Barber chaired oak and fence conundrum.

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ChuckpinTX

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Hey folks, looking for a bit of advice here. I work for a Wildland Conservation Division, and we had a tree barber chair next to a tensioned low woven wire fence. The fence was levered out of the ground and is now stretched to the top of the 6ft tall stump. The problem is the fence is owned by a neighbor who will not agree to cut fence, drop stump, and rehang fence. How should I go about dropping this stump with this ridiculous tight wire strapped across the top of it? We are at a stand still right now, and not just because of the heavy rain. I don't see this ending well if the fence isn't cut.
 

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I’m a stubborn bugger and I’d call the neighbours bluff. Barber chairing happens and it sounds to me like you are proposing a realistic solution to the problem, I assume at no financial cost to the neighbour. If the neighbour won’t play ball and wants to be an ass#ole tell him you’ll just leave it for now and explore all the options. If the neighbour wants their boundary to be secure again, they might stop being difficult, accept sh*t happens and be more neighbourly.
I know people will talk about liability and legal action etc and say the risk is all yours, but I’d say give it a week or two considering alternatives and they might realise your proposal is a quick and acceptable solution.
 
As a preliminary question, if the fence is owned by the neighbor, on whose property is the tree? If the tree is on the neighbor's property, leave it. If for some reason you feel a need to restore the fence, then put T-posts to route a new fence around the near side of the tree and stretch a length of new fencing between wherever on both sides of the tree there are still T-posts securely in the ground.

If the tree is not on the neighbor's property (which begs the question of whether the neighbor might be claiming a fence that is actually trespassing) you should be able to stretch that fencing to take the tension off it to allow safe cutting and removal of the stump. Around here we call that type of fencing "hog wire" and as tightly as I may stretch mine when installing, the cattle will push and stretch it, and I periodically need to re-tension the fencing in saggy sections by grabbing with pliers (or a similar tool) to put a zig zag twist in the horizontal wires. The fencing may seem taut to the touch, but it probably would go slack as soon as the stump began to move. It could influence the direction the stump would go, of course, so one would need to prepare for the unexpected. The good news is that with the stump being only 6' tall the danger area is pretty small.

You say you work for a Wildland Conservation Division and give your location as Austin, so I infer that this is the city agency. It may be that the city attorney's office should be asked to weigh in on the legal issues.
 
I’d just cut the tree out of the fence. Not hard, non issue. I don’t see any danger. If it makes the fence worse oh well.
I bet the guy is being a jerk because he is like wtf just cut the tree out. I’d fix it myself in 10 min if it was my fence.
 
Can't determine the wire tension from picture, but couldn't you just go half way up the stump and do a saw cut completely through? It would likely stay in place and you could push it off and it would drop between the wires. The post sticking out of the ground would just lay over then and you can finish cutting the stump and reinsert the post.
 
Find out what the property lines are.

If his fence is "misplaced":
Do your thing. If he complains, tell him that his fence is X distance off of the property line, on the wrong side. If he drops the discussion there, he has tipped his hand and he KNOWS that his fence is "misplaced". If the discussion continues, tell him to check it out for himself, on his dime. Then, get on with your work.

If the fence line is correct:
He doesn't want you to fix the fence. Fine. Get him to sign something that states that fence repair was offered by you (company, crew, etc) and was declined by him. CYA. Then, get the trunk on the ground and leave the fence as it is.


It sounds like the fence owner is just being difficult and unreasonable. Most reasonable people would be upset, but would want the fence fixed by whoever busted it.
 
if you have the ability to get some kind of 4 wheeler, tractor etc close you can do this. On the side your pulling from cut in just over half way and stop, come around the tree, come up 8" and cut in half way. This will make a overlapping mismatched cut. Come up another 2 feet and repeat, make sure the long side of the cut is towards your pulling equipment. Put a line around the section you have cut, give a tug and pop, out comes the trunk, the tangled piece might drop, might hang but the tension will be off the fence
 
I would do a slice cut starting from the backside and go about halfway. Then pull out and start the matching slice from the front to lineup. Once you start getting close to your first cut start feathering your cut slowly and if any tension on wires should push downward and move the top the same. That's just what I would do.
 
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