Seattle Wind Storm

[jshipley24]

Hey Fellas,

I live in the Puget Sound area and as I'm sure you've heard we got hit by a major windstorm and there are downed trees and power outages everywhere. It is literally an aborists dream/nightmare depending on how you look at it. The problem I have is that I have a tree in my yard that was damaged in the windstorm and needs to be cut down. It is about 60 feet tall and 12" around the base. The felling area is perfect and there are no overhead hazards the problem is that it is now leaning 35 degrees off the verticle (which it originally was,) the base has multiple 4 inch verticle cracks in it at the base on the stress side and is obviously ready to barber chair the first person who touches is it. I would appreciate any suggestions, I am no stranger to a chainsaw or felling trees but have never dealt with a tree that was this unstable.

Thanks

 

[1wildthing]

hire it done

 

[ArtB]

You dont say what type tree - alder, fir, hemlock, black cottonwood??

Any type, I'd put my dozer bucket on it and push it the rest of the way.

No dozer or backhoe? Wrap the trunk 2 ft. above the cut with 3 or 4 wraps of 3/8 log chain. Slight back-cut, then drop it exactly the way it is leaning.

Have 2 saws in case the first one gets stuck in a split.

If it is only 12" and soft alder or cottonwood, I'd definetly just chop it thru with a clear space to run. I'd even chop a fir that is that small.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

It sounds like the lean possible pinching your saw may be one of the nuisances.

And You can't just cut it across the back alone without wood popping out with a little force.

Where it sits now, if it just fell, would it fall to the ground without hitting anything?

 

[jshipley24]

Thanks for the advice guys, my original post sucked; its a fir tree, everything around me here is fir and it actually is more like 13-14 inches and that is in diameter not circumfrence. As it turns out we got a forecast for more wind here (30mph+ gusts). Since it wouldn't hurt anything if it fell in any direction I just let mother nature take her course. Fortunately, that tree was ready to fall and I didn't even have to fire up a saw.