Tree cutting gone bad.

Oh, maaaaaaaaaan

Some of those guys are just plain idiots, like all the ladder loggers

But that one professional looking dude that had the tree split on him…TWO TIMES OR MORE!!
Ho Lee Crap
I’ll be having nightmares

I hope treeguy sees this (He’s prolly already seen it)
I’d love to read his commentary

I think my fav is the one where the guy is holding, or even tied to the rope, then flung into the firmament.
The catapult principle, once again proven

Great stuff, Sir Ike, great stuff
 
I've been going through our forest for the past 15 years, cutting down dead trees to feed our outdoor wood furnace for Winter heat. I've learned to carefully check out the "hang" of the upper limbs, etc., and carefully chainsaw the trunk in the direction the tree is most likely to fall. Even so, I find that about 1 out of every 5 trees tries to fall in a different direction, and I have had to move quickly on a few occasions to avoid getting hit. Anyone who is trying to drop a tree in close proximity to a structure is taking a Huge chance. Far better to hire a professional tree service who is equipped to climb the tree, and cut the limbs, or preferably has a truck mounted bucket to bring it down in stages. Paying a few hundred dollars for someone who has the proper equipment...and experience...is far cheaper than destroying a house, etc. Our local power company will come out and cut a tree that may potentially impact a power line, for free.
 

Our next door neighbor is a professional arborist. Now in his 70s, it amazes me that he still climbs when necessary.

Taking down a large tree safely and without incident seems to be part art, part science and I have great respect for those who can do it.
 
Unfortunately, a few of the scenes showed incidents where fatalities were very likely. Cutting down a tree, or removing major leaders, is a job left to skilled professionals. You are dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of wood and brush, and the laws of gravity, and the idiosyncrasies of the behavior of wood fibers, will quickly take to task those who are ill-prepared to deal with the same. My trade journals contain monthly fatality reports. On average, around five to ten professional tree workers are killed, monthly, along with an equal number of "civilians." Tree work is generally acknowledged to be the second or third most dangerous profession in this country, behind offshore canneries and structural steel workers. BTW, removing the top of a tree, in a tree removal operation, is an exciting gig. As long as you know what you're doing, and are safely tied in, wearing proper PPE, the rebound and rapid metronome effect of the remaining stem makes for a very thrilling ride, as I know from personal experience!
 
treeguy64 said:
Unfortunately, a few of the scenes showed incidents where fatalities were very likely. Cutting down a tree, or removing major leaders, is a job left to skilled professionals. You are dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of wood and brush, and the laws of gravity, and the idiosyncrasies of the behavior of wood fibers, will quickly take to task those who are ill-prepared to deal with the same. My trade journals contain monthly fatality reports. On average, around five to ten professional tree workers are killed, monthly, along with an equal number of "civilians." Tree work is generally acknowledged to be the second or third most dangerous profession in this country, behind offshore canneries and structural steel workers. BTW, removing the top of a tree, in a tree removal operation, is an exciting gig. As long as you know what you're doing, and are safely tied in, wearing proper PPE, the rebound and rapid metronome effect of the remaining stem makes for a very thrilling ride, as I know from personal experience!
Click to expand...

Treeguy, have you ever had one go unexpectedly haywire?
 
treeguy64 said:
On average, around five to ten professional tree workers are killed, monthly, along with an equal number of "civilians." Tree work is generally acknowledged to be the second or third most dangerous profession in this country, behind offshore canneries and structural steel workers.
Click to expand...

I had no idea!!!! Jeez tree guy, BE CAREFUL!!! (I know you are, but this statistic makes me worried for you!)
 
Last edited:
Butterfly said:
Treeguy, have you ever had one go unexpectedly haywire?
Click to expand...

One time, I was on a job, to remove a fairly large Hackberry Tree. The day before, I had spoken to my stump grinding guy about why he had gotten out of tree climbing. He told me about how a Hackberry had unexpectedly gone over, with him in it. He was not badly hurt, amazingly, but he gave up climbing, then and there. As I prepared to climb the tree, I thought of his experience. I threw my rope high up in the tree, to do a pull test, to check the tree for climbing safety. As I pulled, I heard popping sounds, from the ground. Not good. I pulled harder, and the whole tree came down! Root rot, hidden from my view, was the culprit. Had I climbed high in the tree, and started stressing it by rigging down heavy wood, on ropes, I would have been in danger, as the tree would have surely collapsed. Since rope pulls are a regular part of my pre-climb inspection, I'll hopefully avoid root fails, due to rot, in the future, too.
 
We're having beautiful weather for January....hit 60 degrees today. I got out this morning and took down about 10 small 3 to 6 inch diameter live trees at the edge of the forest....needed some "green" wood to keep the outdoor wood furnace going at night. It's really nice to put the chainsaw to use in this kind of weather, without having to worry about tick and bug bites, etc. The hardest part of the job was stopping frequently to move the branches out of the way, so I wouldn't trip over one with the chainsaw revved up.
 
Just around the corner from me last week, a couple guys were trying to cut down a storm damaged tree. They managed to crash it onto their garage roof, from whence it then rolled down and crashed into the RV parked in the driveway. It pretty well demolished the RV roof and it looked like it seriously damaged the parapet of the roof as well.

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to try to do it yourself. I dunno how much it would have cost to get a professional tree guy to do it, but I'd bet it would have been a lot less than to replace a big chunk of roof on your house and your RV, too.

I wonder if car insurance pays for cutting down a tree and demolishing your own vehicle?
 

Back
Top