then chop down with falling axes to make a humboldt face, (easier to chop down). 

My guess would be there was other logs laying up against your tree and they stood on those to cut it.

Most of the time a fir windfall won't stand back up. They have a tap root and when they blow down that tap root has to shear for the tree to fall, (or rip up a dozen cubic yards of dirt). There's almost always long term evidence when a big doug fir blows down.

I really enjoy looking at old logging units and figuring out how they did it.


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## ray benson (Oct 19, 2008)

Couldn't do much with the photo. Looks like it was ripped/sheared.


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