devon TWiG

Create a Ministry of Common Sense .....with ordinary members of the public having input on decisions , this could also be through Facebook or other social media .

From my understanding after discussions with officials ( licensed expert from the British Trust for Ornithology ) due to an issue on some land I own last year , it is from when construction commences until the chicks have fully fledged , which in this case was over 4 months .

I had a Goshawk nest in some land I own and they are schedule 1 protected ...and no forestry operations are permitted within 400 metres from when nest construction starts ( feb , until chicks have fledged late june - july and had the police wildlife and crimes officer present to state this ......however the law does not forbid me from entering my land but if it can be proven that i intentionally / recklessly disturbed the bird then i could receive a custodial sentence ....a nest some 20 miles away was found to have been raided and the chick taken , with evidence of spike marks on the tree ( large DF ) , the bird fraternity can be very zealous in its support and protection of birds , yet i do not know of anyone getting in to trouble , accidently or otherwise .

I think you will find that the UK is the most H&S obsessed country of all , just look back over many many threads / videos on here to see how many pop up and love to state just how dangerous / against the rules something is ( even the most petty "offence " ) so many zealous officials that can quote every detail of legislation , sadly it has become almost a religion to some !!! ... sad ...

I have had mostly husky saws for a long time and just take off the top cover and sprayed it blue with a tin of car paint from Halfords , it does not stay perfect for long but it is easily recognised as mine !!!! I have done this with quite a few saws , does not stop them from being stolen though .... if you want to paint metal parts , then remove them from saw if possible and get them hot before spraying for a better / longer lasting finish .

I wondered how they would fell the mature ones without damaging the younger ones as well .........

Yep , on the Devon side of the Tamar between Tavistock and Gunnislake

Me at base of said tree 2012 during a rainless moment ,from memory it was 208 ft ...

Yes .... google " bradford hutt plan " I regularly pass a place where this is used ( very steep ground ) not sure how success can be measured as I would imagine harvesting costs are high , but there are some magnificent WRC 's and DF 's in the woods .....

It was state of the art at the time !!! just think yourself lucky you were born when you were and have not had to use one of these ..... most probably the same will happen in another few generations when some one unearths an "old " ms 880 ..or ms 200 with a "petrol engine" haw haw ......

Next winters stock , for personal use only , already cut split stacked and drying ......

my thoughts exactly !!! was expecting a "rustic " trendy cafe style look ( all over the walls ) or an old pallet on legs .....but I was wrong ... this is very good and original , well done !!!

Many years ago me and a colleague were asked to deliberately fell a tree ( fairly large oak ) on to a car in a field so the Fire Service can practice extracting a casualty with guidance in use of chainsaws , ... my colleague felled the tree ....and it missed the car !!!! a long low branch caused it to roll sideways , so we dragged it elsewhere a felled a big leylandii on to it , and then you could not see the car .the day was considered very worthwhile though by all concerned ...I would imagine nowadays with how exacting with H&S and bureaucracy the Fire service is it would be very difficult and costly to train many to a high enough standard to deal with problematic scenarios that are rarely encountered , has anyone ever been called out to help in such a case ?

Why do the stumps have to be removed ? can you not plant in between them ?

Flatyre that is monterey PINE not cypress ... not remotely similar ( except provenance ! ) Monterey cypress is a good wood , however there is not much demand as it is not regularly commercially available ( rarely on offer ) I sold lot's to boat builders in the past , but sadly there are few of them left now , as others have said it is durable outdoors , do you perhaps have any use for it yourself ... new shed ? etc etc ...should be fine for flooring , it is dimensionally very stable , strong and pleasant smelling ..

I often remove the deadwood on the way up as well....this thread was just to show how I ascend a static line .....

I am removing the deadwood all down the trunk, so end up at the bottom of the tree I am in before ascending the next one and repeating the process ... a lot of up and down ....

If you study the picture and understand my explanation then the ascender coming off or failing is not a problem ..that is what the set up is about ....

I have been climbing for 30 + years now ...I have had a throwline and or bag or weight for many years and on occasion it is great but there are many trees which are near impossible to get it in to ..eg masses of dead wood and or ivy, an understory of shrubs trees, and close to other trees etc and a lot of time can be wasted getting stuck, tangled etc etc ... The system I use and have shown I am using for access only , most of the time on this site I am getting the rope 15 - 20 metres up the tree from the adjacent tree , and it is a very simple and safe system and with the pantin relatively easy .... I usually ascend further in to the tree with ddrt before my top anchor point ... even with a big shot ( £180 catapault ) I think it is extremely unlikely anyone could get to this spot ... but I would love to see it repeatedly done !!

NO EARMUFFS !!!! tut tut ...

If you look in to the woods behind the trees that fell there are no other trees , so I would hazard a guess that these roadside trees were left until the road could be closed or TM was in place ,there is more crown on the roadside and they were left exposed to some sudden wind to which they were not acclimatised to , a common windthrow scenario on the edge of a clear fell area .....

Nice one Gobby !! I have a fair collection of bone oak for potential future projects and keep collecting it, nice to see some one else appreciates and uses it , lovely characterful stuff also strong and very resilient to rot ....

Many thanks Broadsword , I may take you up on that , where about's in Devon are you ? I am Newton Abbot area . ......... From info I have it seems most use a 11mm rope with SRT. I personally really like DRT I have been using it for over 30 years now and like it and have no problem with it , just use some of the kit I already have to make long ascents easier ( getting old !! ) but would like to see SRT in use on a job , not a demo ( video ) in a clean open crown parkland tree with no deadwood ivy etc etc ....and I bloody hate throwbags / lines ...most of the Douglas firs I am doing are close enough to chuck a rope from one to the next one .

Starting several decades ago as a solution to a problem job I had to ascend a tree without going on to the owners property to prune back overhanging branches so no access to the trunk , I utilised a couple of ascenders to go up a rope dangling in mid air so the conventional body thrust technique was not really possible , however i did the job OK . After doing it this way, on the odd occasion I used the same technique a sort of SRT for access only , especially on long hauls or 2nd day on a big tree . Recently I purchased a Petzl pantin which is very useful . I have a current project to crown raise and deadwood a lot of 80-90 ft Douglas firs , I am not entirely comfortable just relying on the ascender ( if it should fail in any way I will be upside down attatched to the rope by my right foot only ! ) so have have included a split tail in to the system as a back up but it is just pushed up with the ascender and never grips unless the ascender comes of or should fail , there is a knot on the split tail where it passes through the ascender to allow me to be attatched to the ascender , and I find it a very simple and efficient way of ascending a static line , just wondering if anyone else does this or has seen it used before ...