Sticky cottonwood situation. Need advice.
- Thread starter bootboy
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
tree md
Addicted to ArboristSite
It don't take one half that size to kill you if it decides to flop over on ya. If you've never done one like that get help.
Saw Dust Smoken
ArboristSite Operative
These trees are the fun ones to do. Gets away for the ordinary prune and removals.
The good news is that I'm going to wait a few months til it warms up. Our day time highs have been in the upper 30's. After all it is January in Utah. I've got smaller projects to keep me busy for a while and give me time to acquire more gear, come up with a plan and recruit some help
Treemanbrown
New Member
Cottonwood trees
I work here in utah and have been working since the storm hit in december. Mostly fruit heights and kaysville but I know a very great crain service in salt lake if the trees are accesable look them up larsen crain they specialize in tree removal.
I work here in utah and have been working since the storm hit in december. Mostly fruit heights and kaysville but I know a very great crain service in salt lake if the trees are accesable look them up larsen crain they specialize in tree removal.
troythetreeman
ArboristSite Operative
honestly doesnt look that tough but im sure there are variables i cant see
wedge cut the top side
under cut
drag it out or repeat
i dont see any reason to climb anything unless you want to be sure you dont break any of the trees more then they already are
wedge cut the top side
under cut
drag it out or repeat
i dont see any reason to climb anything unless you want to be sure you dont break any of the trees more then they already are
The tree is up here in Ogden in my grandparents neighbors back yard. Not crane accessible. I just looked at it again today. Heres my plan: Climb and cut any branches that aren't holding weight. Basically limb the leaner down to the main trunk and cut the trunk just above the hang up, then notch and undercut at the base to get it off the stump, winch the base to one side or backwards till the top slips out of the other tree. Seems reasonably safe to me. I can cut all the non weight bearing branches with little risk of the tree going anywhere, then I can winch from a safe distance when the top comes free and the trunk falls. There are no structures or plants on the ground that I need to worry about, just ivy and under brush. Sound good? Looks like we'll be settling back into high pressure with no snow for a week or two, good chance of some warm dry days. Maybe I can get to it sooner than I thought.
the more I think about it and study the tree, the better I feel about it.
the more I think about it and study the tree, the better I feel about it.
arborjockey
ArboristSite Guru
The good news is that I'm going to wait a few months til it warms up. Our day time highs have been in the upper 30's. After all it is January in Utah. I've got smaller projects to keep me busy for a while and give me time to acquire more gear, come up with a plan and recruit some help
what do you mean "Good news" your going to wait a few months??? start cutn son. I want pics.
dont B.S. :msp_sneaky:
arborjockey
ArboristSite Guru
go pro 2 . they worked the kinks out of the fish eye lens. cant wait to get one for surfing. good luck. glad your going for another opinion. you spend 2 days rigging something a guys says is a 1 cut special and thats lost $.:msp_sneaky:
ROPECLIMBER
ArboristSite Operative
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
- Messages
- 373
- Reaction score
- 22
I am leary to incourage anyone to try something that you cant see all angles of.
The tree in pic09 (loaded tree holdin up leaner) that some one is standing in front of has weak attached high v tri-dominent stems and looks to have some rot damage up there too, so I would not climb it. The (2) large up right Cotton woods guessing 36"-40" ones are on edge of the creek and have erroded roots with all the wieght on the creek side, I would not suggest to climb them.
I was looking at the pine with the top out of it, Can you rig the leaners to the base of pine through a arborist block and back to the large up right CW and use a 5:1 or a GWRS leave it slack when you make sallow face knotch toward the pine ,small leaner first for practice, this aint ax men, then seperatly rig the larger hung up one, use a shallow face cut and go up from center of face cut at least 10% of wood diameter for the back cut.
Leave about 15% holding wood then when you are clear load or help load riggiing to pull tree out with the 5:1 or winch it if you have the GWRS.
Dont cut through the holding wood. Use the rigging to pull it down and out and the holding wood will give mid fall,dont trust cotton woods,
Paul
The tree in pic09 (loaded tree holdin up leaner) that some one is standing in front of has weak attached high v tri-dominent stems and looks to have some rot damage up there too, so I would not climb it. The (2) large up right Cotton woods guessing 36"-40" ones are on edge of the creek and have erroded roots with all the wieght on the creek side, I would not suggest to climb them.
I was looking at the pine with the top out of it, Can you rig the leaners to the base of pine through a arborist block and back to the large up right CW and use a 5:1 or a GWRS leave it slack when you make sallow face knotch toward the pine ,small leaner first for practice, this aint ax men, then seperatly rig the larger hung up one, use a shallow face cut and go up from center of face cut at least 10% of wood diameter for the back cut.
Leave about 15% holding wood then when you are clear load or help load riggiing to pull tree out with the 5:1 or winch it if you have the GWRS.
Dont cut through the holding wood. Use the rigging to pull it down and out and the holding wood will give mid fall,dont trust cotton woods,
Paul
The pine is too far away and I don't think it's tall enough to be of much use. I'm not concerned about climbing the trees. We've had 2 recent wind storms with 70+ mph winds. What hasn't broken is, in my estimation, safe to climb on. Anything that wont hold body weight is scattered on the ground. Several of these trees including the tree in question (holding the leaner) are slated for removal as well. I'll cut it and let the wood fall. I won't need to block any of it down, just free fall
Last edited:
ROPECLIMBER
ArboristSite Operative
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
- Messages
- 373
- Reaction score
- 22
Cool then you can just spike up the tree on #09 reach over and drop suporting limb and bam, then back down, the pine looked closer and 90 degrees off from lean and hight wouldnt matter if yoy were using base to pull from, Hope it all works out,
Paul
PS here is an interesting long read some of the terms are different since UK
http://www.treevolution.co.uk/images/pdf/rr668.pdf
Paul
PS here is an interesting long read some of the terms are different since UK
http://www.treevolution.co.uk/images/pdf/rr668.pdf
Got most of it taken care of today. Forgot pictures and film. I ended up cutting it off the stump and not knowing which way the tension was made it kinda hairy. I cut top and bottom alternately until I knew which way the tension was pulling. I used wedged to keep it from spinning onto my bar and pinching it. It twisted off the stump and then, after undercutting it again about 4' up, the tree fell most of the way out of the tree it was leaning in. I'll go back next week and finish it with pics.
swyman
ArboristSite Operative
Just checked my Trees of Michigan book by Linda Kershaw and our championship cottonwood is 148'!
Got that big SOB on the ground today. Only got my saw stuck once. All went without a hitch. Vids to come. I must say though, it was more intimidating once I got up there and saw the size of it all. Took my time was careful. Probably did some no-nos in the process, as I'm sure someone will be happy point out.
arborjockey
ArboristSite Guru
Nice job Hause. Don't listen to these stay at home all winter guys. Oh no its leaning funny. I wouldn't do that :msp_scared:. Don't forget pics of your cuts. Main thing.:msp_sneaky: Don't make a liar out of me. Hope it went as smooth as you say.
I'm previewing my videos now. Already spotted a couple sloppy cuts. There are times when it looks my line is in a bad spot but just because it's there in one video doesn't mean I didn't move it for the cut. My lanyard and line were always clear of cut wood. Since I didn't have much moving around to do, I stayed srt for most of it. I didn't bother With a friction saver for drt. You'll see the part where I smashed my Rubbermaid that I keep all my rigging gear in. Oops no biggie. And the bummer is, I turned my camera off to get my saw unstuck at the end and miss the actual cut that freed the leaner. Dang! You can see it being lowered though.
