Grand Old Oak of Cottage Grove

I saw this tree In Cottage Grove while out on an estimate. My client told me to stop by the Mormon Church on my what out of town, and look for the big Oak. I drove around the parking lot and then saw it standing on the south east corner. Although not the tallest Oak I have seen, it defiantly is the thickest. It is an amazing specimen! I am 6'3 with a +3 ape index, and the diameter is much more then that, as you can see in the pictures. My advice to all my readers is to keep your eyes open and take note of the trees around you. You might find something amazing in your back yard.

Big Trees Falling Down.

Trees have to be cut down. In the urban environment we cannot just let them fall down on there own. Although sometimes they still do.

I have had the opportunity to fell some large trees this fall. I enjoy doing the process of felling a large tree properly. In all of the videos below I have a rope set at the top of the tree connected to 5:1 pulley system. This insures the tree goes right where I want it to go. As you can see this works very well.

Big Jobs, Little Jobs, and New Jobs

The summer of 2009 has been a very productive one for the Community Arborist. Jobs of all sizes have abounded. There has been big Douglas Fir take downs, fine pruning of oaks, maples, and elms. I have expanded my services to include installing trees and other plants in landscapes, stump grinding, and also Cabling to aid in preservation of existing trees.

The Largest Job had to be the Douglas Fir I removed that soared over 150 ft tall!!! I spent a total of about two days climbing the tree. Day one I limbed and topped out the tree. Every branch had to rigged out, because of a new fence, and a Madrone tree. The next day I ascended to the top and it took me 20minutes. Then I took the tree apart piece by piece.

This tree was an Urban Giant, not a forest tree. Removal became a neccesity after construction of a new driveway cut the roots on the south side of the tree. It was a shame to lose this unieque tree. Check out this slide show and video to get an understanding of how massive this tree was.

Poor Quality Tree Work in my Neighborhood

In my neighborhood, there has been some very low quality tree work happening. I have taken a few pictures and one video to demonstrate how NOT to do tree work. First, we have a small Mimosa tree that has been topped. This is the most abhorrent of all forms of tree mutilations. For this tree, it is not the first time it happened, note the sunburn on the top side of the branches. I myself will not go into details about topping but I will let the International Society of Arboriculture tell you why Topping Is Bad.


Second, we have two London Plane Trees that had many lower branches stubbed off. Not only is the cutting of the trees bad, but my wife, Quincy, witnessed the cutting happening. She said there were two dudes on 30ft extension ladders with out any Personal Protection Equipment ie; helmets, eye protection, or any sort of fall protection. The ladder was not tied to the tree in any way and the dudes were just up there hacking away with cheap bow style saws. These guys are lucky not to have hurt them selves. Here are the results.



Finally, we have a picture and short video taken from my back yard of a Thundercloud Plum being taken down. To set this up, it was a Sunday morning and my family was getting ready for church. We had heard a chainsaw running nearby for a little while. Both Quincy and myself noticed about the same time that the chainsaw had been running full throttle for a very long time. We both turned to each other and said something to the effect of 'Wow, they are really going for it out there.' At that point curiosity got the best of me and I looked out my back door to see this.



Now, let us count the number of violations of OSHA safety guidelines here: 1- No helmet, sorry the baseball cap does not count. 2- No eye protection, again the baseball cap does not count. 3,- No hearing protection 4- OSHA dictates that a tree worker must be have two separate tie in points while operating a chainsaw in a tree. Dude is not secured to the tree in any fashion. Now on to the video.




I said earlier that the chainsaw had been running full throttle for some time and that is because it was so dull. This cut was started, and I had time to run and get the camera, take a still picture, and then take a 20 second video before he make it through a 6 in. diameter cut. In the still picture you can really see the smoke coming off the bar. So many things could have gone wrong and he was only 6ft. off the ground. There was no directional cut to guide the falling branch. With out that cut his saw could have been caught in the kerf of the cut and pulled him out of the tree. This was scary for me to watch.

So, in conclusion always hire an Arborist! A person with the tools, knowledge and experience to perform the work safely, and in the best interest of the tree. Do not sacrifice the integrity of your trees, and the safety of an under qualified tree worker to save a little money. It is not worth it! For more reasons to hire an arborist visit this site http://www.treesaregood.com.

A fine young Feller.

Here is a quick video of myself felling a dead Noble Fir South of Eugene in Cottage Grove. The tree went a little to the left and smashed one smaller Incense Cedar.
I was the first big tree I have been able to fell in on piece in a long time. I had fun setting up a 3 to 1 Pulley System to pull it over. We did break a branch up high in the tree about halfway through the video so watch for that. Enjoy the destruction.

New Services Offered by The Community Arborist

I am an Arborist dedicated to better serving my surrounding community through innovation and adaptation. So I am proud to offer two new services; installing deer antlers in trees and rescuing cats stuck in trees.

First new service; Installing deer antlers in trees. This is done to prevent damage to branches and trunk by squirrels. Squirrels are rodents, this means their teeth never stop growing. So rodents will chew on just about anything to keep their teeth from getting to big for their mouths. In the case of squirrels that means chewing on the trees in your back yard. I have witnessed branches chewed more than half way through in Oak trees, trunks of Douglas firs striped all the way around. These injuries weaken the tree making them more prone to a dangerous failure, or death.

Now I know some of my sillier readers might be picturing me mounting a full rack of antlers in a Maple, but that is not how it is. The antlers are cut into 6-8in. lengths with a hole drilled through. After a climbing inspection of the tree I will isolate where squirrels have chewed in the past and install the antlers there. I will us aluminum nails to prevent the nails from rusting away and having antlers dropping from the sky. From my experience squirrels prefer chewing the antlers and will leave the trees alone. One time while cutting down a Douglas Fir I actually found a rib that a squirrel had hauled up into the and had been chewing on.

Here are a few pictures of some chewed on branches. Some are from an Oregon White Oak I recently cut down, and from the Crimson King Maple in my back yard. Last of all there is a picture of an antler installed in my back yard Maple.






Second new service; Cat Rescue. I was inspired to start doing cat rescue by one of the best tree climbers of Pacific Northwest, Dan Kraus. He has been the World Champion Tree Climber and has offered cat rescue since 1999. Since then he has rescued over 600 cats plus an assortment of pet birds, orphaned baby squirrels, model airplanes and pet iguanas. Learn more about Dan Kraus @ http://www.catinatreerescue.com. So I guess I should not limit my services to cats but expand it to any thing stuck in a tree. I have preformed one kite rescue but that is a blog post in it's self.

Don's Doug Fir

On January 15th I had the engaged in the removal of a Douglas Fir. Like most Douglas Firs in the urban environment it had grown to big for it's surroundings. The tree was so wide that it completely shaded out the small orchard on the north side of it. Fruit production had all but stopped in the last few years.
Here is a slide show of the removal all the pictures were taken from the same spot. It show the process very well. I am also pleased to report that the fence and the fruit trees were not harmed during the removal of this tree.