HUGE PINE TREE - Need it gone

We have a HUGE pine that the cutters won't touch and the mill won't take.

It's 75+ feet tall.
Over 30" at the butt, and over 24" at the 40' mark.

Straight as an arrow for the first 45' or so.

But the cutters can't haul it, and the mill won't take it.
We can't even GIVE it away around here.

They all say it's too big.

There is a huge number of board feet in this thing.

One suggestion was that some specialty companies might want it, but we don't know who/where they are.

It's been inspected by cutters and the mill guy.
Not hollow.
Nothing to the North and Northwest to hit or bother if felled that way.

Sawmill says it's just too big. Their mill won't process it that large diameter.

Cutters don't have equipment to load it on truck and bigger outfits won't get it for just one tree.

It's YELLOW pine, not hybrid.

From tree:
Power lines are 100' to East.
Road is 80" to East.
House is 60 feet to the SouthWest.
Some other trees we want to keep around, but otherwise nothing to worry about.

No water lines or sewer to worry with either.

I could cut it, but it would be a multi-ton log laying in the way of everything if nobody hauled it off.
And I'm not confident on felling it around the house without a stiff northward breeze to help.


Any suggestions on how to get rid of this thing???


Anyone want a free tree???

Come get it and it's yours.

Oh, that's an easy one, medicineman.

1. Get over the idea that the lumber has great value.
2. Look in the yellow pages under "tree services" or arborist.
3. Call a few.
4. Get some quotes.
5. Verify insurance.
6. Choose a company.
7. Have it removed.

Problem solved.

nobody wants to mess with one tree, If it was oak, then you may find someone to take it, Too much of a risk for a guy who is not qualified to cut it down, Especially for a pine. No unqualified tree cutter in his right mind would take a chance on a pine tree in that situation.You will have to hire someone to do it. As mentioned make sure they are insured.

BlueRidgeMark is right, the tree has no real value. Mills won't touch a tree that came out of a yard. Too much chance of hitting nails, hinges, bolts, etc. It's no good for fire wood. The only way to get rid of it is to pay a licensed and insured company to do it. Or take a chance with a fly by night crew. I'm retired and not trying to jazz you into hiring a pro because I am one. When we were in business we couldn't get rid of trees like that. We even cut up beautiful Black Walnut trees for firewood because the mills wouldn't touch a yard tree. I understand why a mill doesn't want your log, I don't understand how it's too big to process. We have hobbiest on this site with portable mills that can mill that log, Joe.

I just had three trees larger than that removed from my property. BlueRidge Mark hit the nail on the head for the procedure to get rid of them. But he did forget step 6.5 and 6.6.
6.5 Feed the crew that is doing the job
6.6 Sit back, smoke a stoogie, watch someone else work.

stihl sawing said:

nobody wants to mess with one tree, If it was oak, then you may find someone to take it, Too much of a risk for a guy who is not qualified to cut it down, Especially for a pine. No unqualified tree cutter in his right mind would take a chance on a pine tree in that situation.You will have to hire someone to do it. As mentioned make sure they are insured.

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Well, since you mentioned it....

We have a couple Oaks too.
One Whiteoak, and one "water" oak.

They are both BIG and over the 30" mark as well.

We kinda want them gone as well.


But that's okay.
I see that a lot of folks are kinda scared to cut near a house, and I respect that.

I do know that the "wood value" would be right at $800 for just the pine if it were hauled to the mill.
The guy from the wood yard said as much.

Our only problem is in the maximum size their mill will accept.
Something about the saws being smaller nowadays.

you sound like the typical "will you work for the wood" customer that I have call me sometimes. from the sound of the tree you describe a tree company would lose money if it is only worth 800 bucks at the mill after clean up and transportation. I always find it funny that people think wood is worth so much. I wont take hard wood off a property without charging for the removal of it. by the time its cut split and hauled to another customer I mise well work at burger king as I would be making more money.

A single pine, the size you describe, is worth nowhere near $800 to a mill. It may have $800 worth of finished wood products once it is milled, dried and shaped. But in today's market, there would be around $790 worth of labor and expenses in getting it ready to sell for $800.

Saws have not gotten smaller at the commercial mills. They have gotten larger! Even here, in NC, the more productive mills are capable of sawing logs over 60" diameter. Because of that, they have to run HUGE production in order to cover operating costs. A single nail can cause 20+ people to sit idle while changing or repairing a blade. It's not worth the risk.

Yup trees are worth little to nothing really as a standing unit. What makes a finished board (or firewood) worth so much is the time involved in ascessing, cutting, dragging out, loading, hauling (splitting if for firewood) and delivering added to the mills time and efforts added to the cost of all the equipment needed to do all of that and hitting a nail or two will ruin a $20+ chain or a several hundred dollar band (or circular blade) in half a second. Ever price out a large chainsaw? Skidder? loader? truck? crane? Professional saw mill? Electricity, gas, insurance? land and building cost?
Bite the bullet and PAY someone to come take your tree down and out and be damn happy you didn't have to break YOUR back doing it and pay all the money to buy a saw and all that equipment just to get it off your property.
I'm not a professional in the logging/arborist buisiness but I own my own welding shop so I know all the addded costs that make it worth while for customers to pay me to do it for them and pay me well.

Who are these cutters you speak of?

:monkey:

You came to an arborist site looking for a logger...

When I had my property logged, they charged me right around $1k per log truck load. That's many trees fallen, limbed, bucked, loaded, and hauled to the mill. 14 truck loads (54M board feet) cost me $17k. Mike Pihl logging.

An arborist will take the tree down by first climbing, limbing, cutting down in sections. A logger will just drop the tree as-is. The arborist method does minimal damage to the ground. The logging method they don't care.

An arborist will clean everything up, chip, haul away, etc. The logger will at best leave everything in a pile, at worst leave things where they lie.

A cheap safe method would be to have a logger come out there and drop it, then advertise on Craigslist for free firewood. I'm guessing there are a lot of loggers that would drop it for $100 or less right now.

An even cheaper, though not very safe method would be to advertise on Craigslist for free firewood, you cut. Heck, around here, people pay $10 for the privilege (permit) of cutting 2 cords of firewood out in the forest, and that's going to be Doug Fir most likely.

Either CL method you are going to be doing some cleanup yourself.

Another option would be to get in touch with Wood-Mizer. (woodmizer.com). They have referral lists of people in your area who own portable bandsaw mills who would be willing to come out and cut the wood once it is down. Heck, they may even drop it for you. You may be able to work out a deal with them to just take the wood to pay for their time. If you have Southern Yellow Pine, then yes, the wood still has some value in furniture making. You *may* be able to sell some of the fresh cut green wood on Craigslist and pay for the cost of dropping and cutting the tree.

Your safest, cleanest method would be to hire an arborist and pay the big bucks to get it done.

It really all depends on how much time vs. money you want to spend to get this tree gone.

medicineman said:

I see that a lot of folks are kinda scared to cut near a house, and I respect that.

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It's not about being scared. It's about a knowledgeable and sensible understanding of the danger.

medicineman said:

I do know that the "wood value" would be right at $800 for just the pine if it were hauled to the mill.

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The wood value is zero. The mill will not accept it. Whether that's because it's a yard tree, or because of a tiny blade, they don't want it.

Ergo, value = zero.

medicineman said:

The guy from the wood yard said as much.

Our only problem is in the maximum size their mill will accept.
Something about the saws being smaller nowadays.

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They told you a song and dance story to get rid of you.

BlueRidgeMark said:

They told you a song and dance story to get rid of you.

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I got the same song and dance then. I had trees too big for the mills to accept. They left the larger diameter trunks on the ground and just took the upper portions. Some of the trees that were marked they didn't even bother cutting because they knew the mill wouldn't accept them. Too big in diameter. I believe 30" was the limit.

Apparently the newer mills have really scaled down on the size of trees they can accept because it is so much cheaper, and there really isn't a lot of old growth around anymore.

straight6jeff said:

I just had three trees larger than that removed from my property. BlueRidge Mark hit the nail on the head for the procedure to get rid of them. But he did forget step 6.5 and 6.6.
6.5 Feed the crew that is doing the job
6.6 Sit back, smoke a stoogie, watch someone else work.

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who did you get to do your work?

BigE said:

Apparently the newer mills have really scaled down on the size of trees they can accept because it is so much cheaper, and there really isn't a lot of old growth around anymore.

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Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the info.


Either way, the value of the tree is zero. If the mills won't take it, it doesn't matter how many board feet of wood is there. Nobody wants it.

BlueRidgeMark said:

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the info.

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No prob

BlueRidgeMark said:

Either way, the value of the tree is zero. If the mills won't take it, it doesn't matter how many board feet of wood is there. Nobody wants it.

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Totally agree. Wood on the ground has low value, wood still on the living tree has next to no value. 5 years ago was a completely different story, but with the economy today....

Yep. Basic economics. A thing is worth what people are willing to pay for it.

If nobody is willing to pay for it, it's worth zero.

Or in this case, it's a financial liability, and no amount of wishful thinking will change that.

BlueRidgeMark said:

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the info.


Either way, the value of the tree is zero. If the mills won't take it, it doesn't matter how many board feet of wood is there. Nobody wants it.

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Even if they did it would not be close to 800 in tonnage. I can and have hauled 45" log and the best saw log grade is bringing 45 per ton here the best I have seen with bigger trees than he mentioned is around 150.00 per tree.

im sure youl find someone on craigslist willing to drop it, just make sure you arnt inside your house at the time.

ropensaddle said:

Even if they did it would not be close to 800 in tonnage. I can and have hauled 45" log and the best saw log grade is bringing 45 per ton here the best I have seen with bigger trees than he mentioned is around 150.00 per tree.

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Here is one of ten that ended up 800 for the whole ten trees all large timber 100 plus feet tall!