White pine top broken, why & how?????

[Fuddy1952]

Forty years ago I planted white pine trees in rows around here. Yesterday I noticed the top snapped off the top of one! It's up at least 30 ft. I can't figure out how it happened and how to get it down. I have 4x4 tractor and truck I'm sure would pull it but getting chain around is problem. Trees are spaced 8 ft. apart and gotten pretty large. I'd hate to cut whole tree down, bottom seems ok.
Yesterday needles on broken part were still green, and no high winds at all.
I have a rope and sandbag I might could throw but too many limbs around. At 28 I'd probably climb it with a saw, but not at 68.
Just wait for it to fall some day?

View attachment 704026

 

[Fuddy1952]

.

 

[nybirdman]

I would leave it alone and not cut the tree down(as long as it can't do any harm).

 

[oosik]

Yes - let it be. Eventually the wind may blow it down and you will see what happened,

 

[PILOON]

As such white pine is a quite brittle wood and it does not take much of a wind to snap it.
Also it might just have been snapped for a while B4 you noticed it.

 

[Fuddy1952]

As such white pine is a quite brittle wood and it does not take much of a wind to snap it.
Also it might just have been snapped for a while B4 you noticed it.

That's what's weird. No wind, and yesterday needles in broken part were green. Brown pictures taken just now. I've never seen one just snap like this!
There is a huge limb behind it growing up so it will be the new top!
Brown needles circled, snapped top.

 

[ruffdog]

Being that the other limb is brown, I'm thinking the tree had a weak spot caused by canker. Sometimes that weak spot will be half the size of the rest of the trunk so it breaks easy.

Increased Occurrence of Pitch Canker in White Pine this Summer

 

[Fuddy1952]

Being that the other limb is brown, I'm thinking the tree had a weak spot caused by canker. Sometimes that weak spot will be half the size of the rest of the trunk so it breaks easy.

Increased Occurrence of Pitch Canker in White Pine this Summer

Thanks...interesting link.

 

[5030]

I'd call a tree company with a high reach and have them remove it myself.

 

[Tinhack]

Could have been lightening. I see what looks like a split in the second picture.

There used to be a tree on the back fence line at my place. It was about 400ft. from the house. Lightening hit it and split the trunk high up. You could see where the bolt traveled down and blew all the bark off one side and left a burn mark. I ended up having to cut the tree down.

 

[AWSubie]

I hope you don’t have pine beetles (weevils).

 

[ruffdog]

Thanks...interesting link.

Yeah....I grew up on a tree farm and now live on a ex-tree farm and Canker is the only issue we have with mature white pine.
If I remember right, the Gooseberry is part of the life cycle for bugs that can transfer the fungus tree to tree.

 

[Egon]

Throw a fish line attached to a cable or heavier rope.

 

[oosik]

I've had lightning strikes kill the top 5' to 10' of a very few of my Ponderosa pines. But never knocked the top off. I had ONE strike start a fire at the very top of one. I watched it for two days. It finally went out - I didn't have to fall the tree.

 

[ericm979]

Throw a fish line attached to a cable or heavier rope.

They make throw weights and super light line for that. They're in arborist catalogs. Throwing up into a tree is harder than it seems like it'd be, especially if there is a lot of foliage. A friend who works as an arborist has the weights and line and also a big slingshot, which makes it a lot easier.

Stuff breaks out of trees, especially pine/fir trees, a lot. Both in winter storms and in the summer when the trees are stressed and heavy with new foliage and cones.

 

[PILOON]

Pine is so brittle that most arborists are vert leery of climbing on the limbs.
They snap off real easy.

 

[MossRoad]

I've got an old archery fishing spool like this that I tape to an old Bear bow and shoot a line over things that I want a line over. It uses a heavy fiberglass arrow with a hole in the end. I remove the barbed tip. No need to kill it.

Then I use the line to pull a rope up the opposite direction, and then use the rope to pull a cable up if I'm so inclined. Works great. It's how I do the Christmas lights on our 50' spruce tree the past few years.

 

[Egon]

I've got an old archery fishing spool like this that I tape to an old Bear bow and shoot a line over things that I want a line over. It uses a heavy fiberglass arrow with a hole in the end. I remove the barbed tip. No need to kill it.

Then I use the line to pull a rope up the opposite direction, and then use the rope to pull a cable up if I'm so inclined. Works great. It's how I do the Christmas lights on our 50' spruce tree the past few years.

Perfect.

Finally recalled the proper name: Messenger Line

 

[BravoXray]

I have a white pine on the south side of my property that lost 12' - 15' that was snapped off the top in a windy storm. It lost another limb lower down too.

 

[Cougsfan]

If you have fertilized the pine trees they will grow too fast and become quite weak.