On Stubs and Cleanup...

[TheKid]

when pruning a conifer (or decid.), or on a removal for that matter, how do you execute your cuts? for example: say you are to remove (prune) 20 or so limbs from a douglas fir, about 3-5" dia. do you make your undercut near the trunk, then remove the limb, then cut a small stub off at the appropriate spot? the reason i ask is when it comes time to clean up, groundie ALWAYS misses a bunch of debris. especially little stub cuts. we pride ourselves on cleanup and minimal invasion, so lately i've been toying with making my undercuts further from the trunk, removing the limb, and cutting off a larger stub (whatever the branch dia and species will allow without threat of tearing). i do this thinking it is easier to find a 1-2 foot "stub" than it is a little 3-5 incher. does anyone have any thoughts on this subject? do you have a method other than counting limbs and stubs or riding groundie harder to perform? am i thinking too much as usual?

 

[clearance]

Nothing wrong with doing that, why not?

 

[ClimbinArbor]

bigger stubs are found easier.... but id be on my groundies more. if theyre missing stuff like that, they aint doing as good as the should. i normally make 1 footers on the stubs. always undercut though.

 

[treeseer]

sometimes i aim to make my stubs firewood length. So much more important to avoid ripping tho.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Climbinarbor is right, the work in the tree takes first priority, its the cleanup guys that need chasing up. After all, if you did NO cuts in the tree it would make there job easier wouldnt it?

 

[Mitchell]

fire wood stubs

I stick to small stubs now. Bigger stubs can bounce laterally off the trunk if they hit an uneven surfaces on the trunk below. Funny story to follow...

I had one 5" by 16" diameter fire wood stub on a 100' Douglas dead wood prune, slip away 70' up, fall 20' where it rode a lower Branch and came out like a rocket on a 45 degree angle. It went across the lawn, shot off the bank into the ocean a 100' away. Except the ocean does not make hollow smashing sounds; they had there speed boat tied up under the bank! I don't think I could reproduce that if I tried a 1000 times; Mr Murphy.

The sound still rings in my ears. Any one who has ever fixed gel coat on a boat knows the profit in a 150 job was not going to cover it by a factor of 20. When I told the owner later he said "no worries we forgot about the boat over the winter and it filled up with rain and sank!" The couple [two doctors] had just re floated it for removal and already replaced it with a shiny new speed boat.

Dumb luck for me. However ever since, if Im not taking the time to snap cut, the stubs are cut close to the trunk.

 

[clearance]

Mitchell, a guy showed me something with Doug. firs. When you cut branches, often you can make the cut once, properly, from the side and top. "Pop" goes the branch and you continue to cut, done. Leaves the proper collar cut, no stub, no second cut, try it sometime. The branches often land flat as well.

 

[southsoundtree]

Mitchell, a guy showed me something with Doug. firs. When you cut branches, often you can make the cut once, properly, from the side and top. "Pop" goes the branch and you continue to cut, done. Leaves the proper collar cut, no stub, no second cut, try it sometime. The branches often land flat as well.

is the side cut farther from the branch collar than the top cut, which I take to be at the outside edge of the collar/ final cut location? Or is the side cut even with the top cut?

 

[clearance]

is the side cut farther from the branch collar than the top cut, which I take to be at the outside edge of the collar/ final cut location? Or is the side cut even with the top cut?

Even, same as if you were cutting of a little stub. The branch just pops off gone, nasty looking stub for the half second till you cut it off, in the same cut.

 

[ClimbinArbor]

yeah i could see that. if you take the side cut in 50% then make your top cut, the branch should plop right off of there. i wouldnt make it a habit on anything of substantual size on other species, unless you could practice it on a removal or two first.....

 

[Thillmaine]

Stubs

On removals always cut the whole branch, no stub. Escpecially on sonfier removals, stubs are just a pain in the balls (sometimes literally). YOu can get your buckstrap caught on them yada yad yada. I HATE when I see a guy leaving all sorts of stubs. Tree looks like a porcupine (sp), and its just not clean. If oyu have to rig off themt hen leave one every couple of feet or whatever, but I cant stand when every cut is a stub.
On Pruning I typically make a handsaw cut away from the collar and let it rip into my other hand, then finish the cut, then cut the stub off. or undercut, over cut, stub removal with a chainsaw.
I have always found that reagrdless of what people say about leaving stubs for options on rigging, they always come back to bite you in the ass in the long run. Use a block, keep it clean.

 

[ClimbinArbor]

blocks versus stubs.....

time is a big concern of mine. if i can leave a few stubs on a tree to rig to, and not spend 30 extra minutes playing with a whoopie sling and block, ill do it all day.

ive also done small conifer removals in the middle of a job, and used stubs to climb so i didnt have to run to the truck and grab my spikes.

and noone said to leave a porcupine. only leave what you need(which may only be one or two or none) and cut them on the way down.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

sometimes i aim to make my stubs firewood length. So much more important to avoid ripping tho.

If it is a trim job, I do what Guy says. Many of my clients save small diameter firewood. 18-20 inch stub and rope it down if it has any heft.

On some species I will do what I think clearance is talking about. Those that will barbers-chair from the top, and hang on can be cut close to the collar. I may do shallow undercut and tie the rigline out farther then normal.

 

[Mitchell]

I think Im reading your mail

Mitchell, a guy showed me something with Doug. firs. When you cut branches, often you can make the cut once, properly, from the side and top. "Pop" goes the branch and you continue to cut, done. Leaves the proper collar cut, no stub, no second cut, try it sometime. The branches often land flat as well.

Sorta like bucking logs to length under tension and compression.

On removals always cut the whole branch, no stub. Escpecially on sonfier removals, stubs are just a pain in the balls (sometimes literally). YOu can get your buckstrap caught on them yada yad yada.

Another point made by the scars on a 30 year vet of the business I teamed up with a few weeks back; he did not remove some natural stubs in the tree he was safetied into. When he came out of the tree he was working he swung in and impaled himself collapsing his lung; ouch.

 

[clearance]

Sorta like bucking logs to length under tension and compression.
No, I don't do that bucking, it ruins wood.


Another point made by the scars on a 30 year vet of the business I teamed up with a few weeks back; he did not remove some natural stubs in the tree he was safetied into. When he came out of the tree he was working he swung in and impaled himself collapsing his lung; ouch.

I never leave stubs, I am a fundementalist Islamist about it. Early in my climbing days a guy told me he raced up a tree to hang a rope in it (utility removal), he cut off a few branches in his way on the way up. He tied in and came down fast, until a stub stopped him suddenly, by snagging his family jewels. Not going to have this happen to me.