Fir, root-fail

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I got called to look at this tree about 3 weeks ago. The tree company who were bidding on the job didn't really know how to deal with the situation and suggested I should come take a look first rather than just turn up to do it.

 

I'll add the photos to separate posts so that way I can add text to explain whats going on.

 

So you have one Douglas fir, which has come up at the roots and managed to snag another which is holding it up. Both trees are between 90-100ft and the failed tree is holding on to the other by a very strong and hook-shaped limb right near the top.

 

These were pretty slow growing firs, looked about 120 growth rings at the end....so heavy, gnarly and dusty stuff to deal with.

 

The prop-tree is clearly under a lot of stress as its bent over pretty bad under all the added weight.

 

Both trees are stood on the edge of a 30ft deep gorge with a creek that runs down to the ocean. They are both well within falling distance of the home-owners property and are both heavily favoured to fall that way.

 

On the far side of the creek there is a boardwalk that the guy built and very much wants to keep it in one piece. The higher portion of limbs are hanging over the boardwalk, but the wind is favorably blowing down-stream to the ocean.

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So the the first day I'm with just one other guy. He's a good solid worker, but has a very limited knowledge of rigging tree's, let alone something serious like this situation. He's also a little young and I'm wary about that.

 

Thank God there was an old growth fir to the left of the failure-tree, and a good sized cedar set further back in the woods sort-of directly behind the lean.

 

So I got up the cedar first, to set a block and rigging line. Then the Big fir to put my climb line and another rigging-block and line etc.

 

I was able to get across a big limb on the old growth to access the failure-tree, a little bit of cutting to make way for the rigging lines to be tied.

 

Back down after to pre-load the lines via 5:1 and secured on lowering devices. Obviously the groundworker doesn't know how any of this works so I cant just stay up there and ask him to do it on his own.

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Back up the tree to start hacking, being mindful of the boardwalk way down below, but especially cautious about the snag thats holding the trees together.

 

When I get up top I realise that its got a good hold on it so I'm pretty safe to do what I'm doing. So I carefully de-limb both trees and make my way down again.

 

Bare in mind that its a five minute walk back to the truck, lots of gear to carry over initially, and set-up etc, and Im having to talk the young guy through everything that we're doing. So by now its mid afternoon already.

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For the next couple of hours we just worked the two lines, achieving probably no more than a foot at a time gradually pulling the tree back in an attempt to separate the two.

 

Problem was whatever we gained the prop tree just went with it in straightening up....an I'd set the rigging lines purposely low in anticipation that when the tree did eventually separate, I'd then be able to significantly reduce the top weight remaining on the failure-tree without having to re-set the rigging line further down.

 

As it turned out, I'd set it too low and try we did, even now with an extra 2:1 set on the last strand of the 5:1, so now we got 10: 1 and probably 2000lb of pull on each line, I couldn't pull the son of a bitch free.

 

Then Tyler (ground guy) had to go a little after 5 so I was psssed off at the whole thing. I wanted to drive home having got a result, and I hadn't.

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The next morning, there's 4 of us there, including Adam (company owner) his brother and Tyler again. Back up the old growth first thing, this time to rig it right at the tip, and leaving nothing to chance set it as a 2:1.

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A $hit load of stuff at the bottom of the old fir now.

 

But I still wanted to retain the load share between the 3 lines, so resisted the temptation to go crazy on the newest addition. We just moved from one line to the other, probably gaining a few inches at a time, all the ropes creaking under load at the knots....

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Until, finally.....................................................it let go

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The pole was still sitting hard in the rigging judging by the tension in the line. So I had to gradually reduce the log, but keep 2 tensioned lines on it the whole time which meant gradually moving them down, re-tensioning, dropping a log, in sequence etc. But for each time a line had to be re-set, and pre-loaded on the ground, I'd have to come down to do it. so I probably had to climb down about 10 times, and back up again, until the tree was short enough that the roots were able to support it without the rigging (see photo)

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Adam had since come back from picking up his bucket truck, with which he was able to pick the logs out of the creek (he has a winch on the boom) and lift them onto the driveway.

 

Meanwhile, I got up what was the prop tree to chunk it down.

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tipping the logs 90 degrees to the lean to miss a maple down below. An extra deep face-cut meant a little extra sawing but saves any physical exertion in getting them to fold the right way. Probably took about 15 short logs to get the prop-tree down.