Felling a tree that is Cracked Vertically and Horizontally

[jackdog]

I need some advice on felling a White Ash that has split right down the middle starting about 15 feet up where it is split horizontal like the back cut. The vertical split started at that spot and now extends up and down from the horizontal break. Worse thing is that as the split comes to the base of the tree it gets narrower and narrower making for almost no wedge cut and basically no hinge to control the fall.  Am I right in thinking this is not a cutable tree without some large log skidder?

[jackdog]

  https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/72802/split_tree.jpg

[Southside]

That sounds like a dead ash, EAB killed.  The problem with those is that by the time you can see the tree is dead, it has been dead for quite a while and they are literally bombs waiting to go off.  They will break off suddenly and where you don't expect them to, 20' up or so when you try to fell them as the fiber can't hold the stress now that it has shifted.  

Any dead ash I cut, gets cut from the safety of my buncher cab.  You are wise to ask about this tree.  Do you have an alternative way to get it down without standing at the base running a saw? 

[Ianab]

Am I right in thinking this is not a cutable tree without some large log skidder?

You have a pass grade on "IDing Hazard Trees". ;)

Problem is trying to predict what parts of the tree will do when it starts to move. Like Southside suggests, pieces could fall in all sorts of random directions. If it had to come down the local crews would bash it with a 20 ton forestry rigged excavator and see what shook loose. Or just walk away and let it fall in it's own time. 

[beenthere]

I would leave it for the time being, and expect it to make a move to fall in a month or so (maybe within a year). Had one similar to yours, and was easier to clean up after a couple months. I waited for it to make its next move. 

[Ed]

Yup, let mother nature fell it. Ash doesn't rot quickly, it'll still be good firewood when it falls.

Ed

[rusticretreater]

Let time take its course if its not a hazard to anyone or property.

I have an arborists rope for situations like this.  Put the rope around it, run it through a snatch block a good distance away that's slung around a trunk with a tree saver strap and give it a pull from a safe distance.

[thecfarm]

jackdog welcome to the forum.

[jackdog]

I have been watching and waiting on it for months now while the crack got longer, and the longer I wait the more difficult it gets.  Do most of these  trees fall in the direction of the current lean? That would be good.  If it fell at 90 degrees to the lean, towards the picture taker position,  side ways down hill, that would be bad.

[Magicman]

Build a hot fire on the side that you want it to fall to. 

[KEC]

When I was a kid, a brush fire broke out on the next property over. We got it out but, unbeknownst to us, it was smoldering in the base of a big ash tree on the property line. A few days after the fire was "out" the tree fell over.

[GAB]

A bucket truck and take it down in sections, or 1 stick of dynomite at about 6' up should also do the trick.
GAB

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Welcome to the forum Jackdog.    The guys are right. If the tree is giving you doubts on if its safe to try to fall then the right thing to do is leave it there till it falls over itself or there a safer way to put it down. 

Having said that if its not tangled up with another tree up towards the top then its no trouble at all to drop it. As long as there's no power lines or buildings or any thing to worry about hitting that I cant see in the pic and if you are 100 percent sure you know what your doing.    I say it all the time but its the first several thousand trees that's tough.  After that you start getting the hang of it.