TREE FALLING

Tree falling is an art, it is also dangerous and can be deadly.   Believe me, as a student from the University of Life with an undergraduate degree in Trial and Error Methods, I have seen some bad mistakes and made a few myself.    Consider yourself lucky if you get a second chance.

When I went to work for the Forest Service in 1971 at Orleans on the Six Rivers National Forest, I became certified on chain saw safety, saw maintenance and falling techniques, but the real lessons are by experience.   I learned it is not the big trees that might do you harm, but the smaller ones that lean one way, twisted in another direction and are hard to read as to where and how they will land.   First, always think safety and know your escape route to get away from the falling tree.  Sometimes this requires clearing out some brush to make your escape faster.   The last thing you want is to move quickly away from the falling tree, trip on some debris and face the consequences.  I will not get into the different undercuts, back cuts, holding wood and other tricks or tools of the trade.  You can find all this online.  It is reading the tree and where you want to place it that requires some know how.   I have guessed what a tree will do and like a bad movie in slow motion could see it had a mind of its own brushing an adjacent tree kicking the butt end in my direction giving me just enough time to move out of the way.   It only took a few of these mishaps to make a believer out of me, so now I put a line about 20 feet up these kinds of trees after making the necessary cuts leaving adequate holding wood and pull them down with my tractor from a safe distance and angle.

It you have any doubts, hire a bonded and insured tree surgeon or professional tree faller.   Remember you want to avoid pain and loss of life at any cost.