Terms unique to arboriculture

Always heard those as pig ears. My pops had to pull one of his crew members off one when limbing a log. Went right up his hockle.
 
"Dog ear" is what I've heard.

Dog tooth is what I've heard Brits call a slanted release cut for the back-strap remaining from boring out the middle of the tree's holding wood when making a felling cut using a hinge.
 
Dog leg - the zigzag shape a trunk makes after being broken or topped. I've mostly seen it in those pioneer species, like pines. Not a pet peeve, just a wonky way of describing the growth that I've come to use in other conversations.
 
the loggers I know call a bifurcation with a tight angle and included bark a "codom/codominate leader", but when they say "school marm", they are specifically referring to a tree with more than two competing leads, usually a result of a broken top. They exclusively go out to cut conifers, and I have never heard these terms applied to hardwoods, though they do talk about bark inclusions, especially in certain species that are very prone to such issues, such as raywood ash, or bradford pears.

I love the term "stove pipe" for a conifer that has apexed, and is nearly as thick up high as it is down low.

Is logging not part of arboriculture?
 
Matias said:
the loggers I know call a bifurcation with a tight angle and included bark a "codom/codominate leader", but when they say "school marm", they are specifically referring to a tree with more than two competing leads, usually a result of a broken top. They exclusively go out to cut conifers, and I have never heard these terms applied to hardwoods, though they do talk about bark inclusions, especially in certain species that are very prone to such issues, such as raywood ash, or bradford pears.

I love the term "stove pipe" for a conifer that has apexed, and is nearly as thick up high as it is down low.

Is logging not part of arboriculture?
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There are different types of logging. So some types can cross over. Round here there is the term ‘urban logging’.
In many forestry senses it’s silviculture, which typically is resource extraction in the most profitable manner.
 
One of the most often misused terms is
Barberchair....
Lots of folks will use the term to refer to any split branch or stem...


I also despise the misuse of the word target.... a target is something you aim for. Something you're trying to avoid hitting is an obstacle...

Then of course there are widowmakers... I always called a hung tree a widow maker, only to find out that really upsets some folks who think it refers to limbs falling from the sky.

And then there's the Dutchman and swing Dutchman in particular which is pretty ambiguous. And there's no distinction between using a Dutchman on a traditional vs. Humboldt which can have much different effects.

And the difference between a double bowline and a doubled bowline... and I don't remember the difference between a French prussic and a VT.. if there ever was one...

I used to have a book of arb terminology, but things have changed so much since then, it's probably time for a new one.

PS.... I always called them codominant stems... not codominate.... did I have it wrong all these years?
 
Just for clarification I was seriously looking for terms unique to arboriculture vs other closely related specialties or practices.
‘Widow maker’ is a pretty universal term, dare I say coined by logging.
Same with Barber Chair.
Oddly I have the inverse relation, folks who know what barber chair is know. Yet I hear oh so many use the term widow maker for any hazard it’s nearly a pet peeve.

Bowline variations. Totally universal to any Boy Scout or anyone who works with ropes can probably tie 2-3 variations.

Dutchman is a carry over from logging and silviculture.

Codom
Codominate/ Codominat which can vary in use within arboriculture means something unique to us vs other fields.
 
Suuz said:
Codominate ... that has to do with canopy architecture, it means that two branchesare fighting to become the top, right?

What's the English word for the other type of dominance? In Dutch, I believe, it's 'apicale dominantie' meaning that the trunk/topsuppresses the growth of side limbs.

(I like knowing the right, unique Dutch word for arboriculture things. Knowing them in English is challenging.)
Click to expand...

Technically they are just as cosubordinate as they are codominant...
 
Like a lot of 'old-timey' trades, there is a HUGE regional variety in terms used in tree work. I've seen people in CA, OR, and WA use different words for the same thing. It's just a part of culture, that honestly is fading in the modern inter-connected era, but as long as the crew on site is agreeing on the same language it isn't a problem.
 
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