Had a fun one today

[Treeman587]

Had to climb an uprooted leaner. When the man asked me why it fell, I had to telll him what he didnt want to hear. It was his fault. He built a shed up against the tree one one side, Then had a massive stack of fire wood on the other. If you kill all the roots, What is holding the tree up?

Anyways, I had to block it down with my 460. Nothing like a hearty serving of white pine saw chips. Bad part was I had nothing to wash it down with.

So was I wrong? It appeared to have been a healthy tree otherwise. No strong winds recently, it just gave up.

 

[MonkeyDo]

Climbing an up-rooted leaner?
Why??
I like a little safety margin.
Who knows when that last root pops?
Wish you well on those climbs; wouldn't catch me there.

and I go out on a limb!

Get the proper equip..

Bucket ....

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Roots act as anchors only durring high winds, which is why the root-plate fails when soil is super saturated and ther is no cohesion.

During normal conditions roots act as props, kind of like a stool. So when you have root rot, it will start to settle towards the lost root. Then you start to see soil heaving on the obverse side as those roots star to pull agains the soil.

Stand grown trees are mor likely to heave after a lot has been thinned for development, just because they have fewer First Order Roots. Open grown will have 7 FOR's on average, where stand grown have 3-4. So the loss of one root can cause critical failure.

Another idea is that roots failed durring the last big storm, but far enough back that there was not enough anchoring force left, so little by little it heaved to one side then let go.

This is especially likely in sandy soils, which have very little cohesion to start with.

 

[treeseer]

...If you kill all the roots, What is holding the tree up? ...
So was I wrong?

hard to say without seeing the rootplate, but it sounds like you answered your own question. Always nice to rig em without blocking em if there is a way. Hope you were paid well, and have good insurance.

 

[Treeman587]

I guess I should have told ya'll. They had a massive loblolly pine in the yard on the backside of the lean. I put a line in that tree and then anchored the leaner to it so it couldn't go any further. Not that there still wasn't some question there but I felt my rig was pretty reliable.

Another thing I thought was interesting was I woke up a possum while blocking. When I got down I was hanging out, choking down the sawdust when the ground where I had thrown a block started moving. Like something was trying to push up out of the dirt. I grabbed a shovel off the truck but he never came up far enough for me to smack him.

Thats good, I feel pretty confident in my explanation as to why the tree failed. Thanks

 

[gasman]

What are a trees ability to regrow large lost roots? If they do regrow, where do the emerge from the tree?

 

[treeseer]

I put a line in that tree and then anchored the leaner ...I woke up a possum while blocking. When I got down I was hanging out, choking down the sawdust I feel pretty confident in my explanation as to why the tree failed. Thanks

Glad to hear you had the leaner stabilized.

Try a bandana if not a respirator. Lung disease is not fun, trust me on that.

You're not blaming the possum on the root problem are you? If the roots weren't rotted, the possum would not have room down there would it?

 

[moray]

only good possum

but he never came up far enough for me to smack him.

Why would you kill the possum?

 

[rebelman]

Possums are people too. They like to hang out. They don't like kickin' it though.

 

[diltree]

geeez.....first the possum losses his home, now you want to bash his brains out with a shovel......easy on the wildlife man, possum is a harmless animal....don't be a wildlife Natzi

I know I'm a Tree-hugger.....

 

[Treeman587]

HAHAHAHAHAH. Its a possum, WTH. I guess some of you go out and dance with the deer, frolic amongst the bear cubs.

No I am not blaming the root problem on the possum.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Why would you kill the possum?

He's fro v'gin-ya, he et it

I scared some owls out of a cavity 2 weeks ago, first I eveicted a squirl, espected another one in the next cavity, but there was a pair of small owls up there. One besaht the other then they flew the coop.

We left a 40ft spar, cut 2 feet above their cavity. Hope they came back

 

[Treeman587]

He's fro v'gin-ya, he et it

 

[Highclimber OR]

Just wanted to let you know that I understand all too well what you climbed as I have been in that situation more than a few times. Glad everything turned out well. Some of those uprooted leaners can be real spooky. Ya I would say it was most likely a root compromise on one side allowing the whole structure to be weakened. Here in the Northwest we have a lot of blow overs from ultra rain saturated ground and gusty winds. Sometimes you can predict which ones are the "weak sisters" before the storm, but not very often as many people don't see them rockin in the ground. Well glad you got er done and let's hope to keep those few and far between for both of us.