Dynamic Cabling and Voids

[Tree Frog]

I had a nice day working on a Box Elder and was wondering if anyone has experience using cobra as a safety net if failure were to happen with a limb with a void. The tree I worked on had never seen a saw before and contained a lot of dead wood and damaged limbs. While removing I noticed a void area in the outlined limb and was considering using some dynamic cabling to keep a failure off the house, if that area were to fail.

Any input?

Thanks

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Was all of taht inner growth dead? Judging what was needed is pretty hard just based on whole tree pictures I realize.

Adding a cable system to catch broken parts of trees is the responsible thing to do. If you were in the tree and didn't install a cable and the tree failed there is a very high probability that you could be sued for negligence since cabling and bracing are standard practices in the profession. You should inform your client about the defect and your recommendations. Document all of the conversations. If they opt not to have the cable installed it is a good plan to have them sign off on the indemnity. Shift the responsibility for making the decsions firmly onto them.

 

[Tree Frog]

The inner growth was 60 dead and 40 alive. The problem was the amount of structural unsoundness in the branching structure on the live growth. I do not perfer taking a large amount of inner growth and do feel that it became close to lions tailing.

This tree had wind damage over the years that cracked the live growth near the attachment points and rotted. This is where my delema is with this leader that I outlined. It had rotted back into the main stem in a few places.

I found the canapy to be intact and had to pick and choose my battles on where to direct the attention.

The adler next to it is more of the same

 

[Tree Frog]

I was studying the photos as relized that lighting and month plays a role in reviewing the work completed.

The Inner canopy shot before was taken in November with some leaf sturcture still attached in the outer canopy.

the distant shot was take with lighting at 10am and completed shots taken at 3 pm.

Lesson learned. Get pictures of large trees at the same lighing conditions.

Tom thanks for the advice. I will be talking to them soon.

TreeCo. Pruning standards state that dead, structural unsound, and no more than 1/3 in extreem cases of live material. How would you proceed if there were a large amount of damage at the attachments in the fall zones of other branches. Would you leave the live damaged limbs and thin the crown. or focus on the damage and leave the undamaged while judging the 1/3 rule? (I rather use 1/4).

I'm always trying to learn and improve my skills. Thanks.

 

[Tree Frog]

No problem Dan, I have a lot to learn and appreciate the input.

Thanks.

 

[Tree Frog]

In conclusion, I talked to the customer and we are going to Dynamic cable the leader and on the 1 year inspection, thin the upper canopy to reset the balance in the spring.

Thank you for your time Tom and Dan.