Redwood reduction and bracing

[Will Hinchliffe]

Today we were reducing and bracing a Wellingtonia in Warminster. I had climbed it before to inspect the union and remove the deadwood. The tree has lost a large limb at the union of the two stems and there was a cavity at the union. The two stems had been braced before the owner moved in in 1983. The union and bracing had not been inspected since. The two stems are at 90 degrees to the south westerly winds. When I climbed it to inspect it the cable bracing was going slack then taught with a twang in the wind.

 

We decided to reduce the left hand stem by 2 meters and install additional bracing above the existing steel bracing. The bracing was set slack with a shock absorber in it to allow the stems to continue to flex and put on growth in response to stress loading. The bracing should limit how far the left hand stem can move and reduce the likelihood of failure.

 

The job took about 3 and a 1/2 hours.

 

The works carried out were minimal. Would you have done more or less?

[Mike Hill]

Hard to tell without pic's mate.

 

If the two Stems were of equal hight,would reducing one and not the other increase the shock loading of the un reduced stem?Since the Tallest stem would be subject to the most wind load thus movement.

 

Thats all supposition though I guess.

[Will Hinchliffe]

Sorry I thought I had added pictures

[Will Hinchliffe]

Before, after, during and the view.

[Stephen Blair]

now thats a tree, wow. i dont really know much about tree bracing and the likes, my theory is if something needs bracing then it should be dealt with diferently, all you are letting it do is get bigger and its all about asthetics and putting stress onto other parts of the tree and taking the stress off a bit that needs removed, but thats just my theory, anyhoo, great job as usual. did you have to big shot it or could you climb straight off the lower limbs??

[gibbon]

I think I may have considered reducing the left fork harder with the view that the right hand leader may assume dominancy in the long term, rather than a continuation to 2 competing stems. This is assuming there is little risk of the right stem failing.

 

Hard to say without looking at the real thing.

[Will Hinchliffe]

I think we could have easily gone harder on the left stem. It should be enough to reduce the likelihood of the stem failing but the height may need reducing again in the future.

 

 

Fired the bigshot to just above the main fork. Most of the branches slope down so I choked the branch with an alpine butterfly and ascended the single line with a kong backed up with a prussik and a pantain. Then used my normal system.

[treewizard]

that looks like a good day at the office.