Dead Red Oak

A

Arbor23

The oak is dead. Bark peels off fairly easily but the underwood feels hard as a brick. There is nothing to rig to close by. I dont have a bucket truck so the only option is to climb if i choose to take the job. The tree is nowhere near rotten but there are signs of some bugs. Any suggestions? How much strength have the limbs lost due to the fact the tree isnt alive?(for climbing out on them) And could the tree be rigged to itself?
 
Does the tree still have twigs? If not how large is the smallest remaining branches. I usually find that if there is nothing left up there smaller than 4" then it is ify to climb. How much rigging needs to be done, whats under it. In my experiance the sap wood on a red oak usually decays fairly fast leaving it punky but the heartwood is still strong. Any other obvious structural defects????
 
Still has twigs. There is two main leads coming off the top. Tree is fairly small compared to most mature oaks in the area. Root base looks good. Underneath the tree is a lamppost and ep henry brick around a garden. Will be doing the job tommorrow. Sorry dont have any pics.
 
I think it is up to you to use your best judgement. There are Red Oak's galore around here and many/most of them are rotten inside the base of the tree. The odds of rigging of the tree may not be in your favor if there is heavy decay on the exterior of the tree.

But again, you've seen the tree, trust your gut.
 
Something I wanted to mention about rigging off trees like that... you can double or even triple crotch your rigging anchors to spread out the load, same with your lifeline. You have to think it through because the anchors have to be self balancing (even if one of the points fails) to keep the load evenly distributed but it's a useful trick for working in marginal trees.
 
Quote : There are Red Oak's galore around here and many/most of them are rotten inside the base of the tree.

Does anyone know why this happens? I have seen it very frequently, and the tree looks healthy.
 
If the decay starts in the base or roots and goes up the trunk it is some form of fungi that enters through the root system . there are many types of wood decayers hard to know what w/o seeing. some trees get " bottle but" which is where the base kinda looks like a coke bottle and swollen at the base . alwaks a good idea to do a good sounding and if possible use a resistograph on it. THat condition is often bad!!
 
Nice pic Kevin. So did you have to remove this oak as part of your line clearence work?

Yeah, we see alot of oaks like this in NH too. Always makes it interesting to work and rig wood in them. Definitely need a thorough understanding of hazardous tree removals.
 
Chris, it was standing between two cottages unrelated to line clearance.
It was long over due for removal.
 

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It had a good top on it but the foundation was a little loose.
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It's the large tree with a slight lean to the left of the truck.
 

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Nice felling job Kevin. I like the way that you threaded it between the other trees. Did you have to use a tapered hinge or adjusted gun technique? Kind of hard to do either when you don't have alot of good holding wood.
 
Due to the lean I used a tapered hinge and adjusted gun combined with wedges to lift the tree on the lean.
Set it up as a bore using the natural hole in the tree and cut the back strap to release the tree.
It was a heart pumper getting it set up.
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It was a heart pumper getting it set up.
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I'm sure it was a rush. I feel the same way when working on trees like this, but to me that is what makes this job so interesting.

As you know, I also like using both the tapered hinge and adjusted gun together too, as I feel you can get the best of both techniques at the same time.
 
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