Felling trees
With spring now in full force, it’s a lovely time to be spending time outside, the weather is warming up, the days are longer and the new growth on the trees and plants is bringing colour back to the woods; so prime time to be camping and enjoying the outdoors.
Last year a friend dropped off a load of wood they needed rid of and our log store has just been a big pile of logs since then; so with a clear weekend ahead, our plan was to sort out the mess of a wood store.
Things didn’t go to plan though, as while setting up my hammock I noticed some storm damage in the form of a split pine right over camp. I don’t like the idea of felling our trees unless I have to, but this one was split about halfway up where the trunk had become two separate trunks. The split top was hung up in another tree and this was putting pressure on another tree, leaning right into one of the hammock areas. Looking at this later, it was clear that it had been weak for some time, as plenty of hard sap had formed at the split, it just took a few strong storms and it broke off.
Sadly the tree formed one of the uprights for our bench, as well as a handy hanging area for tools, but it was too risky to leave it hanging. So, to fell or not to fell?
We debated this for a while, I didn’t have ladders to get high enough into the tree to take off just the split limb, it was also hung up in another tree so that’s a dangerous situation to be in on a ladder. The damage to the trunk was great, with half the top gone and a huge split across the trunk. I felt it was unlikely that the tree would be able to recover from this damage and the location of the tree was such that in time, if the tree didn’t survive it could easily fall into camp, making it a hazard for the future. So after much thought, I made the reluctant decision to fell the entire tree.
The next question was where to put the tree down. Option 1 was the clearest path, but a good portion of the tree would end up in the pond. The other option was in line with the split but this was in the same direction of the hung up section, so there was a good chance that the hung up section would either stay hung up, push the other supporting tree over or fall unpredictably due to twisting around the hung up section. So option 1 was the preferred choice to minimise risk and fortunately, we had the hand winch with us to pull the tree out of the pond.
Last year a friend dropped off a load of wood they needed rid of and our log store has just been a big pile of logs since then; so with a clear weekend ahead, our plan was to sort out the mess of a wood store.
Things didn’t go to plan though, as while setting up my hammock I noticed some storm damage in the form of a split pine right over camp. I don’t like the idea of felling our trees unless I have to, but this one was split about halfway up where the trunk had become two separate trunks. The split top was hung up in another tree and this was putting pressure on another tree, leaning right into one of the hammock areas. Looking at this later, it was clear that it had been weak for some time, as plenty of hard sap had formed at the split, it just took a few strong storms and it broke off.
Sadly the tree formed one of the uprights for our bench, as well as a handy hanging area for tools, but it was too risky to leave it hanging. So, to fell or not to fell?
We debated this for a while, I didn’t have ladders to get high enough into the tree to take off just the split limb, it was also hung up in another tree so that’s a dangerous situation to be in on a ladder. The damage to the trunk was great, with half the top gone and a huge split across the trunk. I felt it was unlikely that the tree would be able to recover from this damage and the location of the tree was such that in time, if the tree didn’t survive it could easily fall into camp, making it a hazard for the future. So after much thought, I made the reluctant decision to fell the entire tree.
The next question was where to put the tree down. Option 1 was the clearest path, but a good portion of the tree would end up in the pond. The other option was in line with the split but this was in the same direction of the hung up section, so there was a good chance that the hung up section would either stay hung up, push the other supporting tree over or fall unpredictably due to twisting around the hung up section. So option 1 was the preferred choice to minimise risk and fortunately, we had the hand winch with us to pull the tree out of the pond.
To say I was nervous was an understatement, I estimated the tree was around 60 ft high, so the largest tree I have ever had to take down, it was hung up and close to camp so many hazards to think about. While I put on my PPE, the other got ready clearing camp of any hazards and we cleared an escape route well back from the fall area.
Making the cuts was a careful process, fortunately all went well and as I made the felling cut the tree began to lean in the direction I wanted. I’d like to say I watched it come down, but I was out of the way and in the safe area as it fell. I just heard the big thump and splash as the top of the tree hit the pond, it fell exactly as planned and it pulled the hung up section out as it came down. I was hugely relieved to get the tree down as planned and that everyone was safe.
Making the cuts was a careful process, fortunately all went well and as I made the felling cut the tree began to lean in the direction I wanted. I’d like to say I watched it come down, but I was out of the way and in the safe area as it fell. I just heard the big thump and splash as the top of the tree hit the pond, it fell exactly as planned and it pulled the hung up section out as it came down. I was hugely relieved to get the tree down as planned and that everyone was safe.
Next on the list was sectioning up the tree and dragging the top parts out of the pond, doing all that took a good few hours on Saturday as well as making camp, cooking up food and attending the yearly woodland get together. It wasn’t till the next day that I managed to make a start on sorting out the wood store, at least I'll have plenty of firewood now. I'm not planning on wasting this tree though, I'll be harvesting as many usable parts of the tree as I can, from fatwood for fire lighters to new seats in the woods. That pine sap is sticky stuff though and with the sap currently rising trying to avoid getting it on everything has been nearly impossible.
Although we had some filming to do for our YouTube channel I decided not to film the tree felling, instead, we filmed a couple of new videos that will make appearances on the channel shortly. Please pop over and take a look at what we have been up to.
I hope your all enjoying the spring weather and getting out while you can.
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