Trees

Trees are not towers. Living things are engineered by billions of years of selection for survival, not by design. I have some expertise with one but not the other. Since trees grow and surround us, and can be very attractive and desirable, we admire them most of the time. Other times they are a curse. This was one of those times.

When the wind blows I don't worry too much about my many towers and antennas. They've been engineered to survive. Trees may not fare as well. On my 50 acres there are thousands of trees. A few are used to support antennas, particularly several Beverage receive antennas.

Other trees are unremarked until they age, die and fall. That's dangerous when they're near towers and antennas. Tall trees do the most damage. When they break near the roots they measure their full height on the ground. Despite steel being stronger than wood, the momentum can and will destroy engineered steel structures.

This spring I cut down several large trees that threatened the house and garage, and a few smaller ones that were unwanted or that threatened wire antennas. Yesterday we had a wind storm with 100 kph gusts that took down several large trees. One antenna got in the way. 

I knew what to expect when the reversible Beverage worked poorly in its normal direction but not at all in the reverse direction. That's the most obvious symptom of a cut wire or crossed wires in a reversible Beverage. Even lying on the ground the now unterminated Beverage becomes bi-directional. It can't work in the reverse direction because the twinned wires no longer act as a transmission line.

There isn't enough resolution in the picture to see that both wires of the northeast-southwest Beverage are trapped under the fallen tree. Obviously both wires snapped, but at different locations some distance from the tree -- wires break where they are more vulnerable to the sharp spike of tension. It was only the day before that I splices one of those wires when a branch I was cutting from a dead tree at the other end of the antenna, over 100 meters away, fell across the Beverage.

I returned with a chainsaw and material to splice the antenna. In a minute the rotten wood was cut into several lengths and tossed aside. There were more dead trees in the boggy ground (there's a large swamp just beyond the trees in the picture) that I had to leave until I have a partner to pull the tree away from the antenna while it is cut. It is very difficult to perform both actions simultaneously. Never do it solo unless there is nothing of importance in the fall zone.

There were already 4 wire splices in the area due to all those trees and the occasional deer skirting the swamp. Preventive tree clearing doesn't catch every potential problem short of clear cutting. I took the opportunity to replace several spliced sections with new wire. Since tick season has already begun I worked early in the morning when it was cold and the bugs were asleep.

Another challenge with trees is that they grow in diameter. They do it by building new layers on the outside. Over time they envelope attachments such as nails and screws. The simple cleats made from nails were exposed less and less over time until they become unusable. The nails are difficult to extract so it is easier to use new ones. This antenna, originally a uni-directional Beverage, was installed over 8 years ago. There wasn't much nail left (see the lower nails in the above left photo -- the other old nails were hammered flat).

The Beverage is high enough that many repair jobs require a ladder. The Beverage would work at a lower height but that would put it in the path of deer and the occasional hunter (the latter with my permission). 

The picture on the above right gives an idea of how splicing is done. It can be complicated because the wire must first be loosened so that there is enough slack for the wire ends to be twisted together. Then they are once again drawn tight. A lot of walking must be done if the break is far from a termination -- this Beverage is 175 meters long.

At right is another tree that came down in the storm. This one was midway along the north-south RG6 reversible Beverage. The tree was blazed last fall to mark it for removable. It decided not to wait for me and my chainsaw. 

I got lucky in this case as I have before. The tree fell away from the Beverage rather than into it. It was a big tree that dislodged limbs and saplings, some of which landed on the coax. No damage was done. I'll clean up the mess later.

Felling big trees before they cause damage is not a job for the timid or fools. I have quite a few of these trees that I've been methodically removing over the past months. There is one near the power line that crosses my property that I'll leave for the utility crew to deal with.

One large dead maple threatened the garage and also hovered above the two overhead coax cables running from the tree line to the garage and house. Those are above ground to keep them from being a hazard to walkers. This was not an area where they could easily be buried.

I dropped the two coax runs to the ground in early winter since there would be little foot traffic and the snow would provide protection. I then cut several large limbs to make felling it less of a danger. Only then did I attack the trunk. Well-placed chainsaw cuts, cables and a winch directed major limbs to where I wanted them to fall. Falling trees that large are very difficult to direct by muscle and a rope. I don't recommend trying it. It took a long time to clean up the remains, brush and good firewood. 

Although I have a lot to say on this blog about towers, I will not do the same for dealing with large trees. The reason is that I'm an amateur. I am not qualified to give directions or advice. I am leaving out a lot of detail! For example, the huge maple I felled in the above sequence of pictures taken by my valued assistant for this job, Alan VE3KAE. He has more tree sense than I do.

On the left I am making the initial cuts. Two are made to make a wedge opening on the side where I want the tree to fall. The felling cut is then made on the opposite side. It helps that the tree is already leaning in the direction I want it to fall. If that were not true, well, you need an expert not an amateur for the job! As I said earlier in the article, a human (or a few) armed with a rope cannot direct the fall of a tree this large.

The middle picture is the "cut and run" phase of the operation. My spotter is updating me on the state of lean by monitoring the motion of the upper limbs. The cut widens very little at this stage so don't use that as an indicator. There were a couple of false alarms, but it is better to be cautious. 

If you expand the picture you'll see that there are several cuts well above ground where I previously removed large limbs. That was done to have the remaining weight lean the tree towards the falling side and to reduce damage to other trees (those I want to save). A tree this large is both wide and tall.

Finally down it goes. When it's on the ground you can see how tall it was. We were sure to move our vehicles out of the path before starting the job. That dead maple, although far from the buildings, still fell close to the garage and would have either struck parked vehicles or showered them with large limbs that broke up when it hit the ground. Damage to the stone wall surrounding the yard could not be entirely avoided. 

The trunk and large limbs of the trees I felled are being turned into firewood. They are cut into lengths, stacked and dried, and will eventually be split. That's a lot of chainsaw work but it isn't very difficult. The worst is the multitude of small branches that have no use. They can be piled up and (very slowly) composted or piled up and burned. I have two piles like the one on the right. It's almost 10' (3 m) high. I have lots of space deposit the refuse where no one is inconvenienced but no good place to safely burn the brush.

To end this article I'll show one more tree -- it's the large one near the right of the picture that is leaning left. The tree supports the head end of the northeast-southwest Beverage. It's an otherwise unremarkable tree, until it died about a year ago. The lean has since increased a small amount.

Unfortunately there's a guy anchor for my 150' tower not far enough away were the tree to fall directly towards the anchor or, worse, onto the guys. That might or might not bring down the tower. When I did my initial site plan for the station and surveyed the area to place the tower I thought this would be a safe distance. The trees had other ideas and grew higher and higher.

I've lopped off several lower limbs and I am starting of the on the larger ones higher up. The objective is to lessen the area of the fall zone and to reduce its momentum if it does happen to strike the guys when it's cut down. I'll leave about 8' standing since I have no other convenient anchor point for the Beverage.

This work is dangerous if not done correctly. I'll climb a tower alone but I will not fell large trees without at least one knowledgable helper. As I stated at the beginning of the article, I won't go into details since this is not my expertise. If all goes well, that tree will be safely down in the coming days. However, the job will be delayed if there are any doubts as to safety. The tree is not yet decrepit and will last until the fall when I resume tree work. 

Update May 5, 2025:

The tree threatening the guys is down. Alan VE3KAE and I took it down after we completed work on one of the towers. There were other tower jobs to be done that day but this fit better with the weather and the available time. He took the following picture after the felling.

Notice that several large limbs were removed before the main trunk was cut. That lowered the momentum of the falling tree. Cutting it high up shortened its reach on the ground to what we deemed acceptable. The upper branches struck the guys, as I knew they would. They have little strength so they shook the guys but were incapable to doing any damage. The Beverage terminating on the tree was unharmed.

Where I cut the main trunk the diameter was about 9" (23 cm). As before I will demur on details other than to mention that the ladder and I were very well secured so that I could devote both hands to operating the chainsaw. Don't try a job like this on your own. If you don't have an experienced person on hand, please hire a professional.

I can rest easy with this risk defused. The rest of the trunk above the Beverage will be cut in the fall. Other trees have been marked for their potential risk in coming years as they grow higher. In the meantime my pile of firewood is growing.