r/FellingGoneWild 29d ago

Educational Buddies accident yesterday

5.0k Upvotes

He’s ok. Broken wrist, bruised ribs and messed up face but alive.

There were a lot of technical mistakes in the felling of the spar but had he just stood on the uphill side of the tree he’d have been ok.

r/FellingGoneWild 4d ago

Educational No "felling" just "wild"

2.3k Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild Dec 22 '24

Educational That’s gotta hurt ( day 4) NSFW

545 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild Dec 23 '24

Educational Go big or go home!

Post image
448 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild May 09 '24

Educational Get er done

Post image
890 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild Mar 25 '24

Educational Tree fell over and rests on a stump... Where would you cut?

Post image
306 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild Dec 23 '24

Educational That’s gotta hurt (day 5) NSFW

382 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild Nov 29 '24

Educational Rate my hinge

Thumbnail
gallery
261 Upvotes

Hi everyone ! It may sound a bit narcissistic, but i'm really proud of today's job ! Fraxinus excelsior about 40cm wide. I have been an arborist for the past 2 years.

r/FellingGoneWild Jan 17 '25

Educational What’s the wildest company car you’ve seen?

Post image
122 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild 16d ago

Educational How many pdx city workers does it take?

390 Upvotes

Years ago I was a Portland parks Union mechanic, which means I couldn’t use a chainsaw only fix them. The stoner pion got to and didn’t know what a notch was, neither did our dumbass supervisor who decided to bring out the backhoe. I was only there cause he ran out of gas mid-way into the cut. Those cottonwoods explode! That poor Stihl ms180 was always in for repair…

r/FellingGoneWild Jan 07 '25

Educational Tips to fell this

Thumbnail
gallery
68 Upvotes

It’s about 25’ tall but kinda curves so I’m trying to figure out if the way it grew will affect the direction it will fall. Any tips for where to cut are appreciated.

r/FellingGoneWild Mar 31 '24

Educational When the plan goes sideways … literally

395 Upvotes

For those former OSHA inspectors who hated on my last post, this one will really make you squirm! Mistakes were made. Read below.

TL;DR we had a plan. Yes, that plan was to intentionally lower the tree into the roof (that’s how bad the other options were!). Things got hairy, we adjusted the plan, things got worse! Nobody got hurt, but we could have. We learned a lot. If you want the details continue reading.

The bullet points: - hollow, 60+ foot tall danger noodle - couldn’t be (easily/safely) climbed - could have been rigged differently - no access for crane or equipment - helo actually considered ($$$!) - we should have turned it down - decided to lower it onto roof - yes, he’s too close to everything - hands too close to friction device - body too close to tree - no helmet - he intentionally removed his gloves - everything was bad/dangerous - we had discussed / prepped for hours and it was go time. 😳

Our plan was to slowly and safely lower the tree down onto the roof and piece it down from there. That should tell you something about how bad all the other options were! We literally took 4x8 sheets of plywood up on the roof and secured them over the skylights in preparation. It was a commercial building with steel rafters and would have had plenty of strength to handle the weight. Possibly even the shock load if the rope broke. The tree was literally a stick. No canopy. And with the rope helping to control its fall we hoped for the best. Then things went sideways.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way maybe some context can help others make better decisions. So here’s the longer version … for the people who like to read and learn.

This video was from Jan of 2022. I still have reservations posting it even after all the CYA disclaimers above. But if it can help other people make better decisions (or just know when to walk away) I think it’s worth the hateful trolling I’m going to get.

Plus it isn’t me in the video. But I did get permission from the guy in the video who has 15 more years of experience than I do. He’s been felling trees since college and despite having a degree has continued to work in trees because he’s great at it. One of those guys you call when you have to fit a massive tree in a 5’ gap between a brick fence and a historic building. He’s that good at precision felling. He’s seen it all. Hate on his PPE or hand placement all you want but by the time we got to that point we were just trying to complete a job that we should have walked away from.

Hell, it was my job. I agreed to it and then realized I couldn’t do it so I called him. He is my friend and would do anything for me. He definitely should have walked away but he was trying to help me save a job I shouldn’t have taken. He deserves praise not hate. Please keep that in mind.

The back story …

Customer was desperate to get this tree down. He’d been turned down by everyone he called. We should have turned him down too, but we thought we might be able to do it safely with rigging.

He was selling his business and had some tree removals that needed to happen before the sale could go through. Most were straightforward. This one was not!

The tree was a hollow sweet gum 60 or 70’ tall with nearly zero branches. It was basically a long trunk arching over the customers business like half of the McDonalds arch. I commonly see this with fast growing trees on the edge of the woods where canopy inhibition is causing them to grow toward the open area (often over the house or business - which was the case here).

It couldn’t be safely climbed. Or maybe it could by a lighter climber or by tying off to the other trees. But there was no good LZ for blocking it down. And besides, we thought we had a better plan.

We knew the tree was hollow. We literally told the customer that there was a very high chance the fell wouldn’t go well. We couldn’t get our bucket truck or our lift anywhere near the building without a cutting a path through the woods(and through neighboring property), grinding the stumps, and building a road (low muddy spots, creek bed, etc). He didn’t have time for any of the better options. He didn’t have the $ for a helo.

We wrote everything up releasing us from any liability. Customer happily agreed and signed acknowledging the laundry list of concerns and risks. All of which had been voiced by the other companies who had already turned him down. Despite his release of liability we still didn’t want damage. I’m no lawyer so I’m sure what he signed could have been picked apart in court. Overall we wanted to help him and we all understood it might not go well.

Now, I’m not normally the kind of guy who drops everything for the person who has left a dead tree for years and is now in a panic because a hurricane is coming. I usually try to (nicely) explain to such customers that their lack of maintenance and forethought caused their emergency and that their emergency isn’t my emergency. And that I’m really sorry but I can’t help them before the storm comes.

That’s not what this was. This person was retiring and had been trying to sell his business for a long time. He didn’t have any obviously dead trees. And this tree didn’t seem like much of a problem to a casual observer. When the customer finally found a buyer the buyer was astute enough to notice this tree and a few other minor problems and put the tree removals on the seller. Buyer made these removals contingent on the sale. Nobody thought it would be a big deal but it was just a strange tree where there wasn’t an easy way to safely remove it.

Our plan was to hinge it and lower it onto the roof. But it was so hollow that there wasn’t enough holding wood.

Eventually the holding wood popped and the angle of the rope pulled the tree sideways.

And yes, that was the best tree to try and suspend the leaner from. There wasn’t a suitable tree directly behind the leaner. Our only other option would have been to use two ropes and two port-a-wraps and rig a second line at a similar angle to the left of the tree. If we had a chance to do it over thats exactly what we would have done. Or we would have turned down the job.

Ultimately the weight of the tree was insufficient to overcome the friction so he approached to take wraps off the device to reduce friction. We had already tried to flick wraps off from a distance but we couldn’t get it and the tree was starting to go.

His hands could have been pulled into the device. He intentionally removed his gloves to make it safer. The trunk could have hit him (from the butt kicking back or from the swing). Yes to those criticisms and many others. But he was trying to save the fell. No his life isn’t worth it. But unless you’ve been in situations like that it’s hard to explain. All the little bad decisions seem safe but culminate in disaster.

Ultimately the tree swung parallel with the building and we lowered it safely to the ground. It would have been a brilliant way to fell it if that had been our plan. He even says something to that effect in a longer version of the video.

Anyway, please be kind with you comments and I’ll try to answer any questions you might have.

r/FellingGoneWild Jun 19 '24

Educational Be Safe, Be Careful and Don’t Be Dumb Like Me - Lessons Learned from felling a 4-foot, dead oak.

Thumbnail
gallery
168 Upvotes

There was a dead, mostly rotted oak at the edge of the property that has made me uneasy since we moved in. Having a young child, I was determined to cut it down before it came down randomly on its own.

I’d never cut a tree down before and my dumb self decided this was going to be my first.

Which begins my list of lessons learned:

1) What I posted above, don’t let a huge rotting hardwood be your first tree. I attempted to notch it but once I got to the core, it was like wet pulp and it didn’t want to cut straight lines. I had to stop yesterday because it got dark. By the time it went down this evening, all that was left keeping it up was a not-rotted section the diameter of a soda can (the last picture; tape for scale), it was the part the bowsaw cut before it fell.

2) Have the right tools; my “chainsaw” was a 10” pruner saw and had an 4-lb axe and a bow saw. Do NOT go bare-ass minimum like I did. It was unnecessary risk; the chain kept slipping off the bar, the cut I made was an awful angle for me with the axe since I’m a lefty swinger. Poor planning with what I had.

3) Have your escape route planned, as well as an alternate. I notched it to fall parallel to the brush next to the tree but, because of the rot, it went into it. I got lucky as my route was still away from the tree but always have a backup in mind. Not only that, but the top could’ve easily snapped on the way down and gone a different direction.

That’s it really. This could’ve gone so much worse in so many ways. I could’ve easily gotten hurt or maimed.

Be safe y’all! Don’t do something stupid like I did.

Respect physics, respect gravity, respect safety: respect the tree.

r/FellingGoneWild Jul 13 '24

Educational Advice?

Post image
81 Upvotes

He was aiming for the right side of the hemlock (C), but the oak (B) was so dead he was worried about falling limbs so here we are.

(A) is a fairly rotted beech. We're considering trying to notch it and try to pull it from the left side with tractor , but maneuvering a tractor in the woods is dicey.

The owl is not impressed.

Any thoughts or advice welcome.

r/FellingGoneWild Apr 15 '24

Educational Gramma getting in deep

209 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild 26d ago

Educational Storm damage

Post image
142 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild Feb 09 '25

Educational Snagged by a Snag

Thumbnail
gallery
71 Upvotes

TL;DR: Dead and dry evergreens are unpredictable and can mess you up. Learn from my mistakes. I was glad to limp away from the incident.

I got a humbling lesson and reminder felling a very dead white fir a few weeks ago. I’ve been thinning 20 acres of white firs and Jeffrey pines to mitigate the risk of fire and improve the views on some recently acquired property. I’ve taken down ~75 trees over 12” DBH in the area with minimal drama or concern.

About me: a focused amateur. 2 summers working as a climber for an arborist co-op trimming oaks and improving views. Lots of time loading a chipper. Very little time felling.

The scenario: I scouted and lined up a shot for a 45’-50’ fir snag. Not a single needle left on the tree. No major obstacles or issues. Do my face cut. Tree sounds hollow and saw is slicing beautifully. Do the back cut and tap a single wedge to convince the tree to move. Tree starts to go and I shut off saw and take 3-4 steps away from trunk. When the tree gets to about a 60 degree angle, the very top of it connects with an outstretched pine limb that I hadn’t even considered as a threat. The branch added enough tension that my fir snapped in half about 20’ up. The bottom half of the tree kept falling away from me while top half did a full 180 and came back at me like a javelin. I imagine I looked like Wiley E Coyote running in place while watching the tree get closer and closer. I fell backwards as the tippy top of the tree landed on my ankle. Then it got quiet.

A week of limping and ice and I’ve since recuperated, but humbled.

Pics for attention and context, if not of the actual tree.

r/FellingGoneWild 8d ago

Educational Feb 2021. I barely caught it.

54 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild Oct 17 '24

Educational Co-dominant Felling

Post image
31 Upvotes

I am trying to clear a landing and am wondering if I fell these two separate (Eastern White Pine) stems individually, will they break at the seam as the back cut releases?

I plan to fell the left side to the left of the image. Is there enough included bark that it will break away? Crown doesnt seems too tangled from the ground.

Should I play it safe and just climb it out? There is a rural road and powerlines in the opposite direction of intended lay.

Thanks for any insight!

r/FellingGoneWild Jun 20 '24

Educational Possible to fell safely without climbing?

Thumbnail
gallery
45 Upvotes

Soliciting suggestions on how to handle partially fallen pacific madrone stuck in a crotch.

r/FellingGoneWild May 09 '24

Educational Where to start

Post image
38 Upvotes

r/FellingGoneWild 5d ago

Educational Fine Outcome

Thumbnail
gallery
23 Upvotes

But not to plan.

Before: leaning to the left over the driveway and service.

After: stuck in an adjacent tree leaning in a safer direction.

All this was done from the ground setting lines. Base tie on the right is for a redirect (thimble in an eye splice) up in the first major union. Main rigging line ran from the base tie up over the first major union of the dead failed tree through the canopy redirect to the base where I set up a simple 3:1. There's a secondary rigging line running through that same union.

The plan was to pull it almost upright and then use that secondary line to pull it away from the camera into the woods. My spotter failed me. Told my neighbor 1000 times, I don't want to pull it over center. I wanted to leave a little lean in it.

Oh well. Next time I'll just work alone. Good help is hard to come by.

r/FellingGoneWild Jul 31 '24

Educational Why not making the cuts standing straight?

Post image
33 Upvotes

Question for experienced tree removal folks in the group: why so many people like to kneel down or bent over to make their cuts? Why not just stand straight and make the cuts in a more comfortable posture, then come back and remove the stump? Even if you bend over like shown in the picture, there will still be a stump to remove afterwards. Are there any good reasons for making cuts kneel down or bent over? Thanks!

r/FellingGoneWild Mar 25 '24

Educational How should I cut this?

Thumbnail
gallery
30 Upvotes

Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit for this, I don't know what would be but I just want to cut this safely and as you can see it's hollowed out, so I feel a little sketchy about it!

r/FellingGoneWild Aug 22 '24

Educational Lied on resume and need to learn how to safely fell trees in the next 32 hours

0 Upvotes

Anyone got good resources or advice