Rotten Tree Felling

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good stuff

Thanks for the Pictures Slowp.

Doug-fir.... Snag... they get funny sometimes,

Short, fat, straight up, punky, still heavy. nothing holding it up but the bark-- cut the bark and it comes down as fast as a controlled demolition of a concrete building; sometimes in the same manner.

I'm leaving that cutting up to the experts..
 
i have fell massive stands of rotten pine trees, mainly pine beetle.i found if you have a big shot with a good 8 oz bean bag,try and shoot a 3rd of the way up and use a running bowline to get her tied off, if you don't have the equipment the i strongly recommend creating a huge landing hole for all the rotten or ##### pines your taking out. i wouldn't suggest you do it alone man, those things are brittle,if you have one cut up and if you can set a wedge, and its standing up try and use a pike pole to finish it off. above what i have just mentioned works very well on lodge pole pines or jack pines, ponderosas are a very different story, take it easy look up and live, i have a habit of using over powered felling saws for snag felling,with a good 30 inch bar. good luck
 
Uh... did that tree sorta just... explode?

Sometimes it seems like that. Some of those old snags are almost like a stovepipe, just a thin rind of good wood around the outside and completely punky inside.

I don't know if "explode" is exactly the right word or not but I've had some come apart on me that I really can't describe any other way.
 
It certainly looked like the butt exploded. The top held though. The snag had been there for a number of years, along a busy county road, lots of schoolbusses taking groups of kids to a camp.

Finally, action was taken. I wasn't there, but I did see his two escape routes which he cut out. They were immaculate. I think he anticipated having to move fast.

I was helping (carrying his axe) a different faller dump some hazard trees last November and was out of the way. We saw a tall fir snag fold up. We didn't know if the faller survived. When things settled enough, I ran over. He was shaken up as he said he got complacent and almost didn't make it out of the way fast enough. He's a younger, very competent faller too. After that, he was more alert for such things.

Earlier, I'd been at a tree base with him and things whipped around pretty good. Limbs flying and one leaner had to be glanced off another tree. I was glad I had a sturdy hardhat on.

He's on my list of safe fallers...safe to be around.
 
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