Cottonwood branch removal - safety first!

[Joe Kuhn]

I'm a small engine hobby mechanic with a chain saw wanting to help my neighbor with this cottonwood branch that fell off his tree and got stuck - safely!

I plan on starting to the right in the picture as everything else is out of reach and I refuse to use a saw while standing on anything but the ground. I'll cut away branches with leaves and work my way to the left by cutting short 2 ft. pieces out of the trunk, so it doesn't fall more than a foot or so to get back on the ground. Hopefully, as I work my way to the left, the trunk to the left of the "V" will pivot down to the ground and we can work it out of the 'V' completely. Will see how that goes. I may have to rope it at this point and pull it from the far left to get it out of the 'V'.

Thoughts?

 

[Joe Kuhn]

And yes, it might hit their porch and wreck a few 2x4s, but they'll be a lot cheaper to replace than calling someone in commercially. I'm not sure the branch is heavy enough to do much damage if it does hit the porch. Will be doing this with them right there the whole time.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

I have something similar from storm damage...
Wedged in there Tight! won't budge.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

I have something similar from storm damage...
Wedged in there Tight! won't budge.
View attachment 1184131

Perhaps a car jack could spread those trunks above the piece that's stuck so you could pull it out.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Neighbor decided to buy an EGO 16 inch electric, so I'm off the hook, but will try to help...

 

[Paul Bunions]

Just an amateur chiming in, but ...pole saw. The safe way to cut crazy trees. Keeps you far from the chain and the tree.

It's unsafe to raise a chainsaw over your shoulders, and when you cut downed trees with lots of branches, they like to roll and also break loose like springs when they're cut. You can cut above your shoulders with a pole saw, and you can stand back from limbs under tension in case they do things you don't expect.

A cheap 10" cordless pole saw will make every cut that tree needs.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

He got an EGO 18 incher and I pulled the branches away as he worked his way to the trunk. Here's what it looked like w just the trunk.



As luck would have it, the next cut didn't quite make it all the way through, as shown on the left below and the trunk slowly teeter-tottered down to the deck railing as you can see on the right.



He cut the hanging piece and then the one on the deck railing. We ended up with this:



One more cut on that last leaner and everything was on the ground. All done safely. He did have to cut from the bottom up on some of the branches that had pressure on them. He almost got his new blade stuck, but we avoided that issue from then on.

 

[Paul Bunions]

I think safety has a lot to do with a gut understanding of basic physics. A lot of people can look at a tree and have a pretty good idea what it might do, and a lot of people will guess wrong every time.

There are people out there who think it's smart to put a turkey fryer on a wooden deck.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

I think safety has a lot to do with a gut understanding of basic physics. A lot of people can look at a tree and have a pretty good idea what it might do, and a lot of people will guess wrong every time.

There are people out there who think it's smart to put a turkey fryer on a wooden deck.

This guy cut bigger pieces than I would have, but it worked out quite well in the end. Now he can cut what he wants for length since everything is on the ground. He wanted to do it himself, so I just assisted clearing breaches when they were free.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Just an amateur chiming in, but ...pole saw. The safe way to cut crazy trees. Keeps you far from the chain and the tree.

It's unsafe to raise a chainsaw over your shoulders, and when you cut downed trees with lots of branches, they like to roll and also break loose like springs when they're cut. You can cut above your shoulders with a pole saw, and you can stand back from limbs under tension in case they do things you don't expect.

A cheap 10" cordless pole saw will make every cut that tree needs.

We dealt with the branches with pressure on them by cutting on top, part way thru, then finishing from the bottom, up. It worked well as there wasn't that much pressure on any of it all at once. Thanks for your suggestion.