What's The Oldest Tree You Have Felled?

[Gypo Logger]

Today, while scouting around for firewood I found a dead standing spruce that is at least 42" at the butt swell, pretty big for up here.
It's gotta be at least 500 years old. I'll dump it on Tues with a vid and count the rings then. I plunged a 14" bar into it and it appears to be sound.
Table tops anyone?
John

 

[Fish]

Today, while scouting around I found a girl that is at least 42" at the butt swell, pretty big for up here. I'll dump it on Tues with a vid and count the rings then. I plunged a 14" bar into it and it appears to be sound.
Table tops anyone?
John

I wondered where my wife went!!!!

 

[RandyMac]

I don't know for sure, I'll guess, sometimes I get hate mail when OG timber felling comes up, clogs up the PM box. Ballpark figure, maybe 800-900 year old Redwoods. Yes, it does effect me to know that I ended something that old.

 

[thomas72]

It is a shame to end something that old, but if you didn't bring it down someones else would have.

 

[RandyMac]

It is a shame to end something that old, but if you didn't bring it down someones else would have.

In most cases that is true, however I often went out of my way, just to make a stump and some noise, the logs were just a product that resulted from the mayhem. High energy insanity made productive.

 

[ckelp]

i cut up a oak that was 6' dia. i fugued the tree was about 200+ years old
not me in the pic it's the old limy i cut with.
it's about 25' from the base back when i only had a 20" bar lots of widdleing
and this is what started the CAD

 

[pioneerguy600]

How old would a DF that was 12'9" across about 6' off the ground and close to 200' tall, the woods exploded when it hit the ground.
Pioneerguy600

 

[Johndirt82]

That sounded like a good CL personals add. 42" butt, and you'll dump her soon , perfect.

 

[RandyMac]

It's not uncommon to find a DF that is over 300 years old, same with Sitkas. There are dense stands scattered everywhere, isolated, protected areas where very old monsters live.

 

[CGC4200]

seen my bud's Widowmakers again this AM

They are probably old post oak skeletons with hanging limbs. He doesn't
have the cojones & I don't either; I think my 5400 would handle the
trees easy, nobody wants to take on a widowmaker.

 

[nmurph]

i cut a fat wood stump that had 277 rings. it is only about 3ft in dia. the fat wood is the center of the tree that is full of sap and hardens making it rot-resistant. it likely had another foot or two in diameter of softwood that had rotted away. my dad always pointed the butt out and said it was there when he was a little boy. the tree was probably a sapling when columbus sailed the ocean blue.

 

[Wood Doctor]

How old would a DF that was 12' 9" across about 6' off the ground and close to 200' tall, the woods exploded when it hit the ground.
Pioneerguy600

A Doug Fir that size might have been 200 years old. They grow rather fast but can become enormous. In fact, for awhile a Douglas fir tree held the all-time record for the tallest tree in North America before it either died or was cut down. Believe it or not, that tree was yet another 175' taller than the one you cut down. That's correct. The height of that tree was measured at 375', which was taller than any redwood tree standing at the time.

 

[o8f150]

me and dhibbs75 will be taking down an oak that is roughly 5 foot dia,,can't wait to get the calculator out and count rings on that 1

 

[o8f150]

That sounded like a good CL personals add. 42" butt, and you'll dump her soon , perfect.

dump her???? heck i would keep her:hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:

 

[pioneerguy600]

A Doug Fir that size might have been 200 years old. They grow rather fast but can become enormous. In fact, for awhile a Douglas fir tree held the all-time record for the tallest tree in North America before it either died or was cut down. Believe it or not, that tree was yet another 175' taller than the one you cut down. That's correct. The height of that tree was measured at 375', which was taller than any redwood tree standing at the time.

Thanks for the info on that. There were some DF`s on that cut that were much bigger, the biggest stump I seen there was 17' 5" but much taller. I actually remember reading about that tree, did it die and the top broke off?
Pioneerguy600

 

[tomtrees58]

the oldest tree i cut down was a white oak 440 years old

 

[Gologit]

I don't know for sure, I'll guess, sometimes I get hate mail when OG timber felling comes up, clogs up the PM box. Ballpark figure, maybe 800-900 year old Redwoods. Yes, it does effect me to know that I ended something that old.

If people send you hate mail when OG falling is talked about they're probably just misinformed and responding to the issue emotionally instead of rationally. There's enough OG redwood in the parks that are off limits forever to satisfy even the most rabid tree hugger. Fine old trees and good examples of their kind. They'll grow to maturity, die, fall over, and be left to rot on the ground...useless to anyone except a few forest critters.

When I started in the woods we routinely fell OG redwood that was well over a thousand years old. I didn't think I was doing anything wrong then. I still don't.

Just as a reality check I asked my BIL, my falling partner for over forty years and who has probably put more OG redwood on the ground than most people, if he ever regretted falling the big ones. His answer was simple..."no".

 

[RVALUE]

me and dhibbs75 will be taking down an oak that is roughly 5 foot dia,,can't wait to get the calculator out and count rings on that 1

I cut a (dead) 5 foot oak that was about 175 years old. The growth rings showed a decade (about 1900) of drought that corresponded with history. It was at the old school house that burned down in something like 1933, and it showed a scar about that time. We were making a cookie to tell the story, but the rest of the people involved fell out, and I let it rot.

Then I cut a six foot oak about 5 miles from it, and it was 125 years old. On careful analysis, it was in a small swell, and got extra water.

Have seen big stumps in Big Bear CA that were in the 800 range.

 

[jropo]

I just finished slabbing up my oldest tree today 107 yrs. All the big ones around here have been cut back in the day, if its big and still standing there is a reason.
9ft. long log 40'' on the butt, brought home in a short box 4cyl. s-10.
coffee table, counter tops, benches,ect. Could not pull my self to buck into firewood, kinda like sending a model T to scrap.

 

[RandyMac]

If people send you hate mail when OG falling is talked about they're probably just misinformed and responding to the issue emotionally instead of rationally. There's enough OG redwood in the parks that are off limits forever to satisfy even the most rabid tree hugger. Fine old trees and good examples of their kind. They'll grow to maturity, die, fall over, and be left to rot on the ground...useless to anyone except a few forest critters.

When I started in the woods we routinely fell OG redwood that was well over a thousand years old. I didn't think I was doing anything wrong then. I still don't.

Just as a reality check I asked my BIL, my falling partner for over forty years and who has probably put more OG redwood on the ground than most people, if he ever regretted falling the big ones. His answer was simple..."no".

The routine logging part doesn't bother me much, it's the totally unnecessary tree killing or "sport falling" as they call it, that plauges me. I did a lot of it, my brother and I roamed Southern Humboldt drinking beer, shooting stuff and dumping interesting trees. Most of those trees would still be standing, maybe half were utilized. Sure, we fine tuned our skills, cheated death and had a great time, but most of it was stupid.