How to deal with tricky poplars??

[sime42]

Morning all

 

I'm hoping for some thoughts or advice on how best to deal with suspect poplar trees, (or I suppose other types of trees as well). I recently had a job to take down a number of trees. I completed it successfully without any mishap, but have been wondering since if I did it safely and in the best way.

 

It was a group of about 9 trees most of which were about 20 -24 inch diameter at the bole and in a close group about an arms width apart. I think they were Lombardy poplars or some kind of hybrid. A couple of them were clearly dead, most were sickly looking and a couple were overhanging a barn. Hence why the customer wanted them down. (Two or three had already fallen, away from the barn luckily).

 

I felled about four of them from the ground, the sickly ones. No problem with a few wedges. Once down I discovered that they were all rotten inside at the base. The two dead trees I also felled from the ground, with the help of a pull line. This just left me the two overhangers which luckily were the healthiest looking of the lot. I decided the only way for these was to dismantle from the top down as the overhang and lean was too great and I couldn't get a pull line in the right direction anyway. Number one had quite a severe lean so I life lined off it's neighbour as it was only a couple of feet away, and then lowered and dropped it in bits to avoid the barn. The final tree was the one that made me nervous, (well I was slightly bricking it at times if I'm honest! ), as there was quite a breeze at the top so there was a fair bit of swaying around. I found it particularly unpleasant having seen the state of the other trees, (even though this one looked healthy), and my brain kept telling me that since I was tied into this one remaining one I had no insurance if it went, "if it goes I'm going with it!!".

 

Anyway, it turned out fine and boy was I relieved to get back down to ground with just a section of stem to fell! Having done so I saw that it too had started to develop a rotten cavity in the base. (About 6in diameter in a bole of about 24in). Hence my consternation!

 

So any thoughts anyone? How would others have handled that situation? Am I just being unduly nervous or was it risky to climb that final tree with the unknown cavity? It felt really solid apart from the movement at the top but that was just due to the wind that day.

 

Apologies if this is an overlong post! I just wanted to give as clear a picture as possible of the scenario. I've attached a few pics as well.

 

Thanks all.

 

Simon

[Mick Dempsey]

I don't think it looked too bad.

Poplars can move a lot in the wind, bringing anxiety.

I'd certainly not have thought twice about climbing them.

Good job.

[Ty Korrigan]

Those images look like East Central Brittany judging by the architecture,

Where are you based?

Regards

Ty

[TIMON]

Had a similar experience earlier this year. Dismantled one with a zipline and found it to be very rotten inside and soaking wet at the base. Thankfully I was anchored into a neighbouring tree. I zipped some fairly big bits off it. My conclusion was that even with the rot they are stronger than I would have thought. If I had seen the rot before I tackled it I wouldn't have wanted to climb it let alone zipline off it!

[Gardiners Tree Surgery]

My advise.. Sort you insurance out before you tackle any more.

[Ty Korrigan]

Now we have the advantage of having a resistograph in the company which is used before climbing to test poplars we suspect to be a risk.

We've had some 30m+ pops in urban gardens with as little as 5cm wall thickness.

Often a chat with the neighbours, the removal of a few metres of fence and the promise of a thorough tidy up/free prune will allow us to fell instead of dismantle.

Ty

[Gary Prentice]

Now we have the advantage of having a resistograph in the company which is used before climbing to test poplars we suspect to be a risk.

We've had some 30m+ pops in urban gardens with as little as 5cm wall thickness.

Ty

 

5cm might be quite a lot in relation to the trees radius though.

 

The 6in hole in the two foot trunk the OP mentions is insignificant in the t/R formula, particularly when its considered that the 0.3 is thought by many to err too far on the side of caution.

[Paul Cleaver]

you could always drill into the base of the trunk to see how bad they are - if there is only a little sound wood left, I would suggest rigging or topping them out in small sections - Its to reduce the sway of tree that happens when this is being carried out.

[sime42]

Thanks guys

 

Ty: You're spot on with the location of the job. It was in Broons, just S.W. of Dinan. I'm impressed, almost to the point of disbelief! It was only the end of a barn that could be seen in those pics. The house itself is very pretty. How on earth could you tell? What are the distinguishing characteristics of the architecture from that region? I guess you must know the area.

 

I'm actually based in Birmingham. I was over in France for a bit of a working holiday. Some friends of mine own the property. I've been a few times, always to take down dodgy or mis placed poplars. I love it there, it has a proper old rural France feeling. Plus I don't have the normal headache of getting rid of everything I cut down, that I always have working here in a big city!

[Ty Korrigan]

I quoted for that job, now you've pinched my sticks I'm gonna give you a dry slap and mock your Midlands accent:001_tt2:

 

Nah, I have an interest in architecture especially cob buildings such as those in the images.

Ty