Discover Channel Shows Dangerously Irresponsible Chainsaw Work

[under_the_hill]

Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" show covers homesteaders who have gotten in over their heads and offers them expert/professional help to make it work.

Please view this episode "Poisoned" from Season 4 at around the 12 minute mark (just after the first commercial break).
https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/homestead-rescue/full-episodes/poisoned

No safety glasses, hard hats, or chaps.
Amateurs (the people supposedly being helped) shown casually using saws.
@ 13:00 A large oak tree in unknown condition
The family is gathered around the base of this oak as it is bottle jacked over - including the daughter!
STILL NO PPE
The family INVITED TO STAND AT THE BASE AS THE TREE IS CUT WITH NO PPE
The "expert" cuts through the g-ddamn hinge and the oak tree falls backwards with the appearance that everyone is still around the tree.
Another "close call"
"Expert" apologizes for what could have happened.

Both the dangerous behavior and the using of these naive (I don't mean this unkindly) homesteaders as props is reprehensible. The father even accepts the apology, when if he knew how dangerous what just happened was and how irresponsible this show and its producers are, he should be outraged.

The only possible excuse is that the danger was a lie created by the show producers. Did Discovery set up this danger by mixing the cuts out of order and adding voiceover screams of the women, but in reality with only the "expert" and his helper right next to the tree at the time he cuts through the hinge? All this done to make it exciting while giving viewers a terrible impression of arborist profession. Real or a setup, there is no excuse for a professional to cut through the hinge.

I apologize if this is the wrong forum, but I'm upset by how irresponsible the production was on this fake reality show. The producers would probably say it highlights the danger of tree work and it's a good thing, but it's a mockery and awful and they should be ashamed.

 

[Wyrdman]

I get the feeling it isn't limited to just this show on the Discovery channel. The whole channel just seems like a TV tabloid aiming towards rural america. Although I don't watch a whole lot.

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

Discovery, TLC, History et.al. have turned to cr@p over the last 10-15 years. They've turned into the drama networks.

Drama sells. ACTUAL reality not so much.

 

[gary courtney]

Shows like that will cause the feds to start regulating chainsaws like guns!

 

[rayjay257]

I am a welder and I see a tremendous amount of stupidity on display on car related shows on the tube. Lots of bare skin exposed to the arc.

 

[buzz sawyer]

WOW!

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I am a welder and I see a tremendous amount of stupidity on display on car related shows on the tube. Lots of bare skin exposed to the arc.

I first started to learn to weld when I turned 11. I took some formal classes when I was 14 to get certified. So a few years later I thought I was unstoppable. So on a hot summer day I fired up my Lincoln without any clothes, but my cutoffs. by night I was covered with blisters. So that is what those leather shirts are for. Already have had cancer areas removed. No bare skin for me.
No one is going to watch any programs where as every body is safe. Thanks

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Is this the show with Marty?

A while back he brought a saw in to get worked on (he lives not far from here)

Whoever had sharpened them, it was almost laughable, angles were all out of whack, most around probably 50-60* tooth angle! Offered to sharpen, got told they were just fine like that.

He's a nice guy and all, but I usually try to go hide when he comes by, he's really pushy. Has no qualms of calling a baby ugly, even if there wasn't any reason to do so.

 

[Skeans]

Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" show covers homesteaders who have gotten in over their heads and offers them expert/professional help to make it work.

Please view this episode "Poisoned" from Season 4 at around the 12 minute mark (just after the first commercial break).
https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/homestead-rescue/full-episodes/poisoned

No safety glasses, hard hats, or chaps.
Amateurs (the people supposedly being helped) shown casually using saws.
@ 13:00 A large oak tree in unknown condition
The family is gathered around the base of this oak as it is bottle jacked over - including the daughter!
STILL NO PPE
The family INVITED TO STAND AT THE BASE AS THE TREE IS CUT WITH NO PPE
The "expert" cuts through the g-ddamn hinge and the oak tree falls backwards with the appearance that everyone is still around the tree.
Another "close call"
"Expert" apologizes for what could have happened.

Both the dangerous behavior and the using of these naive (I don't mean this unkindly) homesteaders as props is reprehensible. The father even accepts the apology, when if he knew how dangerous what just happened was and how irresponsible this show and its producers are, he should be outraged.

The only possible excuse is that the danger was a lie created by the show producers. Did Discovery set up this danger by mixing the cuts out of order and adding voiceover screams of the women, but in reality with only the "expert" and his helper right next to the tree at the time he cuts through the hinge? All this done to make it exciting while giving viewers a terrible impression of arborist profession. Real or a setup, there is no excuse for a professional to cut through the hinge.

I apologize if this is the wrong forum, but I'm upset by how irresponsible the production was on this fake reality show. The producers would probably say it highlights the danger of tree work and it's a good thing, but it's a mockery and awful and they should be ashamed.

Never seen a bottle jack used in a tree?
Second issue there’s times where you will bypass a hinge or cut through a hinge for Dutchman’s ect or to get the butt to jump. If you look at the picture you’ll see both there, the heart are gutted and jacked on a corner line.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jed1124]

99% of people who create a Dutchman with a bypass have done so unintentionally and have created a very dangerous and uncontrollable falling situation. These people are not fallers.
The head guy in that show has no idea how to properly fell trees and is representing himself as an expert. He’s an arrogant ass and is lucky he hasn’t got himself killed.

 

[under_the_hill]

Never seen a bottle jack used in a tree?
Second issue there’s times where you will bypass a hinge or cut through a hinge for Dutchman’s ect or to get the butt to jump. If you look at the picture you’ll see both there, the heart are gutted and jacked on a corner line.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, I've seen bottlejacks used to fell over trees. Mentioning it was to point out that it was not a casual tree felling. I'll correct and say there is no excuse for cutting through the hinge in this situation based on what he said he planned to do.

Can't tell what you are doing in the picture (have a video?), but it certainly looks well beyond my skills.

 

[under_the_hill]

I first started to learn to weld when I turned 11. I took some formal classes when I was 14 to get certified. So a few years later I thought I was unstoppable. So on a hot summer day I fired up my Lincoln without any clothes, but my cutoffs. by night I was covered with blisters. So that is what those leather shirts are for. Already have had cancer areas removed. No bare skin for me.
No one is going to watch any programs where as every body is safe. Thanks

Programs such as "How Its Made" are great and don't add manufactured drama, though some of the spin-offs do. There are good Youtube channels where the person concentrates on the technique while being safe or at least not unsafe on purpose. "Welding Tips and Tricks" for one.

Stinks about those mistakes of youth. Got some good sunburns around that age that I'll probably have to answer for.

 

[under_the_hill]

A summary of this episode.

 

[capetrees]

thanks for all the commercials

 

[Jed1124]

A summary of this episode.
View attachment 699103 View attachment 699105 View attachment 699104 View attachment 699106 View attachment 699107

WOW!
I’ve seen some of his other stuff but that one takes the cake!

 

[Skeans]

Yes, I've seen bottlejacks used to fell over trees. Mentioning it was to point out that it was not a casual tree felling. I'll correct and say there is no excuse for cutting through the hinge in this situation based on what he said he planned to do.

Can't tell what you are doing in the picture (have a video?), but it certainly looks well beyond my skills.

We’ll gut the hearts on the large Doug fir depending on the area those ones had to be because they’d pull horribly. When using a full faced Dutchman like he did there’s a place if you want to butt to jump the stump with a snipe on the butt, swinging Dutchman is a bypass of the hinge to one side to pull a tree around when possible. You’ll see sometimes in clear cuts what looks like full faced Dutchman’s from guys releasing it from the hinge once the fall has started.


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[rwoods]

Skeans, I believe you know your stuff. Ole Marty in his element may know his too, but he might not know the characteristics of this oak species. I can't imagine intentionally cutting such a thin hinge on this tree much less then using a jack. I am sure that neither of us would let a crowd gather around it if we were running the saw, TV crew or no TV crew.

To all, I watch a lot of the realty shows. You would think from the shows that no one in Alaska or the Arctic knows how to fall a tree. Of course that is not true. But though dramatized and singled out, I think the tree fallings shown on these shows are pretty much reality and wouldn't be much different if the shows were all made in the lower 48. Most non-professionals have little to no training or sound education in falling. Many use unsafe techniques. Many survive unscathed nonetheless. Unfortunately, there are those that don't.

Ron

 

[bayard]

put a rope in the tree at least!!

 

[Kel71]

Ya marty raney is not anywhere near as good with a saw as he thinks he is.

 

[TBS]

I watched that part of the episode and just watched the stupidity unfold. The worst part of shows like this and ax men is that people form judgments about real professionals from what they see on these shows.

One show built a remote cabin on a rock face in the piute mountains of kern County, that location was chosen because of the water source.....well, the people building this cabin had no clue that they picked a semi seasonal stream, let alone one that ran off of a cow pasture.