Why non-tree people shouldn't do tree work

[treeguy347]

I wish I could have gotten a picture of this... An excavating contractor in town was doing sitework at a newly completed home, and had a cluster of several trees in the front yard. Rather than call someone with a bit of experience, or even get a chainsaw himself, he digs out three sides of the trees with his Cat 416. Once he thought it was undermined enough, he turned around and started ramming them with the front-end loader. All the trees went right on the garage, taking out not only the roof, but the walls too. The first thing out of his insurance agents mouth: "What are you doing taking down trees????" I asked him why he pushed them on the house (jokingly). He replied: "I didn't want to take down the power lines."

 

[treeman82]

I was watching REAL TV the other day and saw a piece about a guy around the Boston area who was "cutting a branch" actually it was a guy removing a small / medium pine tree in a front yard. The guy SOMEHOW got turned upside down on his spikes so that his head was towards the ground, and his spikes were up to the sky. Well to add insult to injury, his saddle was falling up(?) and they were dragging his pants along with them. I think it took like 3 firefighters on ladders to cut his lanyard, turn him upright, and get him down safely. I think they said he was like that for 2 hrs or something?

 

[DDM]

 

[ramanujan]

i saw that same thing on realTV... what a cowboy.

must be fairly disconnected from the local arborist industry if you must get the fire department to rescue you 2 hours later.

 

[2ndgclimber]

So Ramanujan,if your ever in need of rescue you want to call on one of your tree climbing buddies to,who by the way is probably up in a tree or runnning a saw or the chipper and wont hear the phone ANYWAY,instead of the fire department who can also administer medical attention if needed and get you down in one piece.

 

[Kevin]

Originally posted by ramanujan
i saw that same thing on realTV... what a cowboy.

Was that the show where the climber came in contact with the power?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I saw one RealTV a few years ago where an Amigo was up a palm and somehow got trapped by the dead fronds. Cant remember if they were in his line, or all over him and just too heavy to get out.

 

[mikecross23]

Today I was working in a tree that hung over the neighbors house. He watched me for a few minutes then pulled out his super duper extension ladder and pole saw. The dude climbed up his oak tree and knocked out a few dead limbs, dropped the top pole and prunner head, climbed back up there and proceeded to climb out on a limb about 5 ft away from the trunk with nothing but his pole saw and obviously lacking brain. He didn' t really do the tree much good, but hey, he sure proved to me that he'd make a great tree climber!!!!

 

[M.D. Vaden]

In Sherwood, Oregon, I also saw an excavator operator use his machine as a TREE HEALTH gauge.

He told me that a beautiful Deodar Cedar, that was in a to-be landscape area, was not a good tree.

It was about 50 years old, good form, healthy.

I asked him why it was going to be removed. He said that when the giant arm of his machine broke a 12" diameter leader, he knew the tree was brittle.

Of course they are brittle. But he failed to realize, or know, that this tree had been through every major wind storm this area has had for the past 5 decades.

Speaking of wind, did you know that Portland, Oregon has had about 4 tornadoes in the area since 1950? That was new to me.

What shocked me was that the wind speed in downtown Portland on the Morrison Bridge during the 1963 Columbus day storm was 116 miles per hour. And we are 75 miles or so off the coast.

That was from a search I found in Clackamas county - east side of Portland. I don't recall my search terms on Google.

 

[ramanujan]

So Ramanujan,if your ever in need of rescue you want to call on one of your tree climbing buddies to,who by the way is probably up in a tree or runnning a saw or the chipper and wont hear the phone ANYWAY,instead of the fire department who can also administer medical attention if needed and get you down in one piece.

Does your local fire department train their firemen to climb trees?
I think that many of us are often in trees that are not accessible by ladder truck or any sort of driven equipment.

Any proficient climber should be well versed and practiced in aerial rescue techniques and should be able to get to where the injured/stuck climber is and bring him down. Most responsible people in this industry have first-aid training as well.

 

[Dan F]

I know the fire department that I used to be a member of before I moved did not train on climbing trees. They didn't even have appropriate equipment for a high (or even low) angle rescue that would require ropes. I suspect that this is the case over 80-90% of the country. Lack of funding for equipment and training is probably the primary cause. That and the officers probably don't realize that it could be a problem in the area.

Reminds me of the call about 10 years ago (well before I was on the department), where a single-engine plane got stuck ~50 feet into an oak tree. The university ladder truck either wasn't long enough to get to it (doubtful) or they just couldn't get to it because of various obstacles. By the time my father (who is on the department still) got home to get his spikes (this was a TRUE rescue), the university had come up with some 50+ foot Bangor ladders to get there.

It might be good PR for those of you with a volunteer department or small town department to contact them and let them know you are there and are willing to help should anything like that happen. Meet with the guys (and gals) and show them your certifications and your equipment. In most cases time is usually of the essence, so having someone they can call to help when needed would probably be appreciated. Just make sure that they understand that you will not turn your equipment over to them so they can do the rescue if they are not trained in the use of the equipment! And make sure you are covered by your insurance to do this type of thing!

 

[TimberMcPherson]

I have seen a 70kg branch stranded in powerlines above a roadside after the owner thought he would do some home improvement around the house. Just last week I was called out to a job where a guy had decided to fell a 4ft trunked pine with a poulan electric chainsaw. No scarf cut, just a straight cut through (it wasnt straight, kinda cork screwed).
The gods where on his side when the saw blew its miserable brains out so he started cutting all around the tree with an axe. After a while the tree must have started moving around a bit and scared him off as he was nowhere to be seen leaving the elderlay woman owner very frighted about where this tree was going to fall.
I hadnt ever wondered how to cut down a tree that had already been cut 2/3rds of the way through without a scarf. Took me 2 hours jacking, wedging and generally wanting to kill the idiot to get it on the ground away from the house.
Then theres the guy who ringbarked a sycamore which literally grew right over the roof of his house because he thought it was getting to big.....