Check your trees for hazards

[bcp]

Hiker on Lake Ann Trail dies after dead wood falls from tree | 790 KGMI

Deputies, along with Bellingham Mountain Rescue, Glacier Fire, and Kendall Fire, were able to recover her body.

kgmi.com

Bruce

 

[scootr]

What are the odds?

 

[ljjhouser]

one in a million

Between bears and trees, I guess staying home is becoming an option. That is terrible.

 

[ponytug]

There's a reason that dead limbs are known as "widow makers". Some trees are especially prone to them. (Around here eucalyptus especially.)

Hereabouts, there is the hot day / no wind problem that literally explodes limbs off of trees due to the hydrostatic pressure of the sap accumulating in the limbs and not enough wind to transpire the water. I had no idea about it until it happened just outside my window one afternoon. It sound like a 12ga shotgun had gone off.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Will S]

This nearly happened to me about a year ago, right on my own property. We have a few dozen very large oak trees in the mowing areas. I was on the Woods (diesel) mower, and made a pass close to one of those trees (which also has a rope swing attached to a large branch about 20+ feet off the ground).

Just as I passed the tree I heard, (over the noise of the diesel and hearing protectors), and felt the ground shake. I stopped and looked back, and there was a branch from 6" to 8" dia and 9 feet long, laying on the ground right behind the mower where I just mowed 5 or 6 seconds earlier.

 

[scootr]

The danger is real. The timing is not . Had this hiker stopped to retie a shoe or watch a bird land or had to pee... they would be alive. I saw a video of a car driving along a roadway when a huge tree fell on the car and killed the driver.

 

[flyerdan]

...no wind problem that literally explodes limbs off of trees due to the hydrostatic pressure of the sap accumulating in the limbs and not enough wind to transpire the water...

That's the theory for what happened to my across the road neighbor's big oak tree. It was a hot July morning, plumb still and had been hot and windless for quite a while. Water was pouring out of the cuts. Biggest diameter is about 33".

 

[Jstpssng]

That's sad. I don't believe in luck, fate, or predestiny yet there are some things you can't avoid; it was just her time to do.

 

[Wagtail]

Meh... Over here, eucalypt trees will randomly 'cast' a limb/branch, especially when it's dead calm.

You can't win. We've had tent-campers killed simply by pitching underneath a gum-tree.

 

[dstig1]

It happened in a park or trail in Minneapolis a few years back. 2 ladies were walking on a path and a tree or limb fell and killed one of them out of the blue. Found it. Link below. 2014. I was off a bit on details, but close...

Update: EP woman killed after tree falls on her identified

EP woman killed after tree falls on her

www.swnewsmedia.com

 

[Cycledude]

Unfortunately that type of thing Happens way to often

 

[oldballs]

Just happened in my front yard a couple weeks ago.......

 

[Jstpssng]

About 12 years ago I had a tree come down on my company truck on a windy day. I saw it coming but didn't have time to brake. They replaced the roof, one door, and put covers on the bed rails where the tree rained dead branches on it. At the time we were driving along watching a harvester cut along the roadside on land that we managed. Of all the miles I put on private roads, this happened on the main highway in an organised town.

I thought "If there are trees blowing over it must be time to cut it."
Two months later we cut the wood on that side of the road.

 

[ArlyA]

When I went through the sawyer certification training program, widow makers we're thoroughly discussed. Today when working in the woods, we see hangers all the time.

 

[Tinhack]

I guess that's one advantage of my Mesquite trees. As they get older, the branches spider-leg to the ground and you can't get under them anyway. If you want to keep them going up, you HAVE to keep them trimmed.

 

[Tinhack]

I guess that's one advantage of my Mesquite trees. As they get older, the branches spider-leg to the ground and you can't get under them anyway. If you want to keep them going up, you HAVE to keep them trimmed.

View attachment 768142

 

[CobyRupert]

Ok, I just went and checked the trees on my property: Turns out, they’re all eventually going to fall down. Some trees, especially the maples, even healthy ones, are always shedding branches. What now?

Should I also check every tree along the side of the road before I drive by it?

 

[Mud2Money]

Where I hunt at I keep the maples trimmed up around my stand. Every spring my uncle and I go clean up a cord or two of branches that just pop right off. Most being 3-6” diameter and 10-20’ long. I had no idea about the exploding branches though. Good information !

 

[Jstpssng]

Ok, I just went and checked the trees on my property: Turns out, they’re all eventually going to fall down. Some trees, especially the maples, even healthy ones, are always shedding branches. What now?

Should I also check every tree along the side of the road before I drive by it?

No, but it pays to be aware. Don’t stop to take a picture when standing under a hanging limb.

 

[Jstpssng]

Ok, I just went and checked the trees on my property: Turns out, they’re all eventually going to fall down. Some trees, especially the maples, even healthy ones, are always shedding branches. What now?

Should I also check every tree along the side of the road before I drive by it?

This is the kind of thing I watch out for out of habit;


The chances of having a tree fall on you are slim, yet paying attention will reduce the risk even more… just as the risk of getting hit by a car are less if you don’t routinely play in the street.

I also am wearing a hard hat, and wouldn’t be where I am now if the wind was blowing… it should have been cut 20 years ago and there are too many dead stubs.