Felling dead tree

[JerryK]

With live trees, you can hook a cable/come along on them and bend them or make them tend to fall in just about any direction if you do it right. With a dead tree using the same method... at some point the tree will just crack and fall just about anyway it wants. Dead trees and dead tops are real dangerous.

 

[square1]

I'm going to go against the tide here. Why are you roping dead trees in the forest? Are there overhead utility lines in play? A property line or wetland in range to avoid?

There's a lot of ways to get a tree to the ground. I can count on one finger the number of trees I've put a rope in over the past 7 years of cutting 12~13 cord a year of dead ash.

I'd rather deal with a hang-up any day of the week than the unpredictable affect an introduced force is going to have on felling a tree. Glad this incident ended safely.

 

[check]

Actually you should be more worried about the poplars than you are. They are very split-prone. I had a friend helping on my property have a close call with a barber chair on one that was perfectly healthy. And is is VERY experienced in logging. A lot of times they are not as they rot easily and not always visibly from the outside. You can start cutting into one you think is perfectly fine, and partway in - zip! the saw moves fast all of a sudden as there is no wood in there. Poplars I watch like a hawk when felling. They make me very nervous. If I can, and especially if they are in a bad place, I will take them out when they are small and the risks are lower. No sense letting them get big as they just rot and snap or fall over early. Poplars are forest weeds. They grow fast and early in a forest and then die off when the slower growing stuff takes over (Oak, maple, cherry, etc)

Yes, Poplars are NASTY things, and I exterminate them. whenever I can. Unfortunately, the beavers love them, so I had to be Rattek this fall whereby they started cutting down every popular they found near my boat house. Now I am faced with the task of finishing off about three or four monsters that were partially cut, and will fall on my boat house if they come down without my direction.

 

[Cord]

Poplars are forest weeds. They grow fast and early in a forest and then die off when the slower growing stuff takes over (Oak, maple, cherry, etc)

The forest is actually regrowth from the Peshtigo fire that occurred in the 1880's. The trees seem to have hit maturity and are now dying off. Most are in the 85' height range and are 18-24" at the base. While I won't miss the Poplars, I will miss the Birch trees. I don't see any new ones coming up to replace the mature trees that are dying off.

 

[newbury]

Unfortunately I lost a friend 2 weeks ago to something like this. He was removing a tree that fell on the house. No one witnessed how it happened, but the tree fell on him an broke his neck. This is something that we all do all the time w/o thinking a lot about it, but probably one of the more dangerous things we do.

I had a "small" tree grab on to it's friends, spin around and fall on my back 2 years ago. Aggravated an already bad back and took a year for me to fully recover.

I'm going to go against the tide here. Why are you roping dead trees in the forest? Are there overhead utility lines in play? A property line or wetland in range to avoid?
<snip>

Yup, let them rot in place.

I should noted that this area is deep in the forest and inaccessible to tractor or bucket truck. I've taken trees down with lifts before and feel that is by far the best way to take one down.

The way the winch loaded the last tree I believe is the reason why the crown fell out of it. If we hadn't put strain on the trunk it probably would have broken on the way down and fell away from me.

The forest is actually regrowth from the Peshtigo fire that occurred in the 1880's. The trees seem to have hit maturity and are now dying off. Most are in the 85' height range and are 18-24" at the base. While I won't miss the Poplars, I will miss the Birch trees. I don't see any new ones coming up to replace the mature trees that are dying off.

Let them rot and go back to the soil. Was the ATV winch connected to an ATV? If you can't get a tractor or something to pull with to them what do you do after you cut them? Haul them out by hand?

 

[check]

These things are called widow makers for a reason. My dad was almost killed by a dead pine tree. The ones with the dead limbs aka flying missiles are the worst.

Yup. I always start by tying a rope as high as I can and yank it back and forth as violently as I can BEFORE beginning the cut.

 

[check]

Unfortunately I lost a friend 2 weeks ago to something like this. He was removing a tree that fell on the house. No one witnessed how it happened, but the tree fell on him an broke his neck. This is something that we all do all the time w/o thinking a lot about it, but probably one of the more dangerous things we do.

I am so sorry to hear about your friend, TexasDawg. Cutting trees can be so dangerous, and yet so many do it with very little training or knowledge about the dangers. It is too bad some sort of education campaign couldn't be mounted and e.g. heavily advertised ar chinsaw sales locations.

 

[Cord]

If you can't get a tractor or something to pull with to them what do you do after you cut them? Haul them out by hand?

We split the wood in place so the trash stays in the forest and haul the wood using atv trailers.

 

[Deere Dude]

I recently cut several trees that were leaning some in the wrong direction. As suggested I tied a rope as high as I could reach and wrapped it around the base of another tree or stump that was in the direction I wanted it to fall. Then I pulled at 90 degrees with the tractor. I had one that tried to go wrong and pinched the saw. I was far enough toward the hinge cut that I just turned off the saw and mounted the tractor to put more pressure on it. The tree succumbed and fell in the direction I wanted and the saw fell to the ground. These were all living trees so they weren't quite as dangerous.
.

Quite a few years ago I was trying to bend a leaning 70' 15"dia, elm tree backwards away from the house. I used two cables and come-a-longs and really torqued it backwards. As I was cutting I don't remember if it was the back or side of the tree or what but I heard the tree crack a little and start to move on it's own. Just then my 55cc. John Deere saw got stuck so I gave it a jerk or two but to no avail. I left it and backed away. The saw fell out, the tree fell down and then commenced to roll right over my nice saw. Smashed it to smithereens. But over a few years time I was able to find an old chain saw with most of the parts needed to get it going again..

 

[Ed of all trades]

If you are positive you need them to come down, wait until you are going to have a wind storm and go out before the wend starts and weaken them with your saw but let the wend take them down. Just make sure no one will be there when they fall. Ed