They do seem to be scarce all of a sudden, but I just found a source on eBay for $20/ea if anyone needs:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303998618066
Treestuff also carries them for $30:
https://www.treestuff.com/climbing-technology-hitch-hiker-carabiner/
Spent a couple years as a wilderness ranger, then another six on a hotshot crew in AZ, working all over the west. Rewarding work in many ways, but definitely hard on the body; not to mention inhaling smoke and ash. Doesn't allow for much of a life in the summer, usually working at least 14 on...
Salami cut was our bread and butter when I was working fires. Lots of other ways to get fancy but often KISS is the best approach when you don’t have targets to worry about. Make sure to have a good escape route (ideally multiple), especially if the angle of the hang up is steep (generally ok to...
Definitely a fun one. Yeah, bigtooth. Certainly superlative size for its kind around here, probably about 2' dbh and 80' to the tips. Low stumped with a 32" bar that just barely reached.
Wrecked out a crazy split codom poplar. Wind caused the tree to split from the union almost to ground level (about 25') but the remaining halves of the trunk were still mostly supporting the weight of the crown. I secured one tip in another tree and a second over a union on the side of the...
It’s definitely a good size oak for the area. And it’s good a shade tree for the house (as well as the anchor point for the clothes line, of course), but it’s also a rental property on a busy highway, so I’ll have to see how invested the owners are in trying to save it.
Not familiar with the chestnut borer. I’ll follow up with the HO since I have some other work to do for them. But honestly this part of the job was supposed to just be finishing the day by removing dead branches over the lawn and driveway. When I got up there, I saw the extent of the problem...
There was some kind of polypore fungus on some of the dead limbs (visible in one of the photos). I was guessing that it’s separate from the black areas and sloughing bark/possible cankers.
Sounds like a good lead to follow at least. From what I quickly read, Hypoxylon generally leads to mortality only secondarily to other stressors, is that what you’ve seen? If this is the culprit, is there any recourse from continued decline? Without seeing it leaf out yet, I would guess maybe...
Didn’t see any open cankers lower down, but these black (presumably fungal) spots were about eye level. Consistent with what I saw on the cankers higher up dying limbs
If anything, the roots may be too wet, which is possibly the cause. It’s in a low area on the edge of a lawn. It’s codominant near the base and each trunk is about 24” dbh (but probably fast grown with lots of sun exposure).
I was asked to deadwood a mature red oak and already had concerns about what seemed to be significant die back I could see from the ground. In the tree I found that some larger branches and possibly whole stems were dead or dying back. There are no known cases of Oak wilt in Maine, but there is...