Big Madrone

[Bob Smalser]

Another boring day at work….a 60” DBH Pacific Madrone or Arbutus. Two hundred and forty years growing in full sun on the beach. For those unfamiliar with this West Coast understory tree, it likes gravel soil in the forest or forest edge and twists as it grows to reach for the sun…straight-grained ones like this monarch are rare. The wood has the texture and behavior of beech and Yellow Birch but is significantly harder and heavier…the few straight boards make wonderful flooring and it’s popular with turners.

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By the time I get there with the Peterbilt, Joe and crew have it pretty much topped and ready to fall.

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Mark and Joe make the face cut…

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…the tree falls under control of the hinge onto a bed of logs prepared for it…

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…and slides further down the beach away from the stump than we planned, creating a challenge moving and loading 8-foot, 8500lb logs with a 6000lb machine barely capable of picking up one end at a time on logs this heavy….hydraulic loaders have maximum power close in, not at full extension. As we are at weight limits for both loading and hauling, Mark cuts the buttress back to sound wood, as the extra weight versus the waste of rotten pith isn’t worth it.

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The crew compensates by rigging cable chokers and chains to keep within the machine’s powerband, as this wood is heavy.

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We try a couple different tricks to ootch the whole logs onto the back of the Pete…the log loader is on the cabover Freightliner on the left with the Pete backed in close…but finally decide to rip the logs into halves the loader will handle easily. The tree is on a construction site and the mission isn’t to spend time saving a few BF but to finish the removal job today.

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Lower log is on the Pete and the 3’ stump section is being swung onto the Freightliner.

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There’s a load that goes around 10 tons….right at my weight limit….and while the crew grinds the stump and chips the remaining waste, I drive home and prepare the logs and the mill for action as the crew will drop by after breakfast tomorrow to see how the first boards look.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Love the color of the wood. Does it retain that color when it's dried?
Beautiful tree!

[Dick Parr]

Very nice play by play and pics. Remember to follow-up with more pics of the finished boards. :D

[Tyler Howell]

My New found all purpose responce, Hubba Hubba!!

[Maurice Ungaro]

Bob,
Gorgeous stuff! Nice documentation and a heck of job. However, the commy land use planner in me wonders why the heck such a specimen tree would be removed off of a waterfront site - the tree only added to the value of the property. Now, the house will just have a blank, unadulterated view of the water....boring.....

Anyway, I know you and your crew were just doing a job. Look forward to seeing the pics of the milled boards.

Maurice

[Bob Smalser]

"...the commy land use planner in me wonders why the heck such a specimen tree would be removed off of a waterfront site - the tree only added to the value of the property. Now, the house will just have a blank, unadulterated view of the water....boring....."

Look at the srump section's termite-ridden pith with rot moving upward at the rate of ywo-three feet a year. The Forest Biologist in me says that tree is at the end of its life and will die in a couple decades. Much as I encourage the retention and even creation of standing snags for habitat, one this large next to house sites full of children is irresponsible. Better remove it while the beauty of the wood can live on elsewhere.

The tree was also on private land, of course, and wasn't public property.

But into each life a little rain must fall:

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“Naw….those fresh batteries for the metal detector can wait until lunch….after all, this is an upper log I’m milling.”

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[Jim Becker]

Beautiful stuff, Bob. While I agree with you that this tree probably needed removed due to it's location and changing condition, it still brings sadness...which I guess is a good reaction to have. Live trees are a wonder. But as you say, the redeeming factor is that this wood will not go to waste and will continue to enhance our world in different forms.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Bob,

Nice pics, and good call on the tree.

Maurice

[Chris Padilla]

The neighborhood that I live in San Jose is collectively called Thousand Oaks Park (don't confuse it with the city in SoCal in the LA area). It has many 200-300 year old (Heritage?) oak trees. I happen to have one in my back yard and it's trunk diameter is at least 3 feet and it really makes our home very special. It's canopy nearly covers the whole back yard and the temperature difference in the summer under it and not under it can be as high as 12º F!!

I've often thought how sad and lonely (and open) our backyard would be should this tree need to be removed. It would certainly yield some serious wood but due to the angle it leans at, it would be fairly reactionary. I think there was a decent flood in San Jose Valley 150 years ago as most of the oak trees lean in the same direction.

However, it is nice to see some good-looking boards and use come about from the tree...thanks always for your informative posts, Bob! Glad to have you aboard the USS SMC! :)

[Frank Pellow]

This is a great sequence of pictures. Just yesterday, my 4 year old granddaughter and I were discussing how boards are made from trees, how trees like all other living trees have a limited lifespan, and how it is best to cut a tree just before it starts to deteriorate so that we can use the boards from the tree to make things.

This is a wonderful example of that process and I will show her the pictures when she next visits us.

[Bob Smalser]

Most communities with local codes on trees and open space have a procedure for "danger trees" that involves an assessment from a Certified Arborist, Forester or Forest/Habitat Biologist followed by a permit and often an on-site inspection by the local government forestry official. This rural area on Hood Canal in an unincorporated area of the county has fewer restrictions....common sense prevails for a change.

I've participated in the process, as have the two arborists in the pics. This tree would have been an issue, as we all would agree that it has 2 or 3 decades more life left until it becomes a true danger....but then most of the wood wouldn't be usable for anything but firewood...

...that's the dilemma of such codes.

I counsel landowners that when a clearing is made in the forest for a house site, all the large forest trees within striking range of the house need to come down before construction, as their root systems didn't develop under the stress of the wind coming from that new clearing and they'll be dangerous. I recommend replacing them with native understory trees of manageable size that also add biological diversity to what is normally a too-thick, fire-suppressed, second-growth DF-WH-WWP forest of limited diversity.

That counsel isn't often well-received by non-natives who retire here because of their love of big trees, but invariably, all those that reject the professional advice they paid for take all those trees (and more) down anyway after their first stormy winter in that new house...

...only at much, much greater cost...both in arborists fees for chunking them down within mere yards of an expensive house and in the logs wasted to chunks....logs that would have served a more environmentally-sound purpose had they been harvested properly when the lot was originally developed.

[Bob Smalser]

...how trees like all other living trees have a limited lifespan, and how it is best to cut a tree just before it starts to deteriorate so that we can use the boards from the tree to make things. This is a wonderful example of that process and I will show her the pictures when she next visits us.

Here's another excellent example previously posted:


Falling a Big Fir

Joe Emel. 47. From an old logging and pioneer family here…French Canadian and Scandinavian origins. High Climber. Arborist. Good friend. Son Joey on a full academic ride at Univ Idaho in Forestry…with a minor in Wetlands Science, perhaps because of my humble counsel.

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Danger tree… developing root rot and too close to the house. 52” Diameter at Breast Height (DBH)…180’ tall…already limbed and topped and bed prepared for falling.

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Face Cut…People and dogs out of the house and moved to a safe distance…

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Back Cut and Driving Wedges…that’s a falling axe for wedging the tree down in helper Billy’s hands…

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Finishing Hinge and the bole tips.

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Falling! (I was too close and the camera shook.) Boom!

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Bucking and Trimming… notice the hinge was cut fatter on the side away from the house? Think thru how the tree was wedged down (not cut down completely) and you'll understand why.

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Loading for the Trip to the Mill

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The tree was a disappointment…and it went to the commercial mill at the request of the owner. Construction wood. Sun-grown, rough (big knots) 100 year old second growth….4-6 rings per inch on inside and 8 rings per inch on outside. Dimensional structural lumber from the lower logs and beams from the rough upper logs.

Wasn’t a forest tree….the coastal strip was logged beginning in 1850 from the water…that’s Hood Canal in the background…and the subsequent full-sun and full-wind trees are wide-ringed, pitch-pocketed and rough.

The second one we did later in the day...slightly smaller but much better...I'm moving the mill to...and will post pics in the future of milling the logs for 85-year-old Earl Johnson on shares. If you've never made boards starting from a standing tree, you may find it interesting.

Copyright 2003. Bob Smalser, Habitat Biologist, Sprague Pond Wildlife Refuge, Camp Union, Washington.




Below are some FAQ's that resulted from the original message board posts:

Q: Why did you kill that beautiful tree?

A: Look at the lower right log on the truck...an upper crown log...that discoloration is Phellinus weirii (Poria Root Rot )...and the crown was dying. The entire pith would have rotted in another 20 years...and then it truly would have been hazardous to take down.

Bang your questionable trees hard with your falling axe and make some plunge cuts to test soundness, first....if they barber-chair on you during the face cut while you are on your knees, you may not live to meet your grandchildren. Better, smarter and safer to take the tree down and market the logs to offset the arborist costs...and also provide somebody somewhere some lumber that would have had to come from a healthy tree someplace anyway.

[Chris Padilla]

Education, Bob, education...and we thank you for yours to us! :)

[Robert Ducharme]

Those first boards are very pretty - HOWEVER, THEY ARE NOT IN MY SHOP :(

I am not even certain there is a hardwood tree in colorado much less where I live, WATCH out for the midnight chainsaw artist :D

[Chris Padilla]

Robert,

It is unusual, but what about trying to obtain some Aspen lumber? Kirk (KC) Constable is the mesquite man...you could be the aspen man! :)

[Robert Ducharme]

You know what they say about aspen, - it is all a single tree with one root and branches waving above the ground. I would be afraid that if I hurt one (chopped it down), the other ones would surround the house and do evil things. :eek:

Besides, the only aspen I see are about 3 inches thick - I would have to glue them up so much I might as well make cabinets out of layers of glue. :rolleyes:

[Chris Padilla]

Robert,

I've seen some 10-14" diameter trees but they are kinda rare and they are usually WTF up there (like above Trail Ridge Road! :) ) and probably not easy to get to. Still, Wolf here says he really likes carving aspen but he can't get it too often.