Clearing Trees

By George Dodson


Paul Bunyan was the topic of a great tale parents used to tell us. Paul had a big blue ox named Babe. This tale was so famous that it inspired people to design restaurants in the Pacific Northwest.

Paul was nearly 20 feet tall and one thing he was good at was felling trees. You can imagine with a splitting of that giant acts that felling a tree was fairly easy. Of course those who chop down trees these days are not 20 feet tall and they do not create lakes to water their livestock.

There is an art, rather a technique in chopping down a tree properly. You don't grab the axe and head for the forest. Trees come in all sizes. You don't want to be chopping on a giant fir tree with an axe. Doing the above will take lot of your time and energy with poor results. How is felling a tree done?

The first thing that you must consider is the fact that trees are a danger if you are doing more than watching them. Depending on the size of the tree, most trees are very wet and slippery. That's why loggers special boots.

Many trees that you might want to fell are big and weight a lot. When they come down they can cause great injury if you don't bring them down properly.

It is required that you have the correct gear not forgetting a helmet. Your day can be ruined with a tree limb falling from 30 or 40 feet high.

You need to make sure that you get the right tool for the right job in this case a chopping axe is preferred to a splitting axe. If you don't know the difference find out.

Settle on the direction you want the tree to fall ensuring that it does not fall on people or property.

begin by creating a wedge facing the direction that you want the tree to fall. Begin by chipping out the tree in a wedge shaped design until you get a vee cut on the tree side. Afterwards, you should get to the other side of the tree cutting out another vee above the other vee. Continue chopping out pieces while watching the tree. Though you want it to fall in the direction of the cut, most of the time this is not the case. If it starts leaning towards you, make sure to get out of the way. That means clearing yourself away from the tree stump itself. As the tree falls, it might kick up on the end causing you injury while doing so.

Listen to a groaning sound while you are felling a tree as this signifies its weakening. As soon as the tree begins to fall in the direction you want, clear away from the stump a safe distance until it is completely down.




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