So today was my first day felling after a 7 month gap between jobs. The company I work for have just brought tree services in house (social housing). It was a big deal for them so they brought along H&S, Mid Management, my Manager, Marketing (for photos etc) and the yard manager. It’s safe to say I was pretty nervous.
My first job was to remove a dead Whitebeam. It’s was pretty sizeable as far as Whitebeams go. Anyway, its a clear fell jobby with stacks of space around me. Happy days!!!
Before I started, I removed some bark from the base as it was flaking and a lot of insects were present. The base seemed pretty good albeit some rot had set in.
After all the other checks I started my cut. I was shaking pretty bad and had to take a moment to calm down. I’ve been working with trees for 6 years and I know what I’m doing but today I felt immense pressure. I went in at 20% to try and keep a hinge on some sap wood. Looked great, straight and tidy.
When it came to the felling cut, I started to really become nervous. I ended up withdrawing the saw and I second guessed myself. I suddenly felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I ended up making a second felling cut at a 10% angle from left to right! The tree did fall where I wanted it to (thank god) but it did make me think. When the tree was on the ground I looked at the first cut I attempted, it would’ve been almost perfect. I have no idea why I ended up starting a new cut of which ended up being the mistake.
Once my corporate audience left I cleared up the tree and I was totally fine. The pressure lifted and it was like I’d never had a gap from tree work.
Today was a good lesson learnt. I obviously don’t cope as well as I thought when the pressure is on. I am far from being professional but I’m normally pretty cautious and sensible with good attention to detail.
I’m kicking myself for messing up because that was potentially a dangerous cut.