West Coast Faller

Yeah I know that looks unreal. I have a friend who over time I should contact to see if still alive who did some logging training out there in the west, and he said the last time we talked that there are some amazing loggers out there.
Nate
 
having logged for 30 years, I feel compelled to say that slamming trees into stumps and each other like that causes a lot of internal struktural damage to the logs.
That may not matter to the faller, but will to the guys at the mill, who have to convert the logs to boards.
Gently does it.
 
here's another vid of old growth logging....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_UqhcByRdY

jp
grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
having logged for 30 years, I feel compelled to say that slamming trees into stumps and each other like that causes a lot of internal struktural damage to the logs.
That may not matter to the faller, but will to the guys at the mill, who have to convert the logs to boards.
Gently does it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm...easy to be gentle when the trees are small. I would bet that the both of those trees are over 200' tall. A faller of this caliber does the best he can, trust me.
 
how did the part about small trees pop up?. A little bit of west coast condescension, maybe. Like, the guy is from Denmark so what does he know from tall trees.
You would be right about that, except that I spent a good number of years doing the:"have chainsaw, will travel" thing, when I was younger.
So I have falled (felled?) trees in a lot of different places, including Northern California (redwood) and Washington.
So you are, so to speak, barking up the wrong tree.
I just watched the video again, and it didn't look as bad to me as the first time I saw it. Those trees are sure getting banged up though.
If you did that to the hardwoods we fall around here, like beech and ash, they would shatter like glass. Especially on a really cold day.
A day when you ruin a veneer grade log, is not a day you get a gold star in your diary.
When we do contract logging for the state forestry service, the contract actually specifies how much damage they will allow.
If you look at my homepage www.skoventreprenoeren.dk
there is a picture of a big danish tree. Not tall, but big.
It is me on the left.
 
Sorry if I sounded condescending, it wasn't my intention. The scenario for these two firs as I read it is:

-Steep sidehill means that the trees must be felled across the grade (uphill is very dangerous, downhill means the wood is gone.)

-Faller is working at the edge of the cutblock meaning that the trees must be felled in only one direction.

-The fir further away from the faller was likely leaning back towards the no cut zone, maybe too hard too wedge (you can see a wedge falling out of the backcut as the second fir strikes it.)

My point is that there was little else the faller could do to save the wood. There was only one direction the trees could be felled in, and they both went the right way.
 
[ QUOTE ]
1910.266(h)(1)(ix)

Domino felling of trees is prohibited.

Note to paragraph (h)(1)(ix): The definition of domino felling does not include the felling of a single danger tree by felling another single tree into it.

[/ QUOTE ]

If the tree isn't a danger tree the act of felling another tree into it would be considered a prohibited practice.
 
Nice vid and it illustrates a very important point. Domino falling isn't always a risky proposition, but more times than not IT IS. That's why there are so many rules against it. A lot of people have been killed doing it.

In the video posted here you'll notice the pusher tree hit and then glanced off the other. It wasn't a square hit. This can be especially dangerous when the target has back lean and is sitting on wedges. The target tree may get hit just enough to pick up a little, then the pusher tree slides past, and then because of its back lean the target tree sets back, and often breaking hinge and pulling to one couner or the other, they don't always break square when coming over backwards.

It leaves the faller in a very vunerable position. I've seen it happen more than once. So you better hit it square and have a sure way to get out of there.
 
Interesting, Gerry. In the vid I thought it looked like he was finessing it with a little brush by, maybe cuz the trees were notched to fall and land side by side instead of one on top of the other.

But your points make perfect sense...voice of experience.

Great to meet you at the expo!!! Hope you are back to work soon!
 
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