Spruce Pirate

Start up yourself - then see if you can get a borrow of his tipper and chipper.

Always got a TM co in but have had to do the permit application myself, 3 different councils + Transerv (Trunk Rds). Normally have to do a Road Occupation Permit and a Traffic Light Permit, both easy to do, a bit of duplication and need a total of up to 4 separate maps. Design of signals never been needed for me as it's always been simple stuff, but TM co should be able to provided this if needs be. Consent/Permits can take as little as a couple of days if not traffic sensitive, up to 30 days if it is traffic sensitive. Keep the permit in the site pack as you need to be able to show it to police, council officials, etc if required. Should say, this is Scotland - as usual, things may be different in England!

As a rough rule of thumb, 3 times bigger on the ground than standing up!! :lol:

The devil's in the detail. It is to be used as a lever, as stated, not as part of a lowering system. That is, you put the sling on the end of the section being cut, do the cuts, then use the sling to increase the leverage you have in removing a hand-held section. The sling can also increase your grip, for example in smooth barked species without any suitable branch stubs to grip. You can then remove the sling before chucking the piece to the ground. As, when you have removed the section, the sling will be supporting a load it will need to be LOLER'd and suitable for task.

Two trees are always in a row - straight line from one point to another. To be a true "row" there must be at least three trees surely? Surely therefore the legislation is subject to some form of challenge? Don't know who would be meeting the costs. In all honesty, I can't see this as being altogether a bad thing. There are several examples I can think of where overgrown conifer hedges do form a nuisance and it would not be a bad thing for their owners to have to cut them back, 2m is still a substancial screen after all. Also, all the 80' oaks that are going to start being cut? If they are actually blocking light I would suggest that they are too close to a property anyway, and some form of reduction, or even removal, should be in order. I live about 30' from a 60' oak and a couple of horse chestnuts, about 45'-50', in no way do they block the light or cause nuisance. For the law to be applied does some sort of assessment by a TO or similar not need to be carried out? Will this not weed out the more vindictive and ridiculous demands for trees and hedges to be cut? I have the feeling we may be waiting for case law to take over on this one to get a definitive answer.

This is a really good thread, thanks to all who did the research. I've been arguing this with clients for a while now - always with success - based on conversations with a couple of trainers, but its really good to see the replies from NPTC and HSE back this up. Thanks again.

Thanks for the info Lozzatrees. We do a bit of work for Wildlife Trust and some stuff in NP area, so it's not impossible that I'll be asked about it. I kind of thought it might be a "how long's a bit of string" type of a question. Good info though, thanks.

Always, always, always have a banksman. I had a jogger on a path last week, asked him to stop, got ignored, so stepped in front of him and told him to stop. "Oh, but I might not get going again, ha, ha". Yeah, says I, as a big chunk of wood falls out of the tree, but if that had hit you you'd really have had problems getting going again. I think he got the point. Same story day before yesterday with a bus. He decided the light had been red for too long and that the best thing was just to ignore it. Lights were red both ways, but normally we put someone in the carriageway on either side of the drop zone to intercept the idiots. Again, bits of tree falling onto the road seemed to drive my point of red lights mean stop home. I could go on, I've got loads of these.... It still amazes me how stupid people can be though.

I've never done, or been asked to do coronets, but I might be asked. What's the time diference between doing a normal target pruning cut and doing a coronet? I do a lot of jobs on price, and if we had to spend a lot more time doing coronets it could throw the prices out a bit.

Tirfors are great. The wee "Tirfor type" copies are pretty good too, not quite as robust as the genuine article, but good value for money, and seem to punch well above their weight (as it were). If I read it right you're looking at an outlay of about £30 for the wire puller, I would have thought for that money it's well worth a punt. I've only used one once, and to be honest it wasn't much cop, but for £30 I would consider adding one to the tool box, it's light as a feather and, like everything else, once you've got it you'll find a use for it.

One younger sister, got two boys myself.

Done.

It's either that or watch Comic Relief!

While I agree with most of the sentiment in this post, I can't help but feel that doing something is still better than doing nothing and that events like comic relief, live aid, etc still raise both money and awareness. Even the political issues you raise wouldn't be being discussed on here if it wasn't for RND. At the risk of ruining my image as a miserable git, I quite enjoy comic relief.

Hi All, I have a couple of large logs available for milling in west Strilingshire. One beech: c. 1m at the butt, relatively little taper, c. 10m length. One oak: c. <1m at the butt, some taper to >60cm, c. 10m length. One beech: c. 60cm at the butt, c. 50cm at the tip, c. 5m length. These are from a clearance / firewood job, but seem far too good to put the saw through (with the exception of the 2nd beech). They are basically free to anyone who wants them (I've had what I need from the job), would probably suit a woodmizer or similar. If anyone's interested, or you think you know someone who might be, pm me through here. I can get some photo's or arrange for you to come and see them.

SS always moves - mostly because there's so much of it. Silver firs (NF, GF) were more what I was thinking of when I said no market for it - I was in full on rant mode by that point in the post. You're right, DF doesn't hang around for long at roadside. I think a workshop / seminar type thing is more what I'd be interested in. It might be interesting to have a trainer there, but only as a participant, not carrying out training. A full NPTC course and assesment would seem OTT. I think a few people who have some expereince could swap a few ideas about and learn from each other. If everyone finds they're lacking in the same area then it may be worth while thinking about more formal training.

Not a chance - seen too many things stand up very quickly when the top's taken off. It would be a great ride though. It shouldn't be that hard to track down a platform.

I think there's definitely more coming into management. I've done two since December, only small scale, mostly firewood, but a few poles left for sale as logs. There's talk of more coming up in the future as well. I'm not sure it's economically viable at the moment, but as this isn't a factor on these jobs its not a problem. While I'd like to see these making money, I'd rather see them thinned than not as they should produce better in the future. Also, as new plantings of commercial sofwood in the last 20 years has been virtually zero, and a lot of commercial re-stock has been done with broadleaf as well, we have a growing resource of hardwood timber. We should be teaching ourselves how to manage this. I know much (or most?) has been planted at fluffy densities (1100 sph in many cases), but we should still be making some effort to bring these woods into management. Forests all over the world suffer when the people cannot make a living from them, if we want to have our hardwood forests and woodlands properly valued we should make more effort to look after them and gain an income from them. This should start from planting and tending and right up to thinning, underplanting etc. This would seem a good oportunity for those of us who are interested to develope and improve our skills. Should also remember that softwood may have a limited shelf life. SW Scotland this year is not planting any pine (DNB), no larch (phytopthora), no market for firs to speak of so that leaves.... spruce - how long before dendroctonus or ips puts that on the no more planting list? I'm not saying this will happen, but we should at least bear it in mind. It is well worth considering that we may have a different species mix to work with in the future and developing skills before we need them rather than being forced to react to circumstances. Rant over - I feel better now. Definitely interested in learning more on this (in case you hadn't noticed).

How to plant a tree? Green bit up, brown bit down - job done!

I'd agree with much of what you say Big J, having just finished a small hardwood thinning (oak) I experienced many of the same problems. It does have to be said that this was the first hardwood thinning I've done in a couple of years, and that's probably about the frequency of them, so we don't get the chance to practice in hardwood. I like to think I'm pretty profficient at getting a tree on the deck, but if you manage to get a course/seminar/training day, whatever you have in mind, put together I'd certainly be interested in it.

I did have a pair of the Oregon Waipoua, but only type A. They were OK, but they didn't stand the test of time very well, outer material ripped quite easily after a short while and the gusset went pretty quick (maybe should've got a bigger size?). I also found them pretty hot for type A's, despite vented material round the back. All in all, its the usual complaints I have about saw trousers. I think the Oregon Fjordlands are better. Can't comment on the SIP's, almost had a pair once, but they weren't in stock in my size. I know a few folk who've used the Hi-Flex and they seem pretty durable.

Not very good with links, hope this works, its the best I could find. Set up of sling isn't very clear. To roll tree to right, pass sling around the back of the tree, pass right end through left and choke back on itself, the further round the tree it is choked the more turn you'll get, if you've got the length in the sling then wrap it a couple of times. To roll to left pass left through right and wrap. Hope this makes sense.

Yeah, they're great. Just need a bit of respect when starting, if you're used to new saws with a decompressor they've got a real kick.

Turning a hung up tree out, or winching the butt back?

Bloke I did a bit of work for years ago told us a story of his brother doing a bit of fencing somewhere up the hill around about Dalwhinie (middle of nowhere to those of you who don't know), anyway they'd stopped for lunch and taken shelter in the back of a peat hag, they were doing a fence next to a path at the time, and left all the tools (saw, hammers, pliers, etc) lying on or next to the path. Two walkers came up, saw the stuff, one turns to the other and says, "isn't it amazing, anyone could just lift that saw and be off with it". At this point a voice booms out from the peat hag, "no they (expletive) couldn't". Walkers apparently had a brown trouser moment. Point being, just because you see something that looks unattended, doesn't mean that it actually is.