Wandering Beech

[skyhuck]

Did a bit of a strange job earlier this week. It was a pretty large Beech that was growing right next to a river. In the last floods the whole tree moved about a foot nearer the river. The root plate sifted a good foot, opening up a large crack and exposing roots, some had snapped, so simply stretched.

 

The tree was still stood up perfectly straight, with no sign of it trying to fall over, it had simply moved, not something I have ever seen before. The people in the adjacent houses were more than a little concerned.

 

I dismantled the tree to the point where I could fell it on to the bank. I was very surprised by how stable the tree was, I anticipated it moving about a fair bit as the weight came off, but it was very stable, moving no more than I would have anticipated had it that shown no sign of movement.

 

 

Fortunately the river was well down when we carried out the job, allowing me to drop a lot of the brash and timber onto a sort of pebble beach, we burned the brash on the beach and we were able to reach the timber with the crane.

 

Only got a few pic's that the customer kindly emailed me, should have taken some pic's really, but didn't.

 

There is a short video of the fell which I will add once my son has got it off his phone and onto a PC.

[Mick Dempsey]

It didn't look that big in the first picture!

Edited January 22, 2016 by Mick Dempsey

[treesrus]

i have seen large beech go over, after the root plate slips on clay substrate, after excessive rainfall, Mattheck has some good illustrations.

[skyhuck]

i have seen large beech go over, after the root plate slips on clay substrate, after excessive rainfall, Mattheck has some good illustrations.

 

Yes me too, they generally need to move very little before they go over, I guess this one was just so well balanced and the root plate and soil were just so heavy it stayed up.

[David Humphries]

How interesting !

 

Would of been fascinating to have witnessed how it would have faired if left to its own devices.

 

 

Thanks for sharing Dave

 

 

.

[silky fox]

Interesting Thread and super pictures Mr Huck.

[skyhuck]

How interesting !

 

Would of been fascinating to have witnessed how it would have faired if left to its own devices.

 

 

Thanks for sharing Dave

 

 

.

 

If it were not for the river and it being on the outside of a slight bend, meaning further erosion was inevitable, I would have suggested simply filling the crack with soil and monitoring

 

I guess I should really have considered moving the river?:001_tt2:

 

[David Humphries]

..............I guess I should really have considered moving the river?:001_tt2:

 

Could have got Stevie down to have a play with his digger

 

 

 

.

[Mark Bolam]

Chunky tree Dave, another victim of recent massive rainfall no doubt.

Did you try and keep the crown reasonably balanced during the dismantle?

[RC0]

Never seen that before Dave. Glad it all went safely mate. How long were you there for ?