Windblown trees

[davekeylock]

Windblown trees, is it one of the most dangerous operations in tree works, to the unskilled proffessional?

[David Goss]

in a word "yes"

[VEG]

Yes they are

[Mesterh]

Also to the skilled professional too.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Some of the knarliest jobs ive ever done are windblown trees, theres so many factors that have the potential to trip you up.

 

I learned the power of the counterbalance of the shear root ball from windblown trees!

 

Yeeehhhh harrghhhhhhh!

[Al Baker]

Windblown trees can be a challenge that's for sure.

I started in 1987 in sussex after the great storm with a 100ft macrocarpa. It had uprooted and fallen across the driveway of a Manor house I was flint walling at.

 

The owner of the house went to town and bought a chainsaw. He asked me if I would clear the tree. "sure" I said. We poured over the saw instructions, mixed some fuel and got it started. It was quite exciting and very noisy.

It was fairly early on into the job that I got an idea of how dangerous it was cutting branches that were under load. I found the saw got jammed now and then and figured out how to cut without it jamming. The massive tree rolled gently from side to side as I dismembered it. I'll never forget cutting off the root. I had to keep tickling away inside the tree with the saw from both sides keeping everything at arms length. I was actually on top of it when it started to make a serious cracking noise. I remember feeling the spray on my back as I ran when about a thousand liters of muddy water was displaced from the pond size hole that the roots had come from.

The adventure however had only just begun as I ended up clearing many many windfallen trees from gardens, roads and driveways in the weeks that followed. It came pretty easy after the first 30 or so.

I still dismantle quite a few each year, victims of the ever increasing gales here in Scotland. But I'll never forget my first ever go with a chainsaw on the macrocarpa .

Edited January 14, 2012 by Al Baker

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

that storm started a lot off in the industry, and also really begun the growth our industry has experienced ever since.

 

whilst these storms are generaly poor for trees and the overall public views of them this one spurred on a great deal of growth in an industry in dire need of some attention.

[Xerxses]

I have been dealing with more trees than I can count since boxingday....

 

We were hit by the worst storm in 30 years...

 

In Sweden a total of around 5 million m2 trees were felled by high winds. In my town we have had 3 forestry machines dealing with the towns forests and I have been busy dealing with the tricky ones, hungup on powerlines, overhanging houses, close to playgrounds, in parks, community forests and so on.

 

I have been climbing, winching and used about every trick of the trade and emptied the bag of "save that one for the future" to deal with all sorts of windblown, cracked, failed, top splits and hung ups for about 3 weeks.

 

Dangerous?

 

YES!!!

 

Potentially...

I´m very happy I updated all my tickets last year including dealing with stormdamaged and windblown trees!!

 

The trickiest one was a pine of roughly 1 meter diameter leaning 45 degrees into another Pine that was partially windblown (both 150+ years)

 

Unfortunatly there is no photos as I understandingly (?) have been busy...

 

So if youre unexperienced, BE CAREFULL and don´t do anything stupid!!!!

[David Goss]

I have been dealing with more trees than I can count since boxingday....

 

We were hit by the worst storm in 30 years...

 

In Sweden a total of around 5 million m2 trees were felled by high winds. In my town we have had 3 forestry machines dealing with the towns forests and I have been busy dealing with the tricky ones, hungup on powerlines, overhanging houses, close to playgrounds, in parks, community forests and so on.

 

I have been climbing, winching and used about every trick of the trade and emptied the bag of "save that one for the future" to deal with all sorts of windblown, cracked, failed, top splits and hung ups for about 3 weeks.

 

Dangerous?

 

YES!!!

 

Potentially...

I´m very happy I updated all my tickets last year including dealing with stormdamaged and windblown trees!!

 

The trickiest one was a pine of roughly 1 meter diameter leaning 45 degrees into another Pine that was partially windblown (both 150+ years)

 

Unfortunatly there is no photos as I understandingly (?) have been busy...

 

So if youre unexperienced, BE CAREFULL and don´t do anything stupid!!!!

 

Like pick up a saw and try to do it yourself without having your windblow or multiple windblow tickets. These trees are widow makers and can be very unpredictable in certain circumstances. If you dont know what your doing with them then i suggest you just dont! get someone in that knows how to deal with them. I have done many windblown trees and i have my multiple windblow ticket, even i get taken by surprise now and then by the way some of the trees react. Tension and compression can be in places you wouldnt expect and sometimes the tension can be so powerful in some that just the slightest touch with your saw can cause the wood to explode. If you are determined to give it a go yourself then as xerxses said be VERY CAREFUL!

[Tom D]

The really dangerous ones are on slopes, on the flat, chances are the root plate will fall back into the hole it came from. If a tree has fallen down hill, it could fall the other way on top of the cutter. Multiple windblows are also dangerous as they can put unexpected tensions into the wood. We did some yesterday, one root plate had 5 trees on it, it was at least 12 foot high.