Dismantling Sitka Spruce - How?

[Liam In The Borders]

Hi,

 

I'm on an ongoing project thinning a dense stand of 25yr+ sitka spruce. Up until now I've been able to fell the trees from the ground but as they are getting bigger and denser it's just not feasible and I'm getting nothing but hang ups which I have to winch down - it's not a safe situation.

 

I realise now I need to start climbing and dismantling the trees but there are a dozen different opinions on the best / safest approach to take, and a hundred on which climbing equipment setup to use.

 

I've attached some old photos (which just happen to be of a mistle thrush nest and a wasps nest to give you a flavour of what I'd be climbing in). The trees are 40-50 feet high in some parts of the wood.

 

Not possible to use a throw-line because of the proximity of the trees to each other (standard 1.6m forestry spacing) and in most places I can't see the tops of the trees.

 

What would be the simplest, safest climbing set-up to use, and the simplest, safest approach to dismantling?

 

Remember that Sitka are needle sharp and forcing your way through branches costs a pint of blood per metre!

 

All help much appreciated!

 

Thanks, Liam

[WillTimberlake]

Looks like it's going to be a painful job!

 

Good luck.

[Tree Man Tom]

Just spike up and let it drop below you. KISS (keep it simple stupid)

[Robert_S]

As said just spike up the tree snedding it out as you go letting the branches fall, fell the head out then come down and fell the pole OR decent and fell it in sections to the desired sizes ie pulp/pallet etc. Sitka are easy trees to sectionally dismantle.

 

if theres lots of wasps wait for the cold weather they will be gone soon.

[AlexB]

Ummm, I can't quite understand. If the trees are not going to land on a road surely preventing a hang up with a bit of directional winching will be quicker than climbing. Use racks for a first thin then self select using the racks as felling space. Herring none the trees to help with extraction and whenever possible use a felling bench. Unless you really want to climb, then sned as you go up and section the product off on the way down. Enjoy!

[muldonach]

There is no way on this planet you should need to climb trees in an organised conifer thinning unless there is something like a road or house in the fall zone.

 

At 25 years old you should simply be dropping one rack in 5 and then herringboning as stated above.

 

If you are getting hang-ups when trying to take a rack out then they should generally be easy enough to roll out with the bar unless you are well out of line!

 

Should not be needing a winch much and if you do it should have a tractor attached!

[Liam In The Borders]

Ummm, I can't quite understand. If the trees are not going to land on a road surely preventing a hang up with a bit of directional winching will be quicker than climbing. Use racks for a first thin then self select using the racks as felling space. Herring none the trees to help with extraction and whenever possible use a felling bench. Unless you really want to climb, then sned as you go up and section the product off on the way down. Enjoy!

 

Hi,

 

These are so tightly packed there isn't even enough space for the hinge to break or to winch the trees into. For various reasons I don't want access racks. I'm crawling into the stand and taking out individual trees so I'm left with a partially felled tree held up by its neighbours - I don't even want to talk about the horrors of winching and chainsawing in the middle of what looks like the aftermath of a fight in the kerplunk factory.

 

I had a reality check last weekend when I was snedding then cutting near vertical free hanging trees above my head, letting the section plummet like a pile driver next to my feet, heaving down what was left another six feet with the winch then doing it again. It occurred that these things were getting pretty big now and that there might be a safer way to do it.

 

I've done more dangerous things in my life but when bad things don't happen, you get used to them not happening, then you think they'll never happen! I'm too long in the tooth to believe that I'll always be clever and quick enough to dodge them.

 

I bet I'm not the only one.

[AlexB]

The kerplunk line is a killer. If you don't want racks then it looks like you enjoy the "alternative" side of life. We've all taken a chunk off of the bottom I'm sure but I agree with you, it's pretty scary stuff some times. My only other suggestion would me make friends with someone who owns a skidder or a decent sized tractor with a winch and hoich em out that way.

 

If its still got to be climbing then its sned up, logs down. You'll be pretty fit by the end of it!

[ukminch]

I may be completely out of order here, but from your posts looks like you could do with getting someone in with a bit more experience to show you the ropes in that particular woodland.

 

May just be how your posts come across though

 

R

[Liam In The Borders]

I wouldn't say I embraced the alternative side of life! My friends think I do because I'd rather spend 500 quid on a chainsaw than a season ticket for Newcastle United - it lasts longer and you get more enjoyment out of it.

 

As for experience? Perhaps I should be less self effacing and more direct if that's how the forum operates.

 

I've been in that wood for six years - no one has more experience of the place and what's required there than me and I've hundreds of hours on chainsaws going back twenty years. In some areas of the site I do run a petrol winch with 10 mil cable on a custom bed to get the mass out quickly if that's what the plan requires.

 

We're six years into a twelve year management plan which we spent six months working out with FCS. The strategy and steps to get there are very clear, but in the days when I had experienced forestry bods come out to 'advise' me then the advice was always to let them do whatever it was they were experienced in - irrespective of what we required. It invariably involved heavy plant which 'would do no damage at all to the site.' Sure.

 

The implication was that because we didn't want diesel beasts forcing racks of convenience into place then there was something wrong with our macho credentials. Perhaps if they stopped to listen and realised we were past the strategy formulation sage and that those decisions had been made, then they may have got some work.

 

I do hire in sole/small low impact contractors a few times a year to work in some areas, but this bit of the woods is my own personal favourite so no-one touches it but me. That's just the way it is.

 

There's a presumption against clear felling and monoculture in the plan which calls for the section I'm working in now to be carefully and very selectively thinned without damaging any other trees to encourage the sessile oak and scots pine which are currently skirting the edges of the site to move in.

 

I've free climbed half these trees anyway putting up nesting boxes, now I'm going to do it with a chainsaw because that's how the next phase of the plan will be accomplished. I'm going to do it anyway - I just need advice on the safest method.

 

I am a lone forester and I will do my thing.

 

Love this forum.