Peter Bomen

What a beautiful tree this is

Just want to share this beautiful poem.. This reflects so much how I feel about my work and play as an arborist. I choose to not use the most interesting footage with this poem to let the words sink in a bit better.

This was the first time I used it so I'm not sure yet. I did notice that the hands up stays cinched better (is this correct English?). The weight of the steel biner can loosen the cinched rope, where the hands up doesn't. Probably because this is the small hands up for up to 12mm on a 12mm rope so it sits tight on the rope. A steel biner still is easier and quicker, but I do like the hands up

What background noise are talking about? you mean the voices in the music?

We used a smart rigging winch. And about the expression... There was a motorcycle driving by, and my friend heard that through the intercom. He asked me if that was a really loud fart of mine (that does happen sometimes...) I thought that would not be really clear, but I left it there anyway

It doesn't always have to be big trees to be fun. The laurel bush was kind of sacred for the owner, so we had fun puzzling this tree apart without (or minimal) damage to the laurel. The anchor tree next to the dead willow was an Acer negundo, so we were pretty careful with the force vectors on those anchors... We were with only 2 of us at the job, that's why I did the rigging with the portawrap on my end. It would have been difficult for my friend to run both ropes!

This is a poorly executed fracture pruning cut. It didn't really fracture because my cuts were too deep and the branch wasn't heavy enough. The objective is by cutting in that V shape on the upper side, the branch will eventually just break instead of having a clean cut. Maybe this one is better called a coronet cut, which is roughing up a clean cut, so it exposes more wood and looks a bit more like a natural break. The main reason I used this in this situation is because I could do it without damaging the lower or inner crown. With fracture pruning you have no control over the falling branch. Here I just tickled the outside of the epicormic growth on the lower stem (which is very important to leave intact on this tree), which was ok for me. Here I decided to leave a stump of the dead branch, and fracturing just makes it look more natural. Positives: - More natural look - More wood exposed for microhabitat. The cracks and irregularities of the break are very interesting for invertebrates - In the case of living wood: there is a reasoning that there is more epicormic growth (due to more cambium being exposed) and that the epicormic growth is better attached than on a clean cut. - And a tree would be able to compartmentalise a stump better in a natural break than a clean cut. - But to my understanding we can use more research on this last 2 points. Any way trees have been breaking branched for far longer than we have been cutting them Negatives: - In the case of a small diameter living branch (our textbook allowed cutting diameters), a clean cut outside the branch collar will have better compartmentalisation and overgrowth of the wound. - The uncontrolled falling factor might be a risk for tree and climber. For example a bigger branch could fall, bounce back and damage the stem or roots with its butt. A break could peel off more bark than expected and wound the stem. Or a branch could damage other branches when falling. And for the climber fracture pruning a top is especially risky and has to be done very carefully. So when to use it. - on living wood: I never use it in the upper crown. In the upper crown I want clean cuts that compartmentalise well and will have less reaction growth due to te cut. I prefer to do this on lower bigger branches where I do want more reaction growth, and all the other positives. - on dead wood: when the assignment is to remove dead wood for safety, I try to leave stumps that I know will not fall out of the tree (very species dependent). Smaller branches I try to break by hand many times, which technically also is fracture pruning - And then the client is the one paying and sometimes has to say something too...

The reason I started filming my climbing and pruning was to be able to watch and learn from it afterwards. Many times when I see myself climbing from my comfortable chair, I notice things that I could have done more efficient, and notice where I am losing time and/or energy... Only after a while I started editing little films with music just for fun (I have a background in music production), and throwing this online. After quite some questions from people it made me think about where I am going with this.. Future ideas aside, I decided to already throw (very boring) unedited climbing online, and maybe it can already be inspirational for some, or maybe I can get commented and learn something from others... Learning from it was the first reason anyway.

Yes the twists up there were really nice! The cavities in this tree don’t worry me very much. At some point we might take a little bit of weight from the top, but first I want more growth lower in the tree. There was a young totally sunburned beech next to it, covering the whole lower region of the oak. We removed this do now the oak can lower down a bit.. For the oak I wouldn’t have removed the whole beech already. But the beech removal was the main reason we were there, the oak was a beautiful bonus

not a big one, but a beautiful veteran tree with so much microhabitats… We were asked to prune the dead wood for safety, so I just took of the wood that I could take by hand or a swing with my lanyard from time to time... For the rest I was just touristing around and enjoying this beautiful tree.

Noted. I'll give him your regards

Thanks! that's one on the list already We don't mind driving a bit, and as you mentioned it is easier to find a place to camp.

I am going with a friend to the Tree architecture and morphophysiology symposium on the 7th and 8th of April in Kew, London. We come from Belgium and I have a few questions here We will come a few day in advance to drive around and visit some beautiful trees in the region. Which places or trees would you advise to go to? I want to make an itinerary for 2 days in the area... And how about sleeping in the area? We come with my friends van, or with my pickup with rooftoptent.. The van is more incognito to sleep on the road, but the pickup will be cheaper to get on the ferry to England... We also like to have a good diner from time to time, so if you have a good restaurant recommendations near some beautiful trees, that's welcome too

Not chainsaw trousers... guilty these are rain pants from revolution race. A Swedish brand of outdoor clothing where I buy all my climbing pants. Very affordable and very very durable!

Nice. I really like these challenging situations And yes, we did most of the tree without spurs, so leaving a nice frame for standing and grabbing is really nice...