BAstard of a Cotton Wood.

klimbinfool

klimbinfool

Location
magalia california
LAst friday The urban forester made a request to take out a limb over a ladies yard a long Lindo channel. (Creek)Most Cotton Woods along this creek are pretty big. This one happen to be about a 100' tall with a fare spread. But the real kicker was the amount of ivy on the tree.

It wasn't just a easy limb removal, but a all day affair just trying to get the ivy out so i could rig the latteral to be removed. I cussed the U.F. whole time.... /forum/images/graemlins/swear_mad.gif.

It's kind of long winded, but take a look if you can. We had two miss haps on this project.

First pic Areial view.

Thanks
Greg
 

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12' flip was to small had to extend it ...and 020 was just a little to small...but tear was above final.
 

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Starting to pile up. This was 4 hours work. I was getting a little pissed. All this work for one latteral and it was the best limb on the whole tree.. This is about were I called it a day. Frustrated with the UF decision to just remove one limb when the whole tree nedded to be removed , I told the crew to wrap it up and abandon the project.

my concience took hold later that day because i have never givin up on a project and so the next day i continued.

This time i out another climber in the spar to remove ivy while I set up rigging and removed the rest of the ivy out of the top
 

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Troy untieing his rope....They tried to GRCS this limb out and this was the result. What happens when a keeper comes out. Luckily I had a secondary block set and was a ble to carry on.
 

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last pic time to wrap it up....4 ton block...toast!!!!...after i took out the top and a couple more logs...I noticed the GRCS rocking on the trunk. I told my roppers to tighten it up. Somehow in the process, and i wont go into detail, one of the guys compond fractured fis finger and split it wide open while trying to tighten up the GRCS. Well that ended that day because two of my key guys had to leave and yes, partial limb still remains and I still have to go back one day ....

Sorry for all the pics people.

Thanks
Greg
 

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Everyone loves pics. That looks like one tough job. It seems when things get tough and do not go as planned someone gets hurt. When people are frustrated they seem to make bad decisions. How did you wreck the block. Side loading?
 
kfool, Nice documentary. Do you work for the city or are you under contract? Why? Why? Why? I don't see much of a target under the tree. I don't see the point in removing major limbs in a riparian zone. I don't see the point in removing ivy on a 'wild 'tree.
 
I can see removing vines, what kind were those, grape? You can see in the first picture it's over someone's backyard garden, at least it looks that way. Removing vines is certainly good for the tree (a little sketchy sometimes in situations where they've been acting like cables, and you remove the support, even while you remove the weight pulling down). Vines are amazing plants, but personally, I believe if you're thinking long-term for the tree, it's usually better to remove them. I love cottonwoods, even though they can be kinda scary sometimes. Black cottonwoods are the tallest hardwood in the West, getting around 180 feet. You can't get that tall and not have some good attributes for withstanding punishment. I gotta admit I can't see the reason for taking out such large limbs completely, but hey, it's hard to say anything from just seeing the photos. I hope your buddy's finger is okay, if you don't mind, I'd like to know how you mignt break it using a GRCS so I can avoid it.
Thanks for the photos.
 
Todd, After looking at the block, I noticed a keyway on the main shaft was gone which keeps the large star nut locked in. Evidently it rotated out under heavy winching. The limb didnt seem that large in the pics but ,it was larger than it looked and since it was in the water, that added more to it.

Stumper, I do work for the city.The riparian trees in the city are still ours to maintain if needed. They can be a liability issue at times. Although, I disagree with the decision on this particular tree to remove that limb, the grape vine still needed to go . It becomes so heavy it will literally tear down a tree, at least crappy Cotton Woods as MB says. The only target zone was the ladies yard wich that limb went over. The rest of the tree leaned towards the creek.

If I was a self contractor in this situation, I definatly would have passed it along.

Trees4est...the trunk of that tree was a pain in the ass. Fissures, large uneven bark plates the whole nine yards. Made it hard to get a good set to the trunk. As it was the GRCS was at an odd angle pitched upward. While one guy was tending the little flipper on the ratchet for the strap a 240 lb guy put the bar to it to crank up tighter.Somehow the tender got his finger pinched between the flipper and the trunk. Hell , I dont know, I was up in the tree and all I heard was the yelp!. Odd situation, but it happend.

Greg
 
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