whadja do today?

[mike515]

Why did all these die but none just to the left?

They will. The pines anyway. There are some others to the left that should be fine. He's just trying to keep the ones that are still alive for as long as he can but he knows we will have to come back in the future to take them out. All of the trees we took out where about as tall as the one in the upper right corner...maybe 45-50 feet tall. It used to be such a great stand of trees.

Edit to say....there where a few to the left that we took out but you can't see them in the pic very well because they are hidden by others and down the lane a ways.

 

[no tree to big]

Its just odd that a perfect line of trees died but none or few outside that line did

 

[mike515]

There are some back to the left that are dead but not in the pic. We didn't take those out. Only the ones that may have hit the power lines. The customer will take the rest himself. And I was generous with what I decided may hit the line...like..... if the tree could fall directly toward the line and grow 15-20 feet taller on the way down....I took it out for him. The power company is paying for it and what I do is pretty much left up to me so I treat the customers pretty generously just to help them out. I get paid the same either way and what I decide is fine with the power company. They trust me. In fact, they usually take service calls and tell the customer that they will send me out and I will be the one who decides what we will do and how far we will go.

 

[Blakesmaster]

Blakes how do you keep those yellow jackets from loosening up. Ours seem to vibrate loose after about ten minutes of grinding. It might just be the guys that are doing it but everytime I have to use it, I gotta tighten a bunch up.

I haven't notice any real issue. Occasionally one or two will loosen up if I bang around in the rocks for too long.

 

[climbhightree]

They will. The pines anyway. There are some others to the left that should be fine. He's just trying to keep the ones that are still alive for as long as he can but he knows we will have to come back in the future to take them out. All of the trees we took out where about as tall as the one in the upper right corner...maybe 45-50 feet tall. It used to be such a great stand of trees.

Edit to say....there where a few to the left that we took out but you can't see them in the pic very well because they are hidden by others and down the lane a ways.

What kind of power line? Are you sure the power company didn't spray a herbicide on the trees, in their ROW?

 

[mike515]

What kind of power line? Are you sure the power company didn't spray a herbicide on the trees, in their ROW?

Nah...they weren't sprayed. I would know if they were sprayed. This is a smaller rural power cooperative owned by members. It isn't run like the large companies using commercial line clearance companies. I know everything that happens with the trees. There are no "butchers" here. I've been there for so long that many of the members are on a first name basis with me. In fact, some of them don't even bother calling the office to put in a work order....they have my cell number and just call me directly. It's a good gig.

 

[climbhightree]

So what is killing them then?

Usually any time there it almost a straight line in death, or damage, to a group of plants it is a chemical factor (not natural, that tends to be more random).

 

[mike515]

Probably nematodes. It kind of looks like a line of trees but again...there are a lot of other dead trees to the left of the pic. There are really only a handful of pines left that look unaffected but they will all die eventually. It's fairly widespread around here. But there are various other conifers in the stand that appear to be just fine. And the power line doesn't run above all those dead trees. It's above the few right in the front of the pic but it crosses the lane from there and comes back over down the lane a ways....so most of those trees have never been trimmed out of the lines.

 

[tree MDS]

Yarr.... 'twas another beauty...

 

[jefflovstrom]

Goober!,,,
Jeff

 

[capetrees]

Happy spring!

 

[manilu]

Today workout

 

[no tree to big]

Already got creek work rollin, stupid beaver dams! Twas a 3 foot water level difference when we started. sure would be nice to have a clam on a k boom for these could only get 2 handfuls with the clam, 24 foot just ain't enough.

 

[gorman]

Already got creek work rollin, stupid beaver dams! Twas a 3 foot water level difference when we started. sure would be nice to have a clam on a k boom for these could only get 2 handfuls with the clam, 24 foot just ain't enough.

That's an interesting job to get.

 

[no tree to big]

That's an interesting job to get.

We have a contract with the county for waterway management: beaver dams, log jams, bank restoration, fallin trees, or whatever else that disrupts water flow. It's all T&M they also include any removals or trimming on any wetland, prarie, wildlife habitat, many county right of ways, flood plain buyout land, and some forest preserve work. 10 years ago they cut funding for these projects, before that the company had a 10 man "river crew" they made about 2.5 million a year on that contract now it's roughly only 250k a year

 

[gorman]

$250k a year is still a lot of cheddar.

 

[no tree to big]

Yes it is a very nice contract, there is 250 budgeted and they have to use it or it will be cut the next year so we are pretty much guaranteed that $

 

[gorman]

That is a very nice deal. Gotta use up the money or you get cut next year. I gotta get one of those.

 

[no tree to big]

Not many out there, good luck

 

[tree MDS]

Today workout

Certainty a couple of jovial looking blokes!!!