Graeme McMahon
Treehouser

:drink:

Dyslexica is a "lemprob"

The result can be the same for all of us just some have longer to think about it on the way.

I record very few of tree events like Tahune (good when it happens though). Some of the tasks that our small team take on have no room for that distraction. We have no "deadwood" in the crew and too much talk can get in the way. If you look at the last block being pulled off you can see the trunk movement despite being braced for recoil. Verbal narration of how I was feeling regarding the movement up higher wouldn't have done it justice or be suitable for general viewing.

Graeme, the Tahune vid needless to say is one for the ages. Could you shed some light on the following vid- it seems there are at least 2 edits of it out there. 1 shows you wraptoring up and topping a monster euc, all set to "House of the Rising Sun" music, the overall effect of which is simply and utterly epic. And the version attached below skips all the motorized ascending as well as the music but gives greater detail on the topping/felling process, which is great to see. To combine them both would be superb in my opinion. Prior to making the back cut, you nip the sides but do it below your double lanyard, I've only ever done, and seen, sides nipped above one's tie-in point and pretty close to the area of the face and impending back cut, can you elaborate on your thinking there re nipping the sides way below the main cuts? Many thanks! The first one was short to demonstrate "scotty" and letting a top go. I didn't put it together but is great music. I think there were some questions about the sequence of cutting and the second video has more long winded chain sawing. (groan) The cuts put below are to reduce the likelihood of bark and sometimes sap wood tearing down the trunk. These are not "wing cuts". In many of the hardwoods here if you apply these near the point of cut the hinge loses control especially with side lean. Some arborist trainers here are training to use them near the point of cut when felling sections and it is dangerous. When the section has no side lean you put them in about twice the trunk diameter below the cut. If the section has side lean, it can still pull out the fibres on the high side of the hinge. On large diameter cuts I sometimes spur down 6 - 8' to be below the action. On that video you will see the bark tear down to the safety cut. Regards

From SeanKroll "is it about correct that stand-replacing bush fires wipe out eucs with a fire-return interval of about 80 years on average, so eucs haven't evolved a lot of CODIT capacity, as fire doesn't care about decay-stopping chemicals?" I can't really answer your question but I'll give my understanding. E. regnans (mountain ash) and E. delegatensis (alpine ash) are fire dependant species. They are there because of fire. Cool fires reduce ground material. Hot fires raise them to the ground. Wet gullies and slopes are less affected by the fire especially south and East facing. In very wet gullies especially up high it gives rise to non fire dependant ecosystems. They are essentially pockets of rainforest. The vague boundaries between them ebb and flow depending on the vigour of fire or extended wet. These sections are taped out of our coupe and not to be logged or burnt. We recognise the age of the bush from the fire that created it. 1939 was the very big fire, before that 26, 08 and one in the late 1890's. I can sometimes be felling 39 and strike a pocket of 26. It is that obvious. Since 39 the larger fires were 68, 83 and 09. There are many more fires throughout these times so it is difficult to place a time span on the cycle of fire. There are still some sections of mature ash forests and I took Gerry up to have a look. We have seen the best of them and they are ready to burn when the time is right. I was part of the filming crew for BBC at Wallaby Creek. One tree I climbed was 150' to the first dead peg and still about 6' diameter at that point. Logging those trees was stopped some time ago. The shame is that they burnt in 09. I don’t suggest logging them all but it seemed a terrible waste of timber. It was always going to burn just a matter of when. Back to your question, being fire dependant I wonder if cool fires are in fact an important mechanism that exploits defect to the improvement of the gene pool. We may need to consider where CODIT fits in.

Don't worry until the top was off at the start of day 3, I was thinking a similar quote but not using the "wow" word.

Thanks Burnham The difference between the forest management displays the different ecosystems. If we were to log our mature ash "regnans" bush, which we don't in Victoria, we would have to clear fell to mirror the natural normal cycles of rejuvenation to look after it. Regarding our bush, only 6% of the Crown land capable of being logged is available in Victoria. Every time the greens find an "endangered" possum in an eligible coupe it is removed from the 6% and not replaced. They have found so many colonies now they have passed the endangered threshold however they continue to move that goalpost as it suits. Some contractors here have been stopped work for up to 4 months because each coupe they are to move to, another possum is found. I assisted the ecologists to put up their cameras at one time and was privy to them changing the location to maximise the exclusion of adjoining coupes should a possum be sighted (so much for science and forest management).

Thanks August, but if we started with "plan A', we were getting through the alphabet by the time it was done. No bows were taken until the beer slid down, end of day 3.

It was fair, I felt as worn out as the tree was. :O

The patch is almost done. A few to round up on the rocky knob and seed trees left as required. They are not what reseeds the coupe as natural seeds are already on the forest floor waiting for the burn. After the burn is when greens will take pics and exploit the lack of knowledge in the public to say we are wrecking the bush. For scale if you look close in about the middle you can see the orange excavator rounding up more of Sunday's wood. The face ran about 1/2 mile to North around the knob and a bit less to South the other side.

Good question Cory. Our alpine forests must be clear felled. In this way it mimmicks the cycles of mother nature. When a bush fire burns hot in our "mountain or alpine ash" bush it raises the lot to the ground then regenerates out of the ash bed created in a very high density. Over the next 60 years it naturaly thins and there is 60m tall trees ready to harvest again. By 240 years you've seen the best of it. We are still logging "39 regen", if you google 1939 fires and look at the area burnt in Victoria you will see what I mean. Sir David Attenborough said it best in the series "The Private Life of Plants", "The paradox of this fore Mixed species bush can have 3 generations of trees in it and can be select felled etc.

Quite right Stig, if you need and audience at work don't be a faller. Its personal.

Made a special effort Butch. Back from the bush, saw your post. Hi. Regards

Sorry for my absence. I have been busy (back logging as well) and just decided to have a look about on the Tree House. Have commented on another topic here tonight so I am trying. Can't believe it has been so long ago that Gerry came and stayed. We had such a good time getting about and doing. Logging and tree climbing have so much in common accross the Pacific. Looking at the images that Gerry captured reminds me of his time here so vividly. More importantly his naration of the pictures gives a quality story that only an extreemly competant tree person could. Many thanks Gerry. BTW turned 60 in Sep. Regards

It's been a while since I have been about. Still working 6-7 days a week between hand felling for logging and climbing for my tree company . Am 60 now and climbing for 42 years. Hand felling where the harvesters can't access in 35- 45 deg slope plus rock gives my legs more of a workout than climbing some days. Last Sunday they shut down the landing and I burnt 16 liters of fuel in my saw. Thank goodness for cold beer. Regards Graeme