I feel silly posting this question here, but I've been to a couple suppliers and tried joining a Firefighter's Forum and can't because I'm not a firefighter. So here it goes:

We have a summer place up in the mountains surrounded by old growth pine trees, many of which are 200'+ tall, others in the 30-75 foot range. Per the US Forest Service and our Insurer, we have to remove all branches under about 12 feet from the ground. Apparently those little branches, suckers sort of, catch fire easily, while the large main trunks are more fire resistant. We had a forest fire up there last week, a bad one, and had a couple hundred firefighters up there, using pole pruners by Stihl, a chain saw on a stick. They were too busy for me to ask, but it seems I need one of these (and one of their McLeoud rakes), and wanted to see if any homeowners have these and if so what brands.

Stihl makes three basic professional brands, a 12' and two 18' extension type pole saws, and a fourth 9' homeowner variety which does not telescope. The homeowner type seems enough for me. Other manufacturers have battery operated versions. This isn't anything I will be using all day long, perhaps a couple hours at a time, a few times a year. So either the small homeowner Stihl or perhaps a battery operated one might be good enough. The branches I will be sawing are no larger than 4" in diameter and most are an inch or two.

Does anyone here have a pole pruner, a chainsaw on a stick? If so, what brand and what do you like or dislike about it?

Thanks in advance, guys.