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Lumber jack advice

Half my woods looks/looked like that. Looks like it will hit nothing if it falls. So other than time consuming it's not a big deal.

I posted my property so if someone gets killed by a tree... one less stupid human in the world wasting air.

Do you have any other smaller trees you can practice on? Once you've done it a few times it isn't as scary. It's always scary cutting down a 2'+ tree though.

Since it is tangled up in other trees it can't go far. So you just need to pick the side to cut from that you think it isn't going to go towards and clear an escape path. Then trim off any limbs that may stab you if the tree moves (including off any live trees).

I just use a decent large saw and make a bunch of small cuts on the bottom side. I normally prefer an underpowered saw (2hp or so and 14" or smaller bar) but on something like this it's best to have a 4hp+ and 18"+ bar. After 6-8 1/3 of the way through cuts, cut all the way through in the middle of these cuts. It will then drop to the ground and even if you have to keep doing this it will be less scary. As soon as you think it's going to go make a hasty exit. Practice hitting the chain brake in one fluid run-like-hell motion so you aren't running through the woods with a running chainsaw that can eat flesh. If it doesn't go, wait at least a few minutes because wind or the weight of the tree can cause things to break. It sucks when you start getting ready to make a cut and the whole thing tries to kill you.

In reality, after the trunk is separated from the root ball, I'd try to pull it down with a garden tractor with at least a 40' chain so then it is less of a pain to deal with. Don't use a short chain because the tractor might not be able to outrun a sliding 8,000lb log. I found out one time the hard way that a 20' chain isn't quite long enough.
 
I've had a few large maple & pine trees fall and get hung up like that one,and since they were way out in the backyard almost to the end of my property line,600+ feet from the house & street and other homes,I decided to just let mother nature finish taking them down rather than risk getting flattened by them back there,where no one would find me for a long time--if ever..

About 6 months after I gave up trying to get them down I went back there and they were lying on the ground after a few snowfalls with high winds,all I had to do was cut them down to 20 foot lengths and drag them out with the tractor..they were not worth risking life & limb to get them down..
The tree leaning over my quonset is different,I stand to lose a lot if it hits it with enough force to damage it severely..but I'm not feeling up to trying to pull it down myself now,I may have to call a pro,or let nature take its course and hope like all the other dead cherry trees in the yard,it comes down in short pieces from the top down,not snap off and crash..
 
Bit of an update on this. I spoke to one of the neighbors back there who’s house is close to the tree. His wife likes it cause the wood peckers perch up there. He said he got a quote for a couple other similar trees and was $1200. Ouch. Maybe that included hauling off the debris. He seems to think it’s ok to just let it rot and fall. Thatd be fine with me as long as nobody it nearby.

Then another storm came through and broke another one off 6ft above the ground, much closer to where my son plays with the same neighbors sons. Not a big deal except it was stuck up in the air. 19CB323F-C54A-4884-884B-B24AA58EFF6C.jpeg

So did some research and picked up a Husqvarna 450 with a 20” chain. Safely got that newly broken tree down as planned. And then cut the stumps down flat to less than 18” from the ground. Even got a few thin slices to use as stepping stones around the garden bed. If you look closely, you can see the outer 1/3rd of that ~18” log is deteriorated so much that you can’t see the growth rings anymore. I’m assuming that’s why it fell.
BD91C016-74BF-4FC9-8111-8A2F2684F781.jpeg

also learned why they say it’s safer to start the saw on the ground with one foot on the handle rather than just pulling the rope while holding it and standing. After a big pull on the starter, the saw swung around and clipped my leg just below the knee. Fortunately just a scratch and that it didn’t start on that pull of the rope. :eek: Chaps being delivered Friday....haven’t touched the original leaning tree yet.
 
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bp71k5 said:
Bit of an update on this. I spoke to one of the neighbors back there who’s house is close to the tree. His wife likes it cause the wood peckers perch up there. He said he got a quote for a couple other similar trees and was $1200. Ouch. Maybe that included hauling off the debris. He seems to think it’s ok to just let it rot and fall. Thatd be fine with me as long as nobody it nearby.

Then another storm came through and broke another one off 6ft above the ground, much closer to where my son plays with the same neighbors sons. Not a big deal except it was stuck up in the air. View attachment 337422

So did some research and picked up a Husqvarna 450 with a 20” chain. Safely got that newly broken tree down as planned. And then cut the stumps down flat to less than 18” from the ground. Even got a few thin slices to use as stepping stones around the garden bed. If you look closely, you can see the outer 1/3rd of that ~18” log is deteriorated so much that you can’t see the growth rings anymore. I’m assuming that’s why it fell.
View attachment 337423

also learned why they say it’s safer to start the saw on the ground with one foot on the handle rather than just pulling the rope while holding it and standing. After a big pull on the starter, the saw swung around and clipped my leg just below the knee. Fortunately just a scratch and that it didn’t start on that pull of the rope. :eek: Chaps being delivered Friday....haven’t touched the original leaning tree yet.
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Husqvarna is known for being able to start at idle.
I pull the choke on mine and hold it by the black handle (pardon my not knowing proper terminology) with my left hand and pull start with my right hand at idle. The chain shouldn’t move much at all if any at idle. This is one of the reasons I love Husqvarna. You don’t need to throttle it up to get it started.

Back to the leaning tree. Do you have a chain come along? I’d put a chain or cable around the trunk and connect the ratchet end to another tree a safe distance away and ratchet it to the ground.
 
TuckerK5 said:
Husqvarna is known for being able to start at idle.
I pull the choke on mine and hold it by the black handle (pardon my not knowing proper terminology) with my left hand and pull start with my right hand at idle. The chain shouldn’t move much at all if any at idle. This is one of the reasons I love Husqvarna. You don’t need to throttle it up to get it started.

Back to the leaning tree. Do you have a chain come along? I’d put a chain or cable around the trunk and connect the ratchet end to another tree a safe distance away and ratchet it to the ground.
Click to expand...

i just got lucky it didn’t start that time. Started easy the next time. I’ll have to see about getting a larger come along. Just have a 1/4” steel cable version for now.
 
I don’t know if it was mentioned earlier in this thread but it looks like you may have pine beetles. If so they will keep on killing the pine trees until you cut down all of the ones that are infested.
 
TuckerK5 said:
I don’t know if it was mentioned earlier in this thread but it looks like you may have pine beetles. If so they will keep on killing the pine trees until you cut down all of the ones that are infested.
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Is that what the deteriorated outer part of that chunk is from? I’m not even sure what kind of trees these are, all the branches were gone before they fell.
 
I’m pretty sure that’s what you got going on there. If so they travel from tree to tree in the tops. So if you cut down all that have them they stop. I’m no expert but that’s what I think.
 
I have a large wooded area behind my house with lots of big pines and other trees.
I’m trying to cut all of the small non-pine trees out thinking the pine straw production will go way up and help keep all of the underbrush down. Be fore warned that about the only thing that does grow through pine straw is poison oak / and ivy.
 
bp71k5 said:
After a big pull on the starter, the saw swung around and clipped my leg just below the knee.
Click to expand...

That’s the same saw I have. Sounds like you forgot to press the decompression button.

I was just going to mention about the insect issue, that’s what the woodpeckers are after. If your neighbor doesn’t want that other tree cut down then you should remind them that it’s a safety issue since the kids play there and will probably try to climb up it - you know how boys are.

And I have a similar issue on a few spots on my property - large patches of sudden oak death (SOD). They’re starting to fall now during the winter with the wind and it’s like dominos. Luckily they are on either end of my 160 acres and no where near my house. Can’t do anything about the disease according to a woman who gave a presentation last year to the community except cut them down (for fire prevention) and let them rot.
 
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I used to live in the pine borer beetle capital of the world I think. Not sure now what they will do, since the hurricane there is not a lot of pines standing.
You can easily tell if you have them. First you will see little blobs of sap on the outside of the bark. Then you will see dry sawdust at the base of the tree.
Once you see that, the tree is dead, it just does not look like it.
The beetles eat the cambium layer just under the bark, which is what the tree uses to transport nutrients and water. You have probably seen a tree killed by "girdling it", or cutting a ring around the tree. This is what the beetles do. They eat all that layer, and the tree dies.
I grew up around professional timber people, and have sat in on some lectures about that beetle.

I have a theory about the management of them that runs counter to all accepted practices..
I put it into practice a few years ago at my farm, and it worked.
I had a small wooded area next to my fish pond that had probably 50 or so large pines. One day, I noticed one of them looking bad.
Walked out, and saw the signs of beetle infestation. In a really limited area, there are insecticides that can be sprayed on the bark of the infested tree and the ones around it that will often kill the bugs.
I consulted with some of my timber people, and they came out and looked.
They all advised me to cut down and burn the one that was infested, and be prepared to cut down the rest since most likely they had some in them already.
Told me that if I saw the early signs in other trees, call a timber company and sell them before they were ruined.

I didn't want to lose all those trees, so I decided to test out my theory.
I went in and cleared out all the brush around the trees. Took it down to grass and dirt. Hauled it off and burned it.
The first tree died and the bark started falling off it.
You could see that white tree a long way off standing there in the living ones.
Sure enough, I started seeing signs in a couple of the other large trees. One of my friends pointed it out and said I was going to lose them all anyway, why not cut them?

But then, my secret weapon started showing up. That white tree started attracting woodpeckers. They went up and down it, pecking out bugs and starting nesting holes.
At the same time, they started hitting the living trees. Pretty soon, the living trees started looking kinda ugly with pock marks all over them.
Funny thing happened though. None of them died, and gradually the scars faded. One of the other trees did die, but I think it was already dead.
As soon as the bark started shedding, the woodpeckers moved in there too. With the brush gone, the woodpeckers could safely go all the way to the ground, and those beetles did not stand a chance.
I invited all my friends to try to find a pine beetle mark on any of the trees. They all said I got lucky. I tried to explain that in a natural forest, you had areas of oak, or other woods that acted as "firebreaks" to slow the travel of pine beetles, plus there was always pines dying for various reasons, and these stood where they died with their white trunks easily visible and a natural attractant to woodpeckers.
They would raise other woodpeckers who would fan out looking for beetles.
The modern practice of planting the same type of tree for thousands of acres, and cutting down and burning any dead trees made for a huge feast for the beetles and removed their natural enemy.

As long as I kept the brush cleared so the beetles could not hide down low, my trees stayed healthy and were getting quite valuable when Michal showed up and knocked them all down. Unlike most of the pines in this county, they were so big and massive that they did not snap off like the others, but actually uprooted.
Every where else for thousands of acres all around, the pines snapped off about 10 feet up, and the hardwoods like oak and pecan uprooted.
 
Yep, lots of brush in there along with poison ivy. I’ve just about got all the ivy around the house removed, but haven’t touched any back there. I’ll take a look at some of those other trees to see if I can find some with sap tubes.
 
Bought mine about 10 yrs ago, did they do away with it? You can see it here at the 0:45 mark.

 
If you do find sap tubes, check for dry sawdust at the base of the tree. If its there, the beetles have run out of cambium layer and are working on the inner trunk. Which means the tree is dead even though it might still be green.
If its not there, the tree may still be saved.
From what I understand, the beetle still has to stick his head out from time to time to get air. So an insecticide sprayed on the bark will kill them.
Not sure what to use these days. Chlordane would work great, but its been banned. Ivermectin might work, but its more for parasites than bugs. Check with your local forestry or agricultural agent.
Most will just tell you to cut down and burn the infected trees, but they are thinking large tracts of trees, not just one or two. Insecticides are not really practical over large acreage, but for spot treatment its usually practical.
You might have to mix something up. You need something that will both soak into the bark, and also leave a layer on the outside that will not wash off easily in rain.
I can remember hearing about some folks treating their trees in their yard, and they mixed an insecticide with something else and sprayed it on the tree.
But, its been over 30 years, and I just was not interested at the time. It was some of my forestry friends talking about someone they knew who was trying save their yard trees.
 
rampage said:
Bought mine about 10 yrs ago, did they do away with it? You can see it here at the 0:45 mark.

Click to expand...
No valve anymore I guess. It does start fairly easy. Maybe they added some other tech. The reason I bought this over a Stihl was that valve, or more that I watched all the guys helping out in Nashville after the tornado having trouble starting them. I figured for a casual user, something easier to start would be nice. Maybe that’s not an accurate observation though.
 
It’s definitely easy to start. And when you don’t press that button then the cord gets stuck and jerks the saw to the side, just like you described. Having something that doesn’t start easy makes you not want to use it.
 
Pine trees up here don't need to be beetle infested or rotted to break off..but many have carpenter ants living in them,and they eat the centers out and make widow makers out of them often

Here's a photo of two in my next door neighbors yard,that were perfectly healthy...two separate windy days with gusts approaching 70 mph snapped them off like giant tooth picks!..:eek1:..sounded like a cannon going off..:eek:

The picture I took shows only the larger diameter one that snapped--the other one about 20 feet away from it snapped a few days later,and I didn't get a photo of that one...both were over 18" diameter and about 40+ feet tall...southerly winds did it,we don't get winds from that direction here that often..usually its from the other 3 directions..if the tree had fallen the other way,the shed behind it and his new John Deere riding mower would have been flattened..PICT0182.JPG
 
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