Check your trees for hazards

[ericm979]

In the last century I had a job with the forest service that was mostly climbing trees. One hot still summer day we parked the truck next to a tree that I'd climbed a couple weeks earlier to have lunch. There was a loud crack and the entire top 30' of the tree came crashing down on the other side of the trunk from us. It would have been bad if it'd landed the other way.

When I'd climbed it I noted cracks in the trunk from mistletoe and tied off below them. The tree had was a bumper crop of heavy wet cones and a lot of new foliage. The new weight and the weakness from the mistletoe combined to take out the entire top of the tree.

The project I were on was to identify and collect cones and scion from genetically superior trees to be propagated and used for replanting, with the end goal of making more 2x4s faster. When we got back to the office we removed that tree from the program.

One of the rules in that program was to not climb trees when the wind was 20mph or more, due to the danger from falling branches. But even without that, being 120' up in a tree that's swaying back and forth in the wind is not a lot of fun.

 

[Jstpssng]

But even without that, being 120' up in a tree that's swaying back and forth in the wind is not a lot of fun

That wouldn’t bother me much…
Because there’s NO WAY that you would catch me climbing that high in the first place.

Long before college I saw a show where they collected cones and other samples from tree tops using a rifle. I have never forgotten it, as I always wondered where the bullets ended up.
About 30 years ago when I was working for Georgia-Pacific they had a surplus auction… one thing they sold was a single shot H&R rifle (.45?) they had used for collecting samples years before.

 

[oldballs]

It's one thing to have a widow make, dead branch fall out of a tree...........and it's another to have one explode out of the clear blue and come crashing down in your front yard. I had been near by raking walnuts just the day before that Sycamore 6 in ch branch came down. Guess it wasn't "my time". I guess you could be just as dead either way!

Cheers,
Mike

 

[JasperFrank]

I've become very concerned about how Broad Leaf Maples shed branches in wind storms.
After a storm, I'll go out to cleanup and find all these up right "spears" that have penetrated 8 or so inches in to the ground with sharp points. When its windy, we stay out of the wooded areas.

 

[ericm979]

That wouldn’t bother me much…
Because there’s NO WAY that you would catch me climbing that high in the first place.

Long before college I saw a show where they collected cones and other samples from tree tops using a rifle. I have never forgotten it, as I always wondered where the bullets ended up.
About 30 years ago when I was working for Georgia-Pacific they had a surplus auction… one thing they sold was a single shot H&R rifle (.45?) they had used for collecting samples years before.

I'm mildly scared of heights. The first week of climbing season I'd be a wreck but once I got used to it I was fine.

We tried shooting cones (actually the whole top) off a tree once. We knew the area and that there was no one working down range. Both of us were decent shots and it still took as long as climbing would have and was not nearly as fun as we thought it would be. Even with a mild breeze, the trunk moves just enough to make it difficult.

 

[ArlyA]

The OP was an article about a branch falling on a hiker. We maintain hike and biking trails and watch for window maker's and either take them down or mark them for trail user's.

 

[ljjhouser]

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

Peter, I find that amazing. And very interesting. Never knew that. Maybe that should be added to then "tell me something I don't know thread.
It reminded me of many years ago we had heavy icing one winter and the power was off 9 days. A lot of trees could not support the weight - - - The sound of breaking limbs (large ones) sounded like a shot gun - with a real "pop".

 

[RobertEH]

I have done that trail as an approach to climb nearby Mt Shuksan. Beautiful area and I do not recall the trail being especially treed, but it only takes one widow-maker to ruin your day.

Condolences to the family of the hiker.

 

[kenmbz]

We have lots of dead ash, drop branches and whole trees without warning.
Had to take down a whole mess of them around my house and property border.
Lost power in my area as the power lines lose in a battle with a 100' ash.

Had one branch drop right where I and the tractor were only a minute earlier. Hit hard enough that I felt it on the tractor.
The Maples scare me more now, as I can see where the dead ash are, but I have had very healthy looking Maples drop branches without warning on a mildly windy day.

Example from a few weeks back.

 

[CobyRupert]

I was never good at calculating probabilities/ odds, but let’s say my mother in law walks under a hanging limb or widow-maker twice a day?

She’s directly under the limb for about 2 seconds of the 86,400 seconds in a day.

So, what are the chances I can get her to take her take more walks?