openspaceman

That makes things more risky as the wood is less predictable when felling let alone less safe to climb. Anyway if it's diseased then the longer it stays the more spores it spreads.

I was aware of their existence but not seen any, I was given an insect book a month back from an old chap who moved into a care home, and looked them up, very little on them other than they are wingless members of pscocoptera family troctidae but none of the images show the markings from your photo.

Book lice ??

I think he is probably right, I would have said root damage but can see no reason for it. Phytophthora fungus is a possibility as it is larch and more likely is it is Jap or hybrid larch though I haven't had experience of it here, but then most larch plantations are long gone locally.

The reason given back in 2015 was that although the disease was brought in on imported young stock overall UK ash population was largely self seeded so should have more variations in genotype, whereas forestry abroad was more managed with planting and the selection for best performance mean the genes were more restricted. In the event it seems to make little difference because the sheer numbers of spores that are released by the leaf litter overcome even trees that show some resistance. Which is why I advocated sanitation felling in the woodland I was working in but FC and EN disagreed and the disease has now affected those trees which previously showed no signs. I draw a corollary with covid initially, people who were repeatedly exposed had a high mortality before the virus lost some of its pathogenic effect but became more transmissible The "control" tree I allowed to grow on from seed is now 5 years from seed and 15' tall with no sign of disease yet 99% of the regen where the seed came from has died simply because there are few ash near my home.

Or fuel starvation except the saw up and down change in speed points to a leak. Also does the OP recognise four stroking? The saw needs sufficient turns out on the HI screw to cause four stroking to limit the revs. If the revs are set to about 12k rpm from cold you should be able to sense if the revs creep up when hot.

we could do with an "I agree" button

I really cannot see any route a clutch spring could take to stop the engine running other than jamming something in the chain case area. As with all these saws that run for a little lime then stop my first look would be through the exhaust port to look and the piston and rings, if they are good then we can start with swapping the spark plug and move on from there.

Or carefully dismantle enough for a stunt fell, 200ft loblolly doesn't seem like UK.

probably conifer aphid or spider mite .

Check with your local FC private woodlands officer, ours said if 50% of the crown dead and within a tree length of a road or public right of way then we could fell with no licence application.

I'ts probably dependent on browser. On firefox I just right click on the video and choose "save as", accept the prompted title and then replay it from the download.

Wrong gauge chain for the slot can cause the same problem in chainsaws

If it's on your own property then burning a stump out over a few days is okay. I made a stump burning device in 1976 and it was very effective but frightening. The main feature was a hoover motor blowing and burning from under the stump and using the exhaust heat to preheat incoming air. As the stump comes up to pyrolysis temperature the fire really takes off and it sounds like a jet engine. Basically it was a fire risk and un insurable. Well it's your decision but it gives you the opportunity to chase out all the stump till you can just dig the laterals out where a commercial firm may just take the stump out to 10" below soil level and cover with soil and grindings. I tend to spend a lot of time raking the grindings out to see where I am going (I wonder if attaching a leaf sucker hose through the top guard would be effective). Over the years I used a number of grinders from tractor mounted (Myers Sherman on MF165) through pedestrian controlled but self propelled Dosko and Vermeer 252 up to a 75hp Carlton but not regularly just stand in for other operators. I also regularly drove 22 tonne tracked and 12 tonne wheeled mulchers. What I learned is the smaller the machine the more important to keep it sharp, so I sharpen on the machine with a diamond disk in an angle grinder. I took a leaf out of @Ty Korrigan's book and spent a lot of time preparing my first stump with the little machine in order to cut out as much clean wood and only engage soil when necesary. As I say I only have about 10 hours on the machine, it shook a lot of bolts loose in that time so loctite and a set of spanners is necessary. Those first two roots in the picture and video save me £800 between them and put 6 of those hours on the machine. I wouldn't consider it for commercial work other than something to send out on small jobs with a felling crew like @aspenarb advised when he bought one.

It's not often that I disagree with you Dan but in this case I do. Okay so the big ones will take a while but I've done 6 15" hardwood in a morning for my niece, the 3ft ones I did took best part of a day each but only added about 3 hours on the machine each and access for a bigger machine would have been an issue. I have only put 10 hours on the machine but it stands me in at next to nothing in terms of savings on having someone in. Also the OP says the work is ongoing, so not as if a contractor could hit them all on the same day. It is a pig to use compared with a self propelled machine as it bounces away from the stump where the old firm's vermeer could be held in the cut. I do find it necessary to sharpen the cutters on the machine or it gets very long winded. Of course time isn't much of an issue for me as I am retired. VID-20220407-WA0000.mp4