Cottonwood Take Down

[mic687]

My groundie and I did this 95' Cottonwood with a 35"dbh. Power lines on three sides a shed and apple tree on the fourth side. Landing zone of 20' by
20' lowered almost all pieces with a homemade capstan strapped to the base. Saws used ms192, ms270,ms650 with a 32" bar. This was a very tough tree there was so much stuff to get snaged on or caught in. No access for a crane or bucket truck so I climbed it and it came down a piece at a time. Guy planted this tree 45 years ago and said he has regretted it for the last 25. Two other guys bid it and did not show and I think I know why.


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Skinny or fat short or tall sooner or later they all got to fall.

 

[Tree Pig]

Nice take down, thanks for the pics. How was that bark with the spike?

 

[mic687]

Not great real thick and it tears pretty easy. You got to stick it good.

 

[clearance]

Good for you, but looking at the first pic it looks like a big drop zone, you say 20' by 20', so why did you lower almost everything? Not dissin you at all, I just had to ask.

 

[mic687]

Heres a couple of more

 

[clearance]

Heres a couple of more

I see, not really 20' by 20'. Good job, I have cut many of them down, heavy, very weak holding wood, old ones hard to spur, etc.:greenchainsaw:

 

[mic687]

Clearance, the yard looks bigger than it is. It was right in town there was a wood fence on that side and what you can not see is the power lines phone and cable on that side. Also the main power lines for the whole neiborhood were within 20' of the back of the tree. We looked at alot of options and there did not seem to be any good ones. So we just chuncked it.

 

[MonkeyMan_812]

I took down a big cottonwood like that earlier this year. It was a pretty fun climb. But man that saw dust stinks like deer guts or something. Peyew!!

 

[mic687]

MonkeyMan my brother calls it dog sh%& wood

 

[MonkeyMan_812]

LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tree md]

Looks like a fine job. Hard to say by pics but could you not have set a lowering point in the central lead that you started off in, tip tied and lowered much bigger pieces?

 

[mic687]

Md thats what we did. We put a block in that leader but what the pictures don't show is the distance between those tips. there was so much drop in the pieces removed we had to keep them to 10' or so to keep them out of stuff. This tree had an apple,hickory,blue spruce, and maple tree growing under it.

 

[Tree Pig]

Whats that ring around the base

 

[Tree Pig]

From his first post in this thread.

lol wow I guess I was paying attention... Thanks

 

[mic687]

Stihl if you look in the second set of pics real low on the tree base the owner had tried girdling the tree to kill it, that is the lower ring. Now my question is if I had not removed it before it was dead what would be his plan then? That killing it before removing I don't under stand. This guy is in his 70's and he is splitting all that wood by hand with a sledge and wedges.

 

[Tree Pig]

Stihl if you look in the second set of pics real low on the tree base the owner had tried girdling the tree to kill it, that is the lower ring. Now my question is if I had not removed it before it was dead what would be his plan then? That killing it before removing I don't under stand. This guy is in his 70's and he is splitting all that wood by hand with a sledge and wedges.

That pic was the reason I was asking. It looks like the tree had been grooved by dog chain, rope, some wacky sawing idea, something had obviously cut in to the tree. It looked well deep enough to have destroyed the cambium 360° around the tree meaning it was dead it just didnt know it yet. The idea of the mounting the homemade capstan (I would like to see some pics of that ) there was a possible answer for how it happened, but thanks for the update.

A break down of that capstan would be nice. What you used, cost to build and load limits?

 

[treemandan]

Stihl if you look in the second set of pics real low on the tree base the owner had tried girdling the tree to kill it, that is the lower ring. Now my question is if I had not removed it before it was dead what would be his plan then? That killing it before removing I don't under stand. This guy is in his 70's and he is splitting all that wood by hand with a sledge and wedges.

I get it. I am banging one hand on the desk and tears are coming out , I get it. Great plan.

man feels more like a man when he has something on his mind to KILL. He shore does.:greenchainsaw:

 

[mic687]

Yeah I never did get a good reason out of him for why he tried girdling the tree instead of just removing it. He is a retired engineer so I am sure it some how made sence to him. I will post some pics and a material breakdown of the capstan in the next day or so.

 

[tree MDS]

Very nice looking takedown mic.

I call those stanking trees "A$$wood". lol

 

[Texas Traveler]

Yeah I never did get a good reason out of him for why he tried girdling the tree instead of just removing it. He is a retired engineer so I am sure it some how made sence to him. I will post some pics and a material breakdown of the capstan in the next day or so.

I had 7 big cottonwoods near my old house about 75 to 80 ft.
i decided to drop 5, to cut down on the cotton fuzz plugging up ours & the neighbors airconditioners.

I dropped 3 using a new 046 that had good clearance to fall without any trouble.
It was a ground shaking event on all three.

But one that was growing close to the house was too much for me at my age, even at 70 I should have known better.
It was about 20 feet below the driveway growing up over the 2 story house at the kitchen about 20 feet.
So dumb me took my heavy 1/2 ton chevy tied a 3/4 rope to the trailer hitch & went sailing off the hill.
It was not a brick wall at the end but like a coil spring that brought the truck back to where I had started.
Within a month I swear that tree started growing at the house a foot a day.
I gave up & hired a friend that had good climbers.

When it was all over with on 2 trees I swear I thought he going to rape me on the bill.:greenchainsaw: