Fall pruning--the willow comes down

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Posted by Michael L Umphrey on 11/04 at 06:51 PM
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This was sort of sad. The weeping willow in our yard lost a huge branch this summer, leaving the main trunk fatally flawed. It was going to come down eventually, so we decided we better do it in a way that we could control where it fell. The section we cut down was 50 feet tall, and the part that’s left standing is almost 30 feet, so it was--BIG!


The first step was to get a chain around the truck so we could make sure the tree fell in the right direction. That required a new 32-foot ladder. Michael K got the chain in place, then I back-cut the trunk about a third of the way through, to make sure we could pull it over.



We hooked a hundred-foot cable onto the chain, then pulled, and pulled, and pulled. Then climbed back up the ladder and cut more of the trunk.



After several tries, Eldon and Michael and John got in the pickup to help with traction. This time it came. . .and fell in exactly the right place.



The “stump” that’s left is still over 25 feet tall--quite a large tree--but not so much in comparison to what it was. 






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