Cramped Working Space

At the front corner of the driveway, out near the county road, stood five 80 foot tall fir trees. Three of them Douglas Fir and the other two White Fir. The White Fir go by many names, silver fir, piss fir (from the smell of the sap) or Grand fir. One of the White Fir trees was noticed last fall with the top of the tree dying back.

This spring showed the tree dying from the top down and a couple of weeks ago during the warmest weather of the season, all the needles left on the tree had turned brownish red and completely dead. The tree had to be removed before other trees sickened or this one became a danger of falling toward the vehicles in the driveway or on the county road.

It was tight working conditions to get the logging bulldozer in along the rock garden on one side and other trees on the other side but Mike was able to back in right up to the dead tree. He climbed up onto the top of the cab that surrounds the driver to hook a cable around the tree approximately 20 feet above the ground. With the cable secure, he walked the dozer forward so the light was tight.

We stopped traffic on the county road just in case the tree fell the wrong way.

Mike put in the undercut on the side of the tree facing the dozer (this is a wedge shaped piece so the tree can be tipped like a rocking chair). The next cut came from the road side of the tree. Mike cut about a third of the way toward the middle then stopped to go around and inch the dozer forward to begin the tipping. With the cable drawn tight again and the tree beginning to list in the proper direction, he went back to the saw and continued to cut toward the middle.

The tree went down in a soft whoosh.

The rest of the day was spent limbing up the tree, carting off the debris, sweeping up the driveway and straightening up the garden where the tree had to be felled in order to be away from power lines, the county road, the roadbank and the house. Two small fir trees were destroyed in the process but that is a little price to pay to have the danger tree out of way.