Adventures in Oak-Land Part II

Adventures in Oak-Land Part II (2012 late winter and early spring)

Hello again!  The 2011-12 Oak season was a great one at Vertical Techniques!  We had a number of nice Oak pruning projects.  We also had a removal that was pretty sketchy.  We took care to be safe though and it became just another one of the number.  Here are the pictures!

Will pruning the Big White Oak (Quercus alba).

This Big White Oak has a lot of big dead limbs that are over the house.  The goal of the climb is to cut out the dead-wood.  I will rig the pieces using ropes and pulleys in order to protect the house and adjacent trees, like the White Pine (Pinus strobus).

This amazing tree is at least 200 years old.  It is 42" diameter at breast height.  At even 5 years an inch, this tree is 210 years old.  That's a pretty conservative estimate.

Can you see Will?

There he is!

The Big White Oak is done.  Wow!  What a climb.

Here's Will climbing the second Big White Oak of the day.  We provided clearance and removed deadwood.  This tree was a joy to climb.

Can you find Will?

Can you find Will?

Can you see Will?

Will reaching to make a cut.  Notice that he has two-hands on the chain-saw.  That is a safety requirement.  It is a demonstration of skill and technique.  Will maintains good body-position and technique in order to increase safety and production.

Will out on a limb over the road.

The second Big White Oak is looking good!

These photos show Oaks (Quercus spp.) at their pinnacle of majesty in Wisconsin.  They were a privilege to climb and a challenge too.  The other side of Oaks is demonstrated by the following sequence of photos.  This big nasty Red Oak (Quercus rubrum) has holes like swiss-cheese.  I used SRT to be tied in to an adjacent tree and still be positioned to remove two big limbs on the the removal tree in order to preserve a healthy White Oak growing  under it.  Dave then felled the remainder of the tree.  Here are the pictures:

Here's Will getting set up.

Will getting ready to remove the rest of the lower limb.

It crumbled on impact.  Oak usually doesn't do that unless it's rotten.

The nasty Red Oak is ready for the fall.

Dave put it down nicely!

The stump.

There is a quite a bit of decay where the tree had been damaged.  It did effect the fell.  Dave did a great job on a difficult task.

Will bucking up the stem.

 So concludes the third part of my series Adventures in OakLand. We hope you enjoyed the photos.

Adventures in Oak-Land (2012 Part I)

Cabling a 200+ year old Bur Oak (Quercus Macrocarpa)

This amazing Bur Oak is in Green Lake, WI.  It's not too tall, but it's a fat one!  We measured the diameter at breast height and it was determined to be over 40".  That means that if it grew really fast at about five years per inch,  then it would be over 200 years.  We are pretty sure that it grew slower than that, so six or seven years per inch wouldn't be too much to assume.  We know its over 200.  The giant was a tri-stem with one of the stems being quite subordinate.  This subordinate stem was starting to tear out due to the leverage that was developing at its connection to the parent stem.  We decided to cable it in order to preserve it for as long as possible.  It was healthy otherwise and did not seem to have a significant amount of decay anywhere. 
This was a whopper of a day! 

Dave and Erik setting lines.

Will getting set up.

Will getting into position to install the rigging block.  We will run a rope through the pulley and down to the GRCS.  The rope will be attached to the stem that we are going to cable to give it some support while we are out there working on it.

That's a lot of wood!

Installing the block.

Setting up the rigging in the center of the tree.

Dave came up after lunch.

Here it is in all its glory.

Installing what seemed like miles of Cobra. 

Will and Dave working together.

Lots of reaching today! 

Dave looking good!

You want to have a little "sag" in the cable.

Coming down for the day.

 This was huge tree and a pretty big day!