shootingarts
ArboristSite Operative
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2010
- Messages
- 448
- Reaction score
- 486
I am currently living on this place, more of a caretaker than anything else. This pecan in the front yard was hit by lightning roughly three years ago. An obvious strike in an upper branch and then the damage could be traced all the way to the ground. This happened during growing season and the bark was blasted free of the sapwood all the way around the trunk for six or eight feet near the ground. Huge cracks in the sapwood, maybe a half inch wide, inches deep.
This is an old mature tree over seventy-five feet tall, past it's life really as are all of the original pecans in the yard but they can't be removed, family choice. If this one falls towards the house it is likely to do moderate damage, probably under ten thousand at a WAG. Seems like an easy choice to drop except for one odd thing, this tree never so much as dropped a leaf when it was hit by lightning! Seems to be destroyed but it doesn't know that. As healthy as ever except the minor detail of the bark hanging free of the trunk and all of the sapwood exposed.
The catch is that we get the occasional category three or four storm here and I suspect that when one has the place square in it's sights is when it will be time to drop this tree. It will be my baby to rock then as of course the whole world will be wanting dangerous trees down. Not much room to drop the tree, best shot would probably do moderate damage to a pear and possibly some blueberry bushes. Other direction it would tangle limbs heavily enough with another similar pecan to certainly damage the other tree, possibly roll off of it with unintended consequences, some fence damage regardless. The tree has a very slight back lean towards the house when evaluating from the direction I want to fell it. Maybe two feet. Call it four to err well on the side of safety. Side lean is maybe four feet considering extreme ends of branches. Considering the mass of the limbs it is actually zero or close to it. Might even fall slightly away from the side lean.
The catch is the wood in the tree. I don't think I have ever seen one this severely blasted by lightning and live. I have no idea what the wood of the tree is like. Will it hinge? Will it snap as soon as the tree starts over? Definitely wedge from the back and a safety line but I'm baffled by what I am cutting into. Maybe a test bore with a drill when and if the time comes? Huge lack of trust of this wood. Maybe a step cut would give more insurance than a more typical hinge?
Hu
This is an old mature tree over seventy-five feet tall, past it's life really as are all of the original pecans in the yard but they can't be removed, family choice. If this one falls towards the house it is likely to do moderate damage, probably under ten thousand at a WAG. Seems like an easy choice to drop except for one odd thing, this tree never so much as dropped a leaf when it was hit by lightning! Seems to be destroyed but it doesn't know that. As healthy as ever except the minor detail of the bark hanging free of the trunk and all of the sapwood exposed.
The catch is that we get the occasional category three or four storm here and I suspect that when one has the place square in it's sights is when it will be time to drop this tree. It will be my baby to rock then as of course the whole world will be wanting dangerous trees down. Not much room to drop the tree, best shot would probably do moderate damage to a pear and possibly some blueberry bushes. Other direction it would tangle limbs heavily enough with another similar pecan to certainly damage the other tree, possibly roll off of it with unintended consequences, some fence damage regardless. The tree has a very slight back lean towards the house when evaluating from the direction I want to fell it. Maybe two feet. Call it four to err well on the side of safety. Side lean is maybe four feet considering extreme ends of branches. Considering the mass of the limbs it is actually zero or close to it. Might even fall slightly away from the side lean.
The catch is the wood in the tree. I don't think I have ever seen one this severely blasted by lightning and live. I have no idea what the wood of the tree is like. Will it hinge? Will it snap as soon as the tree starts over? Definitely wedge from the back and a safety line but I'm baffled by what I am cutting into. Maybe a test bore with a drill when and if the time comes? Huge lack of trust of this wood. Maybe a step cut would give more insurance than a more typical hinge?
Hu