Tree felling vids

[FireFighterZero]

Mr. Burnham, did you work on a BAER team? Or was it part of your regular job?

 

[Burnham]

That was not part of my regular job, though I was assigned short term to several BAER teams during the course of my FS career.

 

[Burnham]

Here's a few shots of one of my planting crews at work, in a wildfirefire area in this case.

 

[Burnham]

If there are folks who wonder about acronyms

http://www.fs.fed.us/biology/watershed/burnareas/background.html

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Im seeing as sort of a guide to help the stump slip and stay on top of the stump hillside. Looks like for erosion stabilization, or falling debris protection after felled.

The cut seems to be a wall of sorts that the tree can slide against when falling through a canopy.

That's it. An high precision cut. Risky for the faller too.
They choose some perfectly healthy trees, fell them side way in the slope to stop the falling stones and boulders. The stump holds the trunk's butt in place, so they don't need to burry many heavy duty post poles. Both will be debarked to last longer.

edit: oops, I didn't saw Stig's answer.

 

[MasterBlaster]

How do they debark it?

 

[Marc-Antoine]

I don't know precisely for this case. Some hand tools or chainsaw attachements I supose.

 

[cory]

B, that was an excellent description, thanks. What is the survival rate for the trees? Do all planters have more or less the same survival rate for the trees they plant, or does skill, effort and care of the planter play a big role in survival rate?

I guess obviously tree planting is always done in some pretty bombed out areas. I'm wondering if that wrecked environment is like depressing to work in or is there still a sense of working in the mountains in the great outdoors so that it is kinda nice? Or maybe it is neither, it just is what it is, just a job. I'd probably find it difficult not spending time analyzing the stumps, trying to imagine the forest that was there.

 

[SimplyArbor]

Planting is hard-ass work. I planted with a fire/reforestation crew out of the valley in Oregon and was the only gringo that could hang with the mexican crews. 1000 trees a day was standard (and brutal)!

 

[stig]

Burnham, I've planted with the hoedad in California back in my wetback days.
They use it in Germany as well, but I never liked it for our flat ground.
Traditionally we've used a shortened drainage spade, but that sucker is heavy as hell and very taxing on the left shoulder ( from lifting it), so these days I use a stainless steel transplant spade ( and break one every second year or so)

Drainage spade:

 

[MasterBlaster]

I've always wondered how many cuts I've made on a big trim.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I've always wondered how many cuts I've made on a big trim.

Oh, back OT - here's a tree vid...

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lsMEUrEWz8o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[pantheraba]

You have been in some CRAZY big pines...some great shots. That "S" curved tree would drive me nuts.

 

[MasterBlaster]

It was a crane job, so it wasn't so bad.

 

[Bixler]

Here's a vid Cerey Runyon finally released. I was fortunate to learn a large part of our trade working with him.
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Bqg5449qLgQ?list=UUXiMKAMz1u17kJPhj7Yv_TA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Tommy_B]

Did anyone find the Footlocking video that was mentioned? Where the guy had to cut the rope? Would've liked to see that

 

[Burnham]

B, that was an excellent description, thanks. What is the survival rate for the trees? Do all planters have more or less the same survival rate for the trees they plant, or does skill, effort and care of the planter play a big role in survival rate?

I guess obviously tree planting is always done in some pretty bombed out areas. I'm wondering if that wrecked environment is like depressing to work in or is there still a sense of working in the mountains in the great outdoors so that it is kinda nice? Or maybe it is neither, it just is what it is, just a job. I'd probably find it difficult not spending time analyzing the stumps, trying to imagine the forest that was there.

Over the years, on average, we saw 70-75% survival, though the range would be from less than 50% to over 95%. I have no doubt that some individual planters produced better than average, while others did less...but that is pure and simple an anecdotal impression based on a couple of decades+ of watching how one planter handles his seedlings alongside another, bolstered by formal procedures of plot inspections for establishing crew work quality. No research at that micro-level was ever done in the production planting I was involved with.

Here's my take on your other question, Cory. These were most decidedly NOT "bombed out areas", imo. These are lands managed specifically for industrial forestry. Your attitude is the sort of thing foresters in this country buck against every single day of their careers. Trees are a renewable resource, and if you want to grow trees EFFICIENTLY here in the PNW, you clearcut, you manage slash and brush regrowth aggressively, and you put board footage on the market over and over to meet our need for that resource.

I loved seeing a new stand of trees take, on a cut-over unit. I was and remain passionate about our responsibility to utilize our own lands to meet our needs for wood fiber rather than farm those appetites out to third world countries that haven't the wealth enough to balance wise natural resource management requirements against the need to feed their children. It was the farthest thing from depressing to work these sites. And even more so, the work of survival inspections, and stocking level plots. These are the follow-up work that foresters like me do to make sure the ground is satisfactorily reforested. Climbing up and down those same slopes one, three, and five years after sheparding a planting crew over those units was an extremely rewarding part of the work.

Then five or six years later to then run another crew over that same ground, wielding chainsaws and thinning the young stand back to optimum stocking level to set it up to grow vigorous, healthy trees so they were ready for a first commecial thinning. That was always beautiful to see. You have to do this work for more than thirty years to get that feeling, I guess. I'm glad I had the chance.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Excellent post my friend...

I love going back on replanted sites and start the thinning procedure.. watching the healthy trees grow proper in stead of this over growth killing each other right now... Lowering the water table and making more fuel for fire as they do.

Excellent point about the third world forests.

I wish we had a better survival rate in our elevation dry as we are.

 

[cory]

Good stuff, B. I can appreciate the satisfaction gained over time watching the trees come back.

I said bombed out based on what was always left behind when we were done with jobs outside of the Eugene area when I was a choker setter. Obviously the areas were clear cut so the remaining slash and bush and culls always looks like a war zone, to me anyway. And areas that were high leaded were frequently massively dug up where the 6' diameter butts would gouge into the steep hillsides on the way to the landing. It's hard to believe that those sandy 45* slopes could ever grow trees again. It was always 2 steps up, one step back when climbing out of those holes. I was never involved in the reforestation efforts so I was just curious what it is like.

 

[Burnham]

In half a dozen years, those slopes were green with young trees again, my friend. Sure, they look like crap for a season or two, but not for long.

And remember, mature forests support a cadre of species, absolutely...but they don't support a whole different cadre that need open ground dominated by brush species. It all goes around in a big circle, over and over...

 

[MasterBlaster]

The Circle of Life.

 

[Burnham]

Yessir.

 

[cory]

Good to know about the green slopes!

 

[Tucker943]

Here's a few shots of one of my planting crews at work, in a wildfirefire area in this case.

I'd put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger. My back would be TOAST from doing that. Cheers to whoever can do that and not be crippled by it.

 

[Husabud]

Here's a vid Cerey Runyon finally released. I was fortunate to learn a large part of our trade working with him.
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Bqg5449qLgQ?list=UUXiMKAMz1u17kJPhj7Yv_TA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So what was the safe part at 4:10 with both hands on the rear handle of the saw over his head? You seem to have learned better than that.