This was on a logging job, we were logging beetle kill in a campground/recreation area near a lake. I had a big pine all faced up, back cut in, line installed and the skidder was pulling it away from the property line that butted up to a residential area. I could see the backcut start to widen as the tree was lifting, glance out into the lay and there’s a man right dead center about 75’ out! I stopped cutting ran out and waved at the skidder operator to stop pulling, stuck the face cut back in the tree and then yelled to the man”get out of there! This tree is about to fall right there!” The tree was about 3 1/2’ diameter and easily 150’ tall. He just stood there and yelled at me, mad as hell because apparently we had drug some sticks into the trail he used to get to the lake. He could not see the danger he was in and finally the skidder operator who was the owner of the logging co really let him have it. “Get the f out of here you stupid sonofabitch!!” The guy got all offended and stopped off. I pulled the facecut back out, cut another quarter of an inch and dropped the tree right where he’d been standing. We didn’t have any barriers out, although that incident changed that policy all the nearby property owners had been notified by the park personnel telling them about the upcoming logging operations. But you’d think an adult with a smidgen of rational thinking would see the situation and have enough sense to not walk out in front of a big tree that has a big piece of logging equipment pulling on it and a man with a saw cutting it. Apparently not.
