Safely Felling Standing Dead Trees.

[badlander]

We have been having problems getting standing dead trees to fall where we want them to. The last 3 times my husband has tried to chain one down, he has put in a 'notch' that is a good depth and angle but when he goes to make the final cut to drop the tree, it has wound up twisting and instead of falling where he wants it to, it breaks off at the strap, pivots and the tree winds up falling about 45 degrees off the planned area.

These dead trees aren't huge. The trunk diameter is 12 to 18 inch girths. No problem with dropping live trees that are the same size, just brittle dead trees. It's caused us to scramble out of the way a couple of times.

Is there a safe way to do this? He's about ready to give up on taking down dead trees and wait till Ma Nature does the job for him and I can't say I blame him one bit.

[Bret]

Originally Posted by badlander

We have been having problems getting standing dead trees to fall where we want them to. The last 3 times my husband has tried to chain one down, he has put in a 'notch' that is a good depth and angle but when he goes to make the final cut to drop the tree, it has wound up twisting and instead of falling where he wants it to, it breaks off at the strap, pivots and the tree winds up falling about 45 degrees off the planned area.

These dead trees aren't huge. The trunk diameter is 12 to 18 inch girths. No problem with dropping live trees that are the same size, just brittle dead trees. It's caused us to scramble out of the way a couple of times.

Is there a safe way to do this? He's about ready to give up on taking down dead trees and wait till Ma Nature does the job for him and I can't say I blame him one bit.

Glad you are thinking safety. 12 to 18 inches is still very heavy. The living hinge is better but you have to work with what you have. I have a long rope so that the anchor point is outside of the fall circle. Only one person needs to be in the fall zone. Know the escape and make sure that it is clear. Know where each other is at all times. I am big on hard hats and chaps too.

Play the wind, bend and heavy side of the tree to your favor and believe that even then, trees seem to defy the rules. I am telling you things you already know and practice.

[badlander]

Sorry about the double post. Don't know what happened. Moderator please fix if possible.

[osbmail]

I use a arborist throw bag and throwline so I can get the highest spot in tree to pull.It can take a some time to get the perfect spot , than I pull bigger rope .After I get my rope in there I ethier hook it up to a truck,tractor,person, horse ,plane,or rope puller .I really like the rope puller it has limits and it can take some time to set up but it gives a solid pull.It is a maasdam rope puller

[hoddedloki]

Glad you are actively considering safety.

Use Osbmail's suggestion, and use a arborist's bag and line to get a good thick rope up the trunk. Then use a com-a-long to tension it the way you want it to fall. You cannot completely change the fall direction, but you can control it a bit more, and give yourself a bit more of a safety margin.

As others have mentioned, safety is paramount. Logging is the industry with the highest worker fatality rate, so stay safe and have a plan at all times. On occasion I have forgotten that, and it has not been pretty. One last thing that I am quite sure that your husband already does; When the tree starts falling wrong, drop the chainsaw and run; your and yours are harder to replace than a chainsaw. </mandatory safety rant>

Stay safe and God bless.
Loki

[brownegg]

I simply use a felling wedge.... cut your wedge out like always, and make the back cut and before the tree starts to go, simply pound the wedge in the opposite side of the tree exactly where you want the tree to fall...easy, peasy and no fooling with ropes.

[DaleK]

What kind of trees? I find that unless they're hollow, I just leave twice as much hinge as I would with a live tree and wedge it the rest of the way.

[DaleK]

Originally Posted by hoddedloki

Glad you are actively considering safety.

Use Osbmail's suggestion, and use a arborist's bag and line to get a good thick rope up the trunk. Then use a com-a-long to tension it the way you want it to fall. You cannot completely change the fall direction, but you can control it a bit more, and give yourself a bit more of a safety margin.

As others have mentioned, safety is paramount. Logging is the industry with the highest worker fatality rate, so stay safe and have a plan at all times. On occasion I have forgotten that, and it has not been pretty. One last thing that I am quite sure that your husband already does; When the tree starts falling wrong, drop the chainsaw and run; your and yours are harder to replace than a chainsaw. </mandatory safety rant>

Stay safe and God bless.
Loki

If you ever have to drop a chainsaw and run, it tells me you didn't do a proper job of clearing the area around the tree before you started cutting it. Leave the saw by all means, but if you don't have time or room to WALK around the stump to a safe zone with your eye on the tree until it finishes bouncing, you did it wrong

[1shotwade]

If the tree is dropping 45* to the wedge cut it's a good chance the problem may be on the back cut. If you cut one side deeper on the back cut the tree will tend to hang on the other side and pull that direction.Another thing a lot of people do is rushing the back cut. If you cut slower and let the weight of the tree snap the hinge it will come down much slower and softer.I also agree that wedging is much better on a tree that is questionable.

Wade

[Sawmill Jim]

Originally Posted by DaleK

What kind of trees? I find that unless they're hollow, I just leave twice as much hinge as I would with a live tree and wedge it the rest of the way.

I think most here are missing the big part of the picture . My understanding is the weight of this tree said it wanted to fall NORTH the cutter wanted it to go WEST most trees especially dead ones a wedge is a good way to get killed .I have seen branches fall from the vibration of hitting a wedge ,that is no fun.

It takes lots of power to fall even a small tree in the direction it don't want to naturally go . I used a log skidder with good steel cable .Also cutting large hollow trees I have seen them crush when you put the saw in them as in straight down then just go everywhere .I have seen a good timber cutter cut a north leaning tree and make it twist on the stump and go another direction .I tried that once and wound up fencing for the neighboring farmer for two days

[DaleK]

Originally Posted by badlander

We have been having problems getting standing dead trees to fall where we want them to. The last 3 times my husband has tried to chain one down, he has put in a 'notch' that is a good depth and angle but when he goes to make the final cut to drop the tree, it has wound up twisting and instead of falling where he wants it to, it breaks off at the strap, pivots and the tree winds up falling about 45 degrees off the planned area.

These dead trees aren't huge. The trunk diameter is 12 to 18 inch girths. No problem with dropping live trees that are the same size, just brittle dead trees. It's caused us to scramble out of the way a couple of times.

Is there a safe way to do this? He's about ready to give up on taking down dead trees and wait till Ma Nature does the job for him and I can't say I blame him one bit.

If they're out of the way and you can be sure the kids won't be playing around them, and you have a good exit plan, notching them and just barely starting the back cut and then avoiding the area until the next big storm isn't a terrible idea. As long as you can be sure no one goes near it

[Rustaholic]

The last two trees I dropped were both long dead. The oak on was easy the red pine was leaning West but the tree HAD to go just South of East. I used a trailer hitch ball tied to a 3/8" rope to sling it up high in the tree. Then I pulled up my 3/4" rope And used a come-a-long to put a lot of stress on the tree the right way. I cut a very careful notch aiming where it HAD to fall. There was a very strong gusting wind blowing the tree away from where it HAD to fall.
I left a three inch hinge because it was a red pine and so dead. It was at the top of a hard gust and I heard a crack so I stopped cutting, pulled out the saw, shut it off and laid it down.
Oh yeah, There were at least 20 people watching.
It was so cool to wait for that gust to die down then place one finger on the tree and "push" it over.
To all those folks it looked like everything was against me getting it to fall just where it HAD to go. I had even showed them right where it was going to lay. I had told them it was going to fall towards that little tree across the yard. My come-a-long was pulling against a larger tree farther South because that was a tree strong enough to pull against and it was also pulling right into the wind. I had cut my notch right so my hinge made the tree fall right at that small tree. When it landed the top six inches was turned up against that little tree.

[idigbeets]

To the OP... the safest thing you can do is to hire someone else...

Otherwise, pulling the tree over, wedging it over are going to be your options unless you have a way to push them over (bulldozer). It's never safe dropping standing wood. Hope ya'll have PPE.

[Hoopjohn]

Trees are like fingerprints. No two are alike. There is no "one size fits all" answer on falling trees.
If you're falling standing dead trees 18" in diameter, the only advice I can give is to use extreme caution. Wear/use safety equipment.

And of course remember that no tree is worth an injury.

[ArmyDoc]

Safest way ive found for pines is to use a good size (E80) excavator with a thumb. You are peotected in the cab and the tree pretty much goes where you push it. Much faster thana chain saw. Stumps are dealt with at the same time.

[geo in mi]

You might get some good ideas here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?ann...id=mVJoZuGLo1Y

YouTube

The top link shows several videos.

geo

[badlander]

Thanks for the responses and ideas, guys, much appreciated.

I was away from the computer yesterday as we were burning a huge brush and tree pile from having our pasture cleaned up two years ago. and spent the day making sure the fire didn't spread.

We did hire somebody to do the tree felling last year and had our two three+ acre pasture cleared along with having the tree line around he house cut back for safety. At 125$ an hour, we spent a good thousand dollars a whack getting things cleaned up and cleared out. Many of the trees were too close to the house for us to even consider doing the job ourselves.

DH has a standing rule not to try and fell any trees that are standing old growth and tries to keep trunk girth under 16 to 18 inches. We have nearly 22 acres of standing timber though and at times the need to cut down a standing dead tree arises, especially when it is near one of our trails and is dropping debris regularly or if it is in the timber directly behind the house and we want to harvest it for easy firewood.

It seems as though the only ones that are giving him fits are the dead trees and then I sincerely believe their brittleness is working against us when we drop them. The idea to notch and walk away and let Ma Nature take over is a good one for us

We try to practice good forest safety. Equipment, clear zone 360 degrees, etc. I am usually the spotter and choose a place behind an old growth tree a safe distance away and watch for canopy movement. The minute I see it, I have a safety whistle that I blow LOUD so my husband knows to get out of the way fast. He can actually hear this whistle over the sound of the chain saw and he keeps an eye on the tree himself while he is chaining. I'm just the back up safety person.

Gotta get back out to our fire. Thanks again guys. Much appreciated.

[badlander]

Originally Posted by DaleK

What kind of trees? I find that unless they're hollow, I just leave twice as much hinge as I would with a live tree and wedge it the rest of the way.

Quick PS.

Our forest is smooth bark and shag bark hickory, Red, white and shingle Oak with some Honey Locust and a few black walnut and ash trees thrown into the mix. Most of the dead standing that we have seen are Hickory of one type or another.

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by badlander

Quick PS.

Our forest is smooth bark and shag bark hickory, Red, white and shingle Oak with some Honey Locust and a few black walnut and ash trees thrown into the mix. Most of the dead standing that we have seen are Hickory of one type or another.

WOW that sure would make great firewood.
I wish I had your tree problem.

[badlander]

Originally Posted by Rustaholic

WOW that sure would make great firewood.
I wish I had your tree problem.

LOL. Yes, it's mainly Hickory of one sort or another due to overgrazing by the previous Amish farmer's cows and sheep. We are trying to restore the red oak and white oak which was harvested by him also to build cabinets and our house for that matter. That means we are trying to thin out the hickory which the grazing animals will not eat. Under grazing circumstances, the hickory will take over. Lots of people are for grazing livestock in their timber but for that reason we are strictly against it. The grazing will keep down scrub growth like poison ivy and rose brambles but the cattle will eat the young growth oak along with it and their hooves damage oak root systems.

This winter we are loooking to clean out some deadfall and some standing dead for firewood for next winter but we just don't want to kill ourselves getting it done.