Baby killed by falling limb.

[Jeff]

What got my attention about this was that it was on one of those early evening entertainment-gossip shows and the reporter starts out with the sentence "Across the country, this is becoming an ever-increasing problem" Then they proceeded to show some stories where trees had fallen on cars and houses. It was almost as if the tree huggers were about to declare war on trees, but stopped short on T.V. Here is a link to the Baby Story. To bad, but as the major says, it was a freak accident, but I'm sure someone was trying to find a human they could blame.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/28/2010-06-28_bloomberg_calls_central_park_tree_accident_unavoidable_experts_agree.html

[Husky Scot]

Absolutely, I am going to london (big smoke) to a seminar in a fortnight, on Tree Safety Management, looking at liability on owners for tree inspection, and to ensure that it is not reasonably practicable for them to foresee an accident, act of god, or simple mechanical failure. Although it looks this side of the pond, they also are looking for a human to blame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cedarman]

If you look at the forest floor you will see limbs and fallen trees on the ground.  It is obvious that things fall in the woods.  You can be hurt by falling things.  Therefore no human should be allowed to walk or be under or near a tree so as to  prevent injury.  All trees should be fenced off.  Tree owners should therefore be liable for any damage caused by trees.  No exceptions.

[WDH]

OSHA would mandate that all trees have guards around them to protect humans. 

[Jeff]

I've stood in my woods and surveyed the fact that every inch of it at one time had had something fall from overhead. Eventually, if you are out there long enough, you will see it, or feel it.  I think I've posted a couple times about last year being in the wrong spot at the wrong time.  I don't let it worry me, but I'm cautious where I go in the wind, and have learned to look up and ahead a lot when walking in aspen and birch to survey for possible unwanted head bangers.

[SwampDonkey]

I guess this must be why you never see anyone (kids) out in their yards or (adults) woods any more.  : ;) When I was a kid I never wanted to be inside much, the folks were always looking for us. Too busy making forts, sliding, fishing, making sling shots.........shooting home made arrows at younger brother..... At grandpas, I used to hike all over 500 acres of woods on cow paths and old logging roads. I'm still going up this fall and hike the loop, almost half a days walk. Nice walk in Nov-Dec on frozen ground. ;D

[Okrafarmer]

A year or two or three ago, a girl was killed by a falling limb at our local zoo. She didn't die right away, but in the hospital some time later. The eerie thing to me at the time was that I had visited the zoo not long before that and, since I am always interested in trees, I had spent quite a bit of time looking at the nice, big old hardwoods and pines there. I also noticed at the time how these trees were towering high above the paths that were being walked by hundreds, even thousands of people per day. I wondered, what would happen if one of these trees dropped a limb at the wrong time? It could happen. Somebody could die. But then again, our area, even the urban parts, is famous for its trees and greenery and "lushness." Trees are everywhere in the city, and who can keep track of them all? What are ya gonna do? And the govt types locally have been doing everything they can to make it difficult for land owners to remove trees. Do they want people to die? That very city has a tree ordinance that makes it illegal for anyone-- a landowner, a wood cutter, even a licensed arborist, to cut down a tree, even on private property, without getting permission from the city first. Insane.

When somebody dies from a tree limb, it is a terrible tragedy. But that doesn't mean anybody has to be sued

On the flip side, people responsible for the health of trees under which multitudes walk on a regular basis, ought to be very diligent to seek out dead or dying limbs and have them pruned by a professional. Otherwise-- who would want to let that responsibility "hang over them?"

[Jeff]

In the last couple years, I have made a conscious effort to remove dead limbs before the annual pigroast. Tammy and I spent a day out there this year a week before, throwing lines up in trees and pulling on anything that looked like it could fall. Even when you think you have everything, you get a wind and find all sorts of stuff out here that could do some real damage if it had hit somebody on the way down.  I've got a few oaks out here I aim to take completely down thisa winter because of how they have been shedding branches up high.

[Okrafarmer]

Yes, oaks are one of the biggest culprits.

[SwampDonkey]

White birch are bad for branches, but they usually only drop dry fine branches. But in the spring time, there sure are lots of little sticks to pick up. :D

I have a big old rock maple by the road and power line that I notified the power company to remove. There's probably a cord and a half in the tree I figure with the limb wood. You have to figure in a bit more than the volume tables give because they only calculate merchantable volume. An open grown maple has a lot of stove wood in limbs. There's almost a solid 2.8 m³ (without air) in the main stem, but that's probably only to 60 feet and there is another 15 feet beyond that, plus big limbs. 1.7 stacked m³ (8 foot lengths) in a solid m³ and 3.62 stacked m³ in a cord. If that makes any sense to anyone. ;)

[WDH]

SD,

It does make sense.  You are a man of many cubic meters  ;D.

[Jeff]

White birch are bad for branches, but they usually only drop dry fine branches. But in the spring time, there sure are lots of little sticks to pick up.

I have to disagree with that by using my observations on my woodlot. Also by the knot on my head and stiff neck from the birch limb that thumped me last year.  I regularly find birch limbs stabbed into the trails so far they are difficult to pull out.  In my woods, the birch are the potential killers.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, I guess so in forest conditions that would be true, shade intolerance has some disadvantages. ;) In the yard here with open grown conditions, not so. Most houses up here only have a few trees around them, tend to be more open yards. All I have is fine branches each spring to pick up. ;) My uncle hates white birch for that reason, "dirty trees dropping sticks all over". ;D

[Okrafarmer]

Yeah, I guess so in forest conditions that would be true, shade intolerance has some disadvantages. ;) In the yard here with open grown conditions, not so. Most houses up here only have a few trees around them, tend to be more open yards. All I have is fine branches each spring to pick up. ;) My uncle hates white birch for that reason, "dirty trees dropping sticks all over". ;D

Our river birches down here act the same way-- yard trees drop little branches in profusion (and usually get cut down out of frustration before they get huge) and huge rb's drop bigger limbs all over, as I can attest from the +/- 20 mature rb's in one of my bottom land hay fields.  :