I have been posting in a thread that started getting into the difficulty and importance of reading trees for safety purposes. To me, it seems like it's the most important thing I can do to avoid injuries. Aptly, today I had to start working on a problem tree.
This is some kind of trash oak. I would guess it was about 80 feet tall before it fell during Milton or Helene, and I would say it was between 24 and 30 inches thick at waist height. It's way too big to pull around with a tractor.
The top of it caught in some other trees, so it's stuck. It will come down on its own eventually, right on the dirt road that goes through my woods. I can't just leave it and wait.
If it came down, I suppose the lowest big branches would be falling around 20 feet, with a lot of energy. I don't want to do any work on that end because I can't get to much of it, a huge amount of stuff would be right over my head, there are branches bent like springs, and I don't know what the tree will do if I start cutting.
The tree did its best to make life hard for me. It has one fat trunk plus a smaller trunk about a foot thick. The fat trunk fell in the exact direction of the thin trunk, pinning the thin trunk under it. The place where the trunks join is solid. The bottom trunk is on the ground at one end, and its branches hold it up at the other.
The big trunk crosses over the little one, so at one end, you have to go under the big trunk on one side to cut anything, and at the other end, you have to go under the big trunk on the other side. The root area is the only place where you can cut without the big part of the tree over your head, and it's still high enough to roll over on you.
What would you do?
I cut all the trip hazards away because I didn't want to end up like Charlize Theron in Prometheus. I decided the safest thing was to cut the small trunk as close to the roots as I could, watching carefully in case the big trunk moved. I figured that if I could get the small one loose at the root end, I could pull it off to the side with the tractor, at least well enough so I could start cutting it up without anything over my head.
Once I have room around the big trunk, I plan to start cutting lengths from the root end. When I have cut horizontal trees like this in the past, I cut down from the top side and drove wedges in to keep the kerf from closing later. Then I bored again, below the wedges in the kerf, extending it. I kept going almost all the way through, leaving a strap at the bottom of the trunk to keep it from collapsing. Then I cut the strap and ran like hell.
So far, this has worked okay. I haven't had my saw pinched, and I have always had time to move before anything weird happened. Sometimes the trees got stuck after they were cut through, which was fine with me, because I would rather pull a tree apart with the tractor than have it fall suddenly while I'm right beside it.
I managed to get through the lower trunk with only one pinch, but the trunk is stuck. It seems like it may be moving very, very slowly.
I am planning to pull the cut end away tomorrow if the tree doesn't separate on its own tonight. I tried to use a pole saw on it so I could make all the cuts I wanted and get it over with, but even though the chain was sharpened recently, it threw dust and taxed the battery in a hurry. I needed to get done before the mosquitoes ate my entire body, so I resorted to using chainsaws instead. My fault for not checking my equipment.
Incidentally, Icy Hot Pro really kills the itch from dozens of mosquito bites.
Is there a better approach to a dangerous tree like this which is hung up in other trees?
The pictures aren't great. They are intended to show the root area, the trunk heading off toward the crown, and the crown of the tree stuck in the canopy.
This is some kind of trash oak. I would guess it was about 80 feet tall before it fell during Milton or Helene, and I would say it was between 24 and 30 inches thick at waist height. It's way too big to pull around with a tractor.
The top of it caught in some other trees, so it's stuck. It will come down on its own eventually, right on the dirt road that goes through my woods. I can't just leave it and wait.
If it came down, I suppose the lowest big branches would be falling around 20 feet, with a lot of energy. I don't want to do any work on that end because I can't get to much of it, a huge amount of stuff would be right over my head, there are branches bent like springs, and I don't know what the tree will do if I start cutting.
The tree did its best to make life hard for me. It has one fat trunk plus a smaller trunk about a foot thick. The fat trunk fell in the exact direction of the thin trunk, pinning the thin trunk under it. The place where the trunks join is solid. The bottom trunk is on the ground at one end, and its branches hold it up at the other.
The big trunk crosses over the little one, so at one end, you have to go under the big trunk on one side to cut anything, and at the other end, you have to go under the big trunk on the other side. The root area is the only place where you can cut without the big part of the tree over your head, and it's still high enough to roll over on you.
What would you do?
I cut all the trip hazards away because I didn't want to end up like Charlize Theron in Prometheus. I decided the safest thing was to cut the small trunk as close to the roots as I could, watching carefully in case the big trunk moved. I figured that if I could get the small one loose at the root end, I could pull it off to the side with the tractor, at least well enough so I could start cutting it up without anything over my head.
Once I have room around the big trunk, I plan to start cutting lengths from the root end. When I have cut horizontal trees like this in the past, I cut down from the top side and drove wedges in to keep the kerf from closing later. Then I bored again, below the wedges in the kerf, extending it. I kept going almost all the way through, leaving a strap at the bottom of the trunk to keep it from collapsing. Then I cut the strap and ran like hell.
So far, this has worked okay. I haven't had my saw pinched, and I have always had time to move before anything weird happened. Sometimes the trees got stuck after they were cut through, which was fine with me, because I would rather pull a tree apart with the tractor than have it fall suddenly while I'm right beside it.
I managed to get through the lower trunk with only one pinch, but the trunk is stuck. It seems like it may be moving very, very slowly.
I am planning to pull the cut end away tomorrow if the tree doesn't separate on its own tonight. I tried to use a pole saw on it so I could make all the cuts I wanted and get it over with, but even though the chain was sharpened recently, it threw dust and taxed the battery in a hurry. I needed to get done before the mosquitoes ate my entire body, so I resorted to using chainsaws instead. My fault for not checking my equipment.
Incidentally, Icy Hot Pro really kills the itch from dozens of mosquito bites.
Is there a better approach to a dangerous tree like this which is hung up in other trees?
The pictures aren't great. They are intended to show the root area, the trunk heading off toward the crown, and the crown of the tree stuck in the canopy.