Question on cutting a tree. When bringing a tree down, do you start removing limbs from the ground up, or from the top to the bottom?
Common sense tells me that we should start from bottom to top because if you start from top to bottom, the branches you are cutting would be hitting the bottom branches. Isnt this correct?
There is no correct answer. There are so many situations. Dead trees, stripped, will be worse to top, as there is no vibration dampening, and you could set up a wave on the tree, but generally, yes, bottom up.
I've rolled/ rigged a decent-redwood, limbs and logs, in a couple pieces. The limbs did almost all the work. The rope lowered it once it was flipped to be butt-tie upward, and it came free of the branches, over asphalt., 6' diameter or something on the flare.
Then, there is the both on the way up and down.
Sometimes you can just cut a limb, drop it onto the limb lower, then pull it free and drop it, no rigging.
Sometimes you will strip a path up a tree to set rigging. You might speedline some stuff off, free-drop, or rig to clear a rope path to rig off the low, long limbs.
I removed a conifer at the corner of the house. I cut the limbs on a spiral, leaving a ramp of branches over the house. I could free-drop (snap-cut) limbs that would roll down the ramps, and off into the lawn. No rigging branches, no manually-controlling them. Two hands on the saw. Once my climbing line was up high, I could easily piece out the limbs over/ on the roof.
