Monday, August 17, 2009

Bye bye big beech

Remember that huge tree I mentioned in my last post? Well, if came down today (with help).

Four amazing guys from Specialized Tree Service came out this morning and helped "put down" the big beech tree. Mike, the owner of STS, told me this was a very tricky (and risky) tree to take down. The break in the tree was up about 30 feet, with about 60+ feet (and almost 4000 pounds) of branch/trunk waiting to fall.

Seems, too, it wasn't struck by lightning. The storm was strong enough that it pushed the tree around so much that the stress was overpowering and one side broke at the crotch (where the tree split into two "branches"). It probably wouldn't have been that big 'a deal if there weren't power lines right in the trees path if it fell. But we also had to consider that 4000 pounds of tree is seriously dangerous to anyone (humans/dogs/other animals) who might be around if it did fall.

Felling this tree was so systematic. Nothing was left to chance and these guys put it down exactly where they wanted to. Before making a move they played the "what if" game to determine the best course of action. In the end, the tree came down in mere moments, all piled up on itself with no one hurt and nothing getting damaged.

To see my full set of photos, click here.

1 comment:

Debi said...

We had three huge trees taken down and watching those guys work was amazing! Very sad to lose our trees but an amazing process to watch.