Anyone who has logged knows that a tree will go where it wants to. All we do is manipulate how it gets there.
No so. Anyone who has logged knows that a tree can made to go in just about any direction the faller wants.
There are exceptions, sure, but a good faller can do some amazing things with re-directing the direction of fall.
The place to see falling skills is on a select cut where you're trying not to damage re-prod.
Wedges, jacks, a variety of special cuts...these are all used by fallers who know, through actual experience, that the attitude of "a tree will go where it wants to" is usually the excuse of a rookie.
LOL...if we just let the trees go where they wanted to go we'd have a mess on the ground, poor production numbers, damaged timber, grumpy skidder operators, an even grumpier side rod, and probably no job the next day.