Video - felling some pines growing in the wrong place

Ianab · January 31, 2009, 01:56:01 AM

Went out today to help out a friend who has some pine trees threatening to take out her overhead phone wires. Phone company contractors dont want to know as 99.99% of their lines are underground now. They dont have any tree crew at all.

Here's some clips that Lil shot.

First one is cutting a wedge, and backut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p63Wv7xjjgE

Second is a lot wedge hammering as the tree was weighted backwards a bit, and I did NOT want it going that way. Would have taken out the phone pole, wires, fence and probably an overhead water pipe as well. The branches were in the phone lines as it was. :-\

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyBHXiCTMbE

Third one, it actually falls. Whew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5mSuNHUpFkl

Anyone want to have a guess how old the tree is? I have a shot of the stump with the growth rings, but I will post that later.

Ian

Jeff · January 31, 2009, 07:36:43 AM

I'll guess 26 years.

Ianab · January 31, 2009, 02:48:19 PM

26 years is when they would normally be harvested.

That one was only a sapling - try 11 years.

Ian

Reddog · January 31, 2009, 07:19:53 PM

That is a fast growing tree.

Thanks for posting the vids.

Jeff · January 31, 2009, 07:23:56 PM

Wow!

Tom · January 31, 2009, 07:31:08 PM

That's the kind of rings we find in our Loblolly and sometimes in our Pond Pine.

I really enjoyed the chatter in the background. Momma's have a special tone when they talk to their children. It's very comforting.

Dave Shepard · January 31, 2009, 08:27:17 PM

Quote from: Tom on January 31, 2009, 07:31:08 PM
That's the kind of rings we find in our Loblolly and sometimes in our Pond Pine.

I really enjoyed the chatter in the background. Momma's have a special tone when they talk to their children. It's very comforting.

Sometimes. :D

That's a fast grower alright! What species of pine?

Ianab · January 31, 2009, 09:40:13 PM

Quote from: Dave Shepard on January 31, 2009, 08:27:17 PM

That's a fast grower alright! What species of pine?

They are Radiata Pine (Pinus radiata). It's a species introduced from Nth America (California) but has been selectively bred here for better growth and form. The climate here just seems to suit it, with almost 12 months of growing season.

This is the view from where we were working. Neighbour is having a small plantation harvested, probably about 30 year old trees. These ones hadn't been planted under any phone lines :

The trees have been planted on the slope above a deep river gorge, marginal for farming as the cattle tend to slide down the hill and fall off a cliff into the river.

If you look close you can even see the other neighbours new Lucas mill, nothing to do with the harvesting in the background though.

Zoomed in a bit you can see the skidder and bulldozer, the trees in the background give a bit of scale, but are actually on the other side of the river. Next years harvest.