Is there a way to tell what made this tree fall from the pics?
It fell a couple days ago, on a very calm day with no thunderstorms around. Just randomly toppled over. Does it look like a lightning strike from a previous storm, that just took some time to weaken the tree enough to fall?
I have a lot of these eastern white pines next to my house, and this is one reason I plan to clear them out this fall.
PHOTOS NOT IN YOUR FORESTRY FORUM GALLERY. REMOVE THIS WARNING AND REPLACE PHOTOS
These are probably linked from Facebook, are they not? They will have to be uploaded to your FF gallery instead.
I can see some damage,white. But don't see anything to make it fall over. I have many or should say had many,that die out in the woods. Some that size and some 2 feet across. The bark will fall off and they will stand for years.
I myself would not have any eastern white pine around my house. In fact I cut one before the house was built. I have seen too many perfectly looking tree snap off about 10-15 feet high. Yes,that was due to high winds,but don't want one to fall on the house.
I use dead pine for firewood for my OWB.
Looks like wind fall.
Gravity :D
Sure looks like that is just the last one that has fallen. Quite a few on the ground in the pic from previous years. Did the pitch area show up after it toppled or did you notice?. Others may know the "life span" of an EWP, I do not. Could be simply old age, or because the stand looks crowded - natural thinning?. Not uncommon at all for trees to fall on a very calm day, the damage has been done previously.
That stand looks overstocked and it is in the process of succession. Sun loving pines have lost crown due to crowding and the losers are dying out. A few more years (decades?) and more shade tolerant species will begin to establish themselves in the understory. Could try a thinning before restarting the stand to gain some diameter. The tight conditions have created some small knot boles. You may want to grow them bigger. If the residual trees have less than 20% crown, it may take them a while to respond to more growing space.
The other trees in the area are all healthy. It just seemed strange that we had some good winds a few days prior and the tree didn't fall then. It just randomly fell that morning in almost no wind. Seemed weird to me, I would have thought the previous winds would have knocked it down.
The other trees that are on the ground were knocked down by my tractor. I probably killed this one when I knocked over the others last year. I'm going to start clearing the entire area over the next few months.
Thanks to all for the replies. It's been a while since I've posted a photo, and it looks like the icons have changed so when it allowed me to put in a link and post the pictures, I figured the forum was updated to allow external posting. Lesson learned, and thanks again for the comments.
I'm glad it doesn't appear to be some sort of disease that killed the tree.
Many pines, with a dense area population, succomb to sunlight starvation.
GAB