A couple of weeks ago, when we had an early finish at work, we set about doing bits and pieces around the yard. Towards the end of the day, I was going to spike a dead poplar stem that had been left for wildlife down from 40feet to about 10-15feet. When I got to about 30feet I could really feel the stem shaking and bits of bark were shedding every time I moved my spikes to reveal plentiful amounts of insects living in the stem. It was at this point I decided to not climb anymore and decend before even cutting any wood. I felt quite defeated but convicted in my decision, but some of the lads did take the mick abit. Was I right not to do this job, or would more experience have helped? I have been climbing for around 2 and a half years. Any thoughts?
dead poplar stem
- Thread starter treetrunk
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treeman82
Addicted to ArboristSite
Could you have just thrown a rope in the crown and cut it at the bottom? I had tried to do one maple tree at a customer's house. Tree I went up about 5 feet on this 1' diameter tree. I felt it shaking, but kept on going. Got up as far as i was gonna go, made a cut and it wouldnt go. Threw a rope up in there and pulled it over, when it came over it took a small chunk out of a dog house, and slightly messed up a fence. I had tried to do a removal for a good friend at his house. bout 30" dbh cherry tree. went up and branched out, had some stuff over a couple of lines, and the roof of his house. I tied in about as high up as i was comfortable at. then i walked out on this one branch that was about 12" at its base. got out about 5 feet and it was shaking badly. I chickened out of that one, because it had rot at the bottom, and i am 5'11 200 lbs. There was nowhere on that tree high enough to tie in, and on top of that there was no crotch i trusted enough to lower out of. he got some guys to take it down, and they didnt do any damage. however they dropped the lines, and they are also a lot lighter than i am.
Dave
ArboristSite Guru
Treetrunk-
You'd have hit the ground just as hard with more experience. One of the hardest things to learn is when to walk away from a job- you definitely did the right thing. Your buddies can give you a hard time about it but are they willing to support your family when you're gone? Sounds like what you lack in experience you make up for in good sense.
You'd have hit the ground just as hard with more experience. One of the hardest things to learn is when to walk away from a job- you definitely did the right thing. Your buddies can give you a hard time about it but are they willing to support your family when you're gone? Sounds like what you lack in experience you make up for in good sense.
John Paul Sanborn
Above average climber
I agree with Dave 100%. I've walked away from things that I did not feel good about. I know I'm walking now. I don't know if I would be if I had done it. Sometimes others have gone up and proved my fears wrong, but that is there choice.
The only thing experiance would have given you is if you had worked with poplar in that state a nuber of times already, known how the wood brakes down. Maybe you could have knotched it where you were, maybe you could have tied a traverse line between two other trees and tied into it. Mybe you
could have put a throwline into the tip and busted it out, not unlikely with poplar!
The only thing experiance would have given you is if you had worked with poplar in that state a nuber of times already, known how the wood brakes down. Maybe you could have knotched it where you were, maybe you could have tied a traverse line between two other trees and tied into it. Mybe you
could have put a throwline into the tip and busted it out, not unlikely with poplar!
Thanks for the replys all, it certinately helps to hear other opinions on jobs such as these. I asked one of the other climbers today, whether he would have done it, and he said he probably wouldnt try either. We might throw a pull rope into the tree, but its leaning quite heavily towards a fibre glass climbing wall and behind the tree is a small lake. We`ll have to see what happens.
