Bill,
Thanks for psoting some picks of what I was trying to show. I am certain all Central Texas will agree, that it is not real easy to wade into one of these things with chainsaw in hand and cut them down. Hard, pointy branches are a royal pain in the rumpus!!!
cqaigy - Central Texas doesn't have trees like your old growth stuff. Truly amazing trees /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif But our trade off is we do get to see sunsets /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Our texas cedars (actually white mountain juniper) will get about 6-8' tall and 3' around in about 2-5 years. Those are easy to cut down. My reading has told me that it usually takes 10-25 years for one to get a trunk the size in bill's boot picture. The old growth ones (I would never cut one of these down!) are real beauties if trimmed up and resemble a tree instead of a crabbing land parasite. Those take about 50-70 years and max out at 30-40 feet tall with a gnarled trunk about 3' in diameter. You really have to respect these things, while no bristlecone pine, they really thrive in some harsh conditions. They will take root almost on limestone bedrock, can grow robustly in very dry years, and reproduce prolifically. The trouble started a 100 years ago when the Texas hill country was over grazed (our 3-4' native grasses looked like a ranchers paradise, but grow on a multi-year cycle, not an annual cycle) and the limited topsoil blew away. About the only thing that could grow (cedar) did. Unfortunately, these things use lots of water and block out all the sunlight, so it makes it hard for the land to repair itself. Without trimming strips of these cedar stands to allow grass to grow and springs to recharge, the only thing that grows is more cedar.
I would expect that this post will qualify as TMI (too much information) /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Thanks