In this video, Luke from Haas Tree Care shares his experience with structure pruning, which has numerous benefits for your tree. Learn more about Haas Tree Care and these videos at this link.
Every tree has a story, and this one is rather unique.
We received a call from a homeowner who was concerned about their silver maple tree falling onto their home and the neighbors. They had been meaning to make the call for a couple years, but never found the time.
After inspecting the tree, we recommended the tree be fully removed as it had formed severe included bark, which literally causes the tree to push apart. Unfortunately, the tree was right along the property line and the only route for any of the brush and wood was in the neighbors yard. Luckily, the neighbor would allow us to use his yard if the homeowners decided to remove the tree. In the estimate for the removal, we wanted to be clear that the tree was a hazard and should be taken care of ASAP, even if it was not by us. Shortly after we sent the estimate, we received confirmation that they wanted to contract us for the job and we scheduled it immediately.
We were lucky to have a fair weather day to begin removing this giant. We made sure that we protected the small pine that was growing under the back half of the tree by placing a 30 gallon drum over it. The removal process was going great and we were on pace to finish up the same day, until sparks starting flying out of the stem while we were cutting the last parts of the tree.
At this point, we had all our gear out of the tree and the cut was being made from the ground. We were using our large 36″ saw when the sparks began to fly and whatever was in the tree wrecked the chain. It’s not uncommon to find nails, cable or old eye bolts in a tree, so we decided to make a cut about 8″ lower hoping to avoid whatever we just hit. Once again, sparks flew and another chain was wrecked. The cut was almost complete, so we grabbed another saw and cut lower yet and sparks flew once again, wrecking chain number 3.
After several attempts to break the piece loose with the loader, we decided to cut a little more, hoping to miss whatever was in the tree, but just like the previous 3 attempts, we wrecked chain number 4. Fortunately, we were able to break the piece off the stem. Of course, we were intrigued to see what had caused so many sparks, but we couldn’t seem to find anything on the stem and with light quickly fading, we decided to pack up our gear and come back at a later date.
When we arrived back, we were greeted by the neighbor and he pointed out a chunk of concrete that was found while the firewood was being processed. We just caught the bottom corner of it, but it was enough to damage many chains. Concrete in trees used to be a common practice, with the thought being that is would “seal” wounds in the tree from moisture and animals entering, stopping the spread of decay. Unfortunately for us, the tree had grown around the concrete, leaving no trace of any wound or concrete.
After the stump was finally cut off, we discovered that one of the limbs going over the homeowners house had a rotten center and the tree in fact was actually beginning to split due to the included bark. Based on the rings we could count, this tree was around 100 years old. Thankfully, we were able to sacrifice a few chains to protect two different homes!
