Cutting a forked tree

[countrylady]

I am new to this forum but I would like to ask a serious question about safely dropping a certain tree that may be about 100 yrs old:  An experienced friend of mine is going to cut down a very large pine tree to mill on his Woodmizer - the tree is 4 feet in diameter and forks at about 16' into two large forks with one forking again - the final height of the tree is about 50' - the tree is dying as one fork's needles are brown and another fork is starting to turn brown.  The tree is not close to any others as it stands in the middle of a hay field. I believe he should put a line or lines on it (maybe even running them through a 'block' at the closest tree and offset to a pulling vehicle) to persuade all forks to fall in the same area. I have googled forked trees and safe cutting but have not found any advice for this type of tree. Would appreciate any good advice - Thanks!

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum.
No need to post in more than one Board.

If your friend is experienced, then I'd let him/her decide on a need for a rope in the tree. However, a rope will help locating the tree where it needs to fall, if any danger is present in a different direction.

Sometimes there is more danger in getting a rope into a tree, than there is risking where the tree will land.

A pic of the tree and its location would help in answering your question.

[zackman1801]

usually if you make a nice notch and add a few wedges most trees ive seen will go over fine. a friend of mine put a tree with lots of back lean toward a skidder trail off the other direction using 3 wedges. i would think with 2 or 3 wedges you could put that tree over, especially if it dosent matter in the direction of the fall you could look to where the most branch load was and fall the tree in that direction.

[Ianab]

If you have the option try and have the tree land with the main fork flat on the ground. It reduces the chance that the tree will split around the main fork and ruin a lot of your best sawlog.

Other than that is sounds fairly straight foward to bring down.

The main problem with forked tress is if the fork is low down, around where you are cutting. Then you have a defect in the log and the risk of the tree splitting as you cut it, and the seperate pieces falling in random directions. So you must be more carefull then. If the fork is 16'ft up, then the base of the tree should be normal and you should be able to cut it normally.

Good Luck

Ian

[Left Coast Chris]

Forked trees can be tricky.  I have had some that turn or spin some on the way down which can rotate a limb to a position you did not predict.   The trick is to get a good notch of about a third of the thickness of the tree in the direction you want it to go then when cutting from the back make sure the portion left uncut is equal thickness all the way across .  If you cut through one side of the hinge and the weight of the limbs favors that side, the tree can twist or spin on the stump.  Very dangerous for the faller.

If a tree is very heavily branched such that it is unpredicatble and you have to have it go in one direction it is sometimes best to remove limbs on the opposing side to create more weight in the direction you are going.   Limbing from ladders is very dangerous and not recommended.  I use a man lift.  A good climber can climb the tree and cut limbs also.  

Wedging works well but if the center of gravity of the tree is along ways off center, the tree can still twist or turn on the way down which will rotate a limb to a different position.  

I once took the corner off my barn with a 3'-6" DBH Cottonwood that was probably 80' tall by being limited to a 20" chainsaw and refusal to cut the final cut from between the barn and the tree since there was no escape route.  The last remaining portion of the hinge was on the barn side and as it came down a limb that was not originally in danger of hitting the barn rotated much more than expected.  The explosion as the massive weight of the tree crushed the corner of the barn was impressive.  Supprisingly, the insurance adjuster agreed it was covered and allowed payment.   Pretty good policy.  The correct thing to do would have been to get a larger saw or take some time with wedges to coax the tree over and keep the hinge even.   Cottonwoods are tricky also because the wood is very weak and elastic where the tree begins to lean with a pretty thick hinge left.  You then take a little more then run......... tree leans more.......   That happened several times before it went down.   Only one excape route can complicate the picture.   Just plan it out and think of safety.

[countrylady]

Thank you all for your advice and comments - will let you know how the tree behaves - it will probably be dropped this week.

[Mooseherder]

How about some video of the fall?  ;D

[Rocky_J]

If the first fork is at 16' then there is nothing you can do with a chainsaw at ground level to cause the two leads to fall in different directions. It just isn't possible. During the cutting, the fork cannot fail except from impact on the ground.

Good luck with it.