Suburban loggers

[treeman82]

I don't mean to offend the true, and legitimate loggers on this board, however I find that it is the best way to characterize the people I am about to speak of, without using the term "Hack."

I am getting tired of seeing so many suburban loggers in this area. Yesterday I was with a friend going to pick up a part from an auto store when we passed by a "tree service" pruning this GORGEOUS black oak. I wasn't able to get a good look at what they were doing at the time, but my friend said that the person climbing the tree was wearing hooks. Driving by the place today, it looked as though they just gutted whatever they could that was within reach of the pole saw. Unfortunately this isn't an uncommon thing. Several "tree services" around here use hooks on pruning jobs. Few if any companies (local companies) use safety gear. "Helmets? We don't need no stinkin helmets!" There are several of these types of companies which spray, however I can just tell that they really want to sell tree removal. I guess they do the "pruning" and spraying because its $ in their pockets.

 

[jkrueger]

What part of the country are you refering to? NY?

Jack

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Sounds like a cancer that you don't want spreading. Best treatment is $.20 ISA brochures on Mature Tree Pruning, etc. given to the neighbors so they know there are alternatives to the gutting that you saw.

 

[treeman82]

Guy, that would be wonderful if it was only a couple incidents that I saw. However, this kind of thing is pretty wide spread. I guess the old adage "Ignorance is bliss" is right on.

 

[John Ellison]

Hey, Them's fightin words!

Just kidding TM82. But, seeing as how I am occasionally a "suburban logger", I have to take exception. You can say whatever you want about loggers and at least a little of it might be true Maybe in NYC a person in a tree that is pruning limbs is called a logger, but not where I've been.

Us loggers have our own wayward souls that need to be set on the "right path". If I see a logger doing a poor job, there is no way I would try to say that he is an arborist,except maybe jokingly.I know what you mean and am not really offended, as I hope you are not offended by my comments. I am just saying that if he is pruning tree limbs and doing that type of work he is not a logger. You could call him a stone mason and then the loggers on this site will not be upset.

John

 

[Newfie]

If they are hacks then call them hacks, calling them loggers doesn't make any sense. Even when logging, as unrefined a process as it may seem to the arborists, we try to do good work and preserve the integrity of the stand. Gaffing and poor pruning practices have nothing to do with logging. Every profession has its hacks from arborists to engineers. Your comments should have been directed at the true and legitimate arborists not the loggers. Think before you speak and write and you will be sure to offend the appropriate people next time.

Oh and no offense taken, life is to short to worry about petty cr@p like that.


BTW, stop driving around and get out there and practice some proper arboriculture.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by treeman82
this kind of thing is pretty wide spread.

All the more reason to share an alternative with the neighbors without wasting a lot of time or money. $,20 and 20 seconds per house is all it takes, unless you catch them at home and converse, in which case your odds of driving the message home--and getting good work out of it--are much higher.

Best yet is to go to the source, and talk directly with the spikers and gutters. Highlight the parts in the brochure that state "no spikes" and "no overthinning", and give them to the climber, the customer, the boss, etc. Yes you'll be as welcome as a hornet at first, but what else ya gonna do?

Most towns have some tree regulations, of which I am not a big fan. But relating your concerns to the urban forester or whoever may help. I saw a 48" oak getting spiked to prune once, on a city contract, and the co. wound up paying a fine and almost lost the contract. YOu can vent globally on AS, but there are ways to act locally too.

O and semantics--this sounds more like butchery than logging.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
O and semantics--this sounds more like butchery than logging.

Hey Guy, what do you have against butchers???? It's a skilled trade, with standards like any other industry.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Mike Maas
Hey Guy, what do you have against butchers???? It's a skilled trade, with standards like any other industry.

OK OK we'll call in Nick to handle the semantics. "Hack" fits but maybe there's something more apropo.

 

[Stumper]

MM, Relative terminology. Butchery is to surgery as hackery is to arboriculture. Arborists are also refered to as Tree Surgeons. It is therefore fair to call tree hackers, butchers. They may cut but they do not provide health care services for the vict...er... patients.

The politically correct terms shall henceforth be:1. Woody plant abusers, or 2. Tree molesters

 

[NeTree]

Cut them down! Cut them down!


Oops, now I sound like a tree murderer...

 

[arboromega]

hacks will do. tree trash is a nice one. but hacks is an universal term used for one who does bad work. i have friends in constuction and business jobs who use the term hack.
the problem is these guys who "hook 'n prune" ...prune with spikes on, know better. it is just blatant disregard. the knowledge of not puruning with spikes has been out for years and years.

 

[OutOnaLimb]

I know a lot of guys that harvest urban timber. With a 18ft log truck you can not only skid the logs more efficiently, but sell it for ply, saw logs or pulp. My mentor out in Georgia has his own pulp truck and is ISA certified, does that make him a urban logger? NO. He is a highly skilled arborist, and truth be know, I wish he would join the AS brotherhood. Look at it this way. 2 centuries ago, the native American people used every single scrap of a buffalo carcass, be it the bladder for a water bag, the sinews for bow strings, hides for teepees, or tongues for hair brushes. In the spirit of using every tiny thing that the land gave us, why chip and dump?????

On the same token. why molest our urban resources? It is sad to see any maple or oak tree meet its ending at the end of a chipper knife. Fire wood, I can justify, but chips??????? I only wish that I had a wood mizer mill to mill alot of my work into beautiful lumber. In the future.I will get one of those. But for the time being. every thing 6" or greater is fire wood.

Calling "HACKS" loggers or lumberjacks is totally unjustified. In my opinion, most of these hacks are just drugies or drunks just looking for a quick buck. There are a lot of straight up true blue tree guys out there that would kick your ass for even comparing these pukes to the rest of the honest arborcultural, and logging crowd.

Kenn:Monkey:

 

[MasterBlaster]

And vice-versa there too, Kenn!

 

[OutOnaLimb]

Got any drugies or drunks to deal with???? I hope they like fishes, cuz that where they will be sleeping tonight.

Kenn:blob5: