Living Among Large Trees ?

[cartod]

I am clearing a lot for our first home building project. I have removed all of the large trees and will begin the process of stump removal followed by the builder breaking ground.

My question is about living among tall mature Oak, Cherry, Maple and Poplar. These trees are about 100' tall some bigger. They have all been competing for light for the last 100 years so the branches don't begin until 50 or 60' up. Now that I have thinned them for a " wooded Lot" Will they fill in at the top? Do I run any risk of making the trees more prone to fall in a storm? I want to leave some of these huge trees close to the house for shade. What am I in store for?

Any comments on this is much appreciated.

Here's the lot. Notice the stumps up in there, that is where the house will set.

 

[JerryK]

I live in an old mostly Sugar Maple/Beech [ 80-90 footers ] forest in northern Michigan. They are also branchless untill way up, even the cherries are like that. The big problem with your trees is that they also competed for root space, so they will not be as firmly rooted as if they were grown all alone in a field. Even out in the woods, taking down a tree upstream or even downstream from a tree, may allow straight line winds to push it over. But there is no real formula for it. I take down trees N/W of building since this is the direction that most of my high winds come from. But you need trees in the other directions for shade. Not too close to the house to cause the roof to rot from the shade, but close enough that you get some benifit from them.. A tree getting blown over is just a crapshoot, time will tell which ones don't make it. Good luck, Jerry... Here is a picture of my type trees...

 

[Combustix]

Had a 75 foot hemlock well within striking distance of the house and leaning in that direction was having some logging done and the logger said he take it down no problem. After he brought it down discovers the heart for about 15 feet from the base up was all rotted. You would never have known from the outside of the tree. It was just a matter of when it was coming down. That was the only one that could have reached the house. I've cleared all the alders back. For now

 

[TedLaRue]

Trees on the boundary of the clearing will grow branches into the clearing (seeking the light). That makes the tree heavier on that side so that if the tree should fall, it is more likely that the tree will fall toward your house rather than the other way.

Not trying to put the fear into you; just something else to think about.

 

[dave1949]

Whether they will blow down is anybody's guess. Removing trees does usually increase the odds. Could you evaluate each tree that is within "striking" distance of your planned home site to determine if any are decidedly leaning or weighted toward the house location? Those are the trees I would be more concerned about. You obviously want a wooded lot, so you takes your chances

 

[tractchores]

I live among many large hardwoods. You do run a risk of something falling, but for me the shade, water absorption and astetics are well worth it. I haven't had one hit the house in 30 years. They are nice up north because the leaves fall and let sun in during winter and block it in the hot summer. What i do is look at them annually to make sure they aren't hollow and i keep from having branches directly above the house.

 

[s219]

You have a beautiful spot, and I can understand why you'd want to keep those grand trees.

I just finished cutting hardwoods to make space for our new house before the clearing crew came in. I tried my best to keep as many trees as possible, but even then, took out many more than I had liked:




There are three medium sized beeches in the foreground that already had their own space, and I am not worried about them. I have them fenced in with safety netting now, to keep construction traffic off the roots. To the far left are two hollies (about 25 feet tall) with a 80 foot poplar in the middle. There had been two oaks right there, each about 10-12 feet from the poplar, but I took those out due to rot and proximity to the house site. I had worried about wind break, but the poplar was already far taller than the oaks and surrounding trees, so my only remaining worry is changes to the root structure. I want to think about it a bit more -- I can still drop the poplar if needed, but it's a beautiful tree. Still, it's a big tall tree only about 40 feet from the house.

Of course, now that the house is going in, it already looks crowded:



So, my advice would be to make sure you leave plenty of room for construction activity, staging materials, etc...

 

[woodgrub]

Hi,my 2 cents worth is toclear all trees within fall range of all buildings.Or if u can afford it and you really want to keep the trees have them assessed for soundness and or have them topped to within safe fall range so u and yours can sleep safe ,sound at night.BEEN TO LOTS OF TREES FALLING ON HOMESTEADS IN FIREBRIGADE RESCUES,fAIL TO PLAN,=PLAN TO FAIL.:drink:

 

[newbury]

One of the dangers is unseen damage made to the remaining trees root system when you cleared the others. If you ran over them with a team of mules, no problem. If you used heavy equipment be careful.

Water the nearest trees well, keep their branches trimmed so they don't become lopsided.

Make sure your ready to take one or more down at the slightest chance they start leaning more.

 

[North West Farmer]

I have been retired from the fire service since 1997 and for 35 years prior to that I responded to any and all types of emergencies. Over the years I have gone to assist or rescue someone from trees falling onto a home or other structure. In western Oregon we have Douglas Fir and other trees that grow very tall just like depicted in the previous posts. The worst situations are where they have thinned mature stands of trees and made openings for dwellings in new housing projects. Very commonly, the first year after the project is finished, the tall trees with weakened and small root systems come down with the first good wind of the winter season.

I these situations it was very common to see trees cut all the way through a home, penetrating the structure right down to the floor. Sometimes two story structures will stop the tree after it has cut through the second floor, but large trees literally demolish a standard residence. If someone is inside, in the wrong location they are usually badly injured or dead.

When we moved into our present farm in 1972 the home that was built in 1909 and the house was surrounded by six very large douglas Fir trees that averaged around 5ft in diameter at the top of the stump and were from 175ft to 200ft in height. One very large big leaf maple tree, was growing within 30ft of the back porch and it leaned toward the house.

Our first winter in the house was not a good experience. Every morning after a reasonable wind the ground around the house and the driveways would be littered with huge limbs broken from the trees. The limbs were ofter up to 12 or 14 inches in diameter. Several mornings I had to cut the limbs out of the driveway in order to leave for work.

To make a long story short, after my experiences in the fire service, when spring arrived we had loggers in to do some thinning and they very skillfully, using heavy equipment, very big cables and their years of experience removed all of those very large threatening trees that potentially could hit the house.

In our situation, that still lift some very nice fruit trees, apple, cherry and pears around the house for shade. Since then we have kept the trees around the house trimmed so they don't threaten to damage the house. We did have a few small maple and oak trees that have been since removed as they got too large and replaced on a planned basis so we have a nicely shaded yard, but no trees that endanger the house.

I agree with woodgrub, remove or prune back any trees that endanger your home. If you don't it is virtually a game of Russian roulette. The threatening trees(s) may never fall, but they may also completely destroy the structure and seriously injure any occupants. If you value your life and the lives of your loved ones, remove and/or cut back any trees would do more than cosmetic damage.

Make the hard decisions and do what is needed to be safe.

Nick, North West Farmer