How would you chainsaw this?

We had a pretty strong storm blow through yesterday. It knocked off a large branch on one of the trees in my zone 4 I guess you could call it. The branch is still attached to the tree. I made a series of up cuts starting from the tip and working my way towards the trunk. Now I’m left with the odd situation of what to do with the section still attached to the trunk. I’ll add a picture for context. I’d say it’d attached about 15ft up. Maybe a little less.

work slowly with a pole saw

what i would do would be.

Get a ladder which reaches up to where the branch is near the trunk of the tree.

Determine where the branch will fall if cut off at the trunk. Maybe use a rope attached to another tree so it can fall away from you.

Get my electric chainsaw and cut as close as i can to the tree trunk. I am trying to avoid leaving pockets for rain to collect, however this most likely wouldn't be terrible either.

use of course all the appropriate Personal protection gear required.

I would also make sure someone else is around to be there in case something goes wrong.

I would certainly save some of the better moss-covered pieces to accent your landscape! Try to determine what direction the pressure is on what's left to cut to minimize chainsaw being pinched. Assuming you want to save what's left of the tree, once you've cleaned it up to the point where it is torn, go back and spray some type of pruning sealer to keep out the bad stuff. Best of luck!

bruce Fine wrote:work slowly with a pole saw

that worked great!

I would be very careful, especially if you use a ladder. If you haven't seen any of the "idiots with chainsaws" videos on youtube, I strongly recommend watching them. They are typically meant to be funny or entertaining, but I believe they are a very good training aid about what not to do. You can see several examples in one place of how tree parts react after being cut off, many of which a person would never suspect if they hadn't seen it beforehand. Many of them involve a person cutting off a large branch from a ladder. What they don't expect is that when the branch falls off, the leafy end hits the ground and then the cut end swings down and takes out the ladder, leaving them with nothing but ten feet of air under them holding a running chainsaw!

If you have a tractor (or probably even a truck would do) I would consider just tying on to the fallen part with a long rope, chain, or cable and pulling it off safely from a distance. I think if you pull it at sharp angle to how it split, it will likely tear off shorter rather than splitting farther down the tree. Ideally, I would want a rope longer than the tree is tall, in case it breaks off at the roots and the whole thing topples toward you. I think this would be the safest route.


Edit: I posted too late! Good job getting it down safely!