photos

[Steve Bunyan]

I'm interested if anyone has some cool work related pictures they can post. Surely there has to be something better than me topping a spruce.
(It was the customer's request Rocky, no need to jump on your soapbox for this one.)

 

[rborist1]

:Eye:

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Steve Bunyan It was the customer's request

** Who would want to get rid of such a beautiful tree? then again, we can't grow spruce here and the picture reminded me of my old WI home...

Maybe Canadians'd be equally distressed by seeing loblolly pines and sweetgums getting cut down

It's all site-dependent, huh?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by Steve Bunyan

(It was the customer's request Rocky, no need to jump on your soapbox for this one.)

aren't they all?

Did you try to talk them out of it?

Just because that is what the customer wants does not make it non-hackery. I suposed you gaffed up it.

Please say it's a removal and your just pulling our collective leg!

Craig, what were you doing, wildlife habitat?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hey Steve! At least make the picture large enuff to where we can see it!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Steve, I agree completely with you on your deleted thread.

Water off a ducks back, bro.

 

[Steve Bunyan]

In an attempt to get pictures, all I got was a load of holier than thou bullsh*t. Maybe I should look for a site called hack.com or treebutcher.com. No one else who's ever posted here hasn't done something as bad or worse than this?
If I could pick and choose jobs like you Hollywood Arborists I would. I free-climbed up there in less than a minute with no spurs thank you.


Here's one for your photo albums.

 

[ramanujan]

C'mon now people. You don't know why he topped the tree. In the last year I have topped two conifers, both for reasons that I felt justified it. It's like little tree-saving robots that attack whenever they see a topping in action. He obviously knows topping is not a proper tree care practice. Lay off and respect each other as men not elitist snobs.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Ramanujan,

Please justify topping. If you're going to claim that what you do is acceptable, spill the beans.

If topping is acceptable, give me referances to any literature that supports your position. If you find any, bring it to TCI and I'll eat it. With salsa of course

I'm with my cousin Rocky on this one

Tom-The anti-topping elitist tree snob

 

[murphy4trees]

I think this kiund of conversation is great..... educational and kinda fun...... I think there are many visitors who can learn plenty from checking in here and I have changed my practice after getting an earful from Tom and MM on elevating trees... That saved another big oak limb today... the customer was so pleased to have it left when all was said and done.... I talked her into doing what was good for the tree... and she loved it.... That works for me............

So with a big smile I offer you a pic of a white pine I recently "topped". Do you think I took too much off?....

 

[murphy4trees]

Here's another... this one is an "action"pic..

 

[ORclimber]

Since it's being discussed, here's some reasons I'd top a tree.

1. Line clearance, cheaper than removal and you still get a living although uglier tree. There are thousands of healthy ugly topped trees here.

2. View clearance, someone spends big$ on view property and they should lose it when the trees grow? I wouldn't open up a 360, but a strategically placed window or 2, no problem.

3. Slope stabilization, a big tree has to come out on a slope, top it in increments(eventually to the ground) while the newly planted trees get established.

4. Orchard pruning, more like severe crown reduction. Keep the fruit close to the ground where you can reach it. It's a west coast art form.

5. Take weight/leverage off a rotten trunk, like the cedar picture RBtree posted last week. Pretty tough to replace a tree that big, or even 2/3 a tree that big. I've never done it, but it might fit somewhere down the road.

6. The airport landing zone, we have those here too. Cottonwoods at PDX is a big contract I've heard.

If you call it crown reduction does that make it OK

 

[MasterBlaster]

Well said, ORclimber. Now, prepare for the dissection of every paragraph you wrote by individuals who live in a perfect world>

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

OrClimber speaks the truth.

Topping is the same as crown reduction, except for the how careful you are making the cuts. How bad it is for the tree is determined more by the volume of stuff removed, than by the type of cut.

To add to OrClimber's list:

7. Short term hazard reduction. Recall the recent hollow basswood thread.

8. Preparing a tree to be notched and dropped for removal. See murphy's picture.

I am very pleased that he did not include that topping was good for the long term health of the tree.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Try to asplain it to the fool!

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Mike Maas
Topping is the same as crown reduction, except for the how careful you are making the cuts. How bad it is for the tree is determined more by the volume of stuff removed, than by the type of cut.

It's in ANSI: What separates topping from crown reduction is the location and type of the cut. In the short term Mike's right; volume lost may be critical--too much off can kill the tree--but in the long term the type and location of cut directs regrowth, determines overall form and amount of decay. ANd the long term is what matters. Your referral to the hollow basswood thread content as proposed "topping" shows that you still don't understand crown reduction. That's ok, there's a lot I don't understand too.

Rocky did you say this was an AIRPORT job? How can there be any question about making a tree shorter, if it has to get out or a plane's flight path? I'm an elitist ant-topper who looks at ORclimbers list and finds little to argue with.

What started this thread--photos? Mike's photos on using an air-spade are an excellent portrayal of cool tree work, imo. Chopping big hunks out of trees may be a physical rush good for the NOW, but if that's all you can do you're not an arborist--look it up in the dictionary. The only really cool tree work is the kind you can go back to in ten years and say, "Yeah, I helped that tree grow into what it is today, me and its creator."

:angel:

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by RockyJSquirrel
Steve topping a tree in someone's front yard because they said it was 'toooo talllllll'.

Well Brian I missed that and still can't find it in the thread. Fear of tall trees is simple arborphobia, common in the elderly. It's often curable with the right dose of education, but some cases are terminal. In those cases I tell all the neighbors in the hopes they will exert some peer pressure.

I'm glad you don't shorten every human who is taller than you; you'd decapitate everybody.

If Mr. Bunyan did top that tree for that reason he's an aerial version of his Uncle Paul and no arborist. He probably uses a Big Blue Ox to drag his brush.

 

[murphy4trees]

Here's another reason to add to the list.

13) Customer hired you to remove the tree, then comes out just before you're ready to drop the spar and says to leave it.......

That actually happenned to me many years ago on a large Chinese Elm... The tree looks remarkably well all these many years later. Though it has had zero maintenance and will eventually start falling apart due to poor branch structure.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've left a few spars for habitat and bird feeder hangers, none too tall though.

How about the hacks justification of "partial removal"?

We don't top trees, but we will remove the top this year and come back when you have the money" wink wink, nudge nudge.

Iv'e only done similar when we have a firm agreement to come out the next year.

We have a couple clients where we take do 1500 a year on clumps of huge willows. They understand that it will cost more in the long term, but want them down. So the stuff directly over structures goes first, and the parts that make the best rigging points will be the last to go.

The butt sections will be fun, 5 feet across, and no vehicular acsess

 

[murphy4trees]

Here's some pics of Big John... I have more pics of him climbing than me because I usually take the pics.
This is a big ash removal.... I left a lot of money on the table on this tree... the 2nd lowest bid was 4k.