Pine Removal – Before and After

Yesterday we removed 2 white pines and some hardwoods that were smothering a house.  Look how much sun the house is getting with the trees gone!

Black Mountain Hurricane Damage

Hurricane Irene dropped this nasty spruce tree onto  Black Mountain’s lift line in Jackson.  The tree top wound into the fiber optics ($15,000 each) that service Verizon’s cell tower making for a challenging removal!

Tools of the Trade

I like to inspect my gear before the summer season gets under way and today was the day.  Anything missing?

Pine vs. Roof…

These photos are from a job several years ago in Intervale.  I think they demonstrate, rather forcefully, why you should think twice about keeping tall pines around your house.  Luckily no one was home because the branches went through the roof, through the attic and into the bedroom!  Furthermore, the tree appeared healthy and sound and failed without warning during a winter storm.

Video Series: Tree Felling with Tim Ard

This is a series of videos featuring Tim Ard of Forest Applications Training. Tim is a renowned sawyer and teacher and presents only the safest and most up to date chainsaw techniques. We recommend you watch these videos if you run a chainsaw at home and want to improve your skills and confidence.

New Website

Welcome to the new Saco Treeworks website!  As some of you know, we have been online for several years and are proud to have launched the first treework website in the valley in 1996.  Our old site was well received by customers, however it was designed by an arborist and not a web designer so it was difficult to update and maintain. With help from 6288 Designs we were able to build a new site with more features and room for expansion.  In addition to a standard company overview, we are pleased to be adding an improved photo gallery, a video gallery and a news section.  We hope to keep the site interesting by featuring current work and highlighting interesting regional tree stories (see News section).  Our website has helped us attract, inform and communicate with customers in the past and we hope to do that even better in the future. We will be tinkering with new site over the next few months so please feel free to contact us with any comments or suggestions.

Book Review: To Fell a Tree

The first chainsaw was sold in 1929 yet the first good book on how to use one wasn’t published until last year.  Jeff Jepson’s new book, To Fell a Tree, is absolutely the best work written on the subject.  Sure, there have been others like D. Douglas Dent’s Professional Timber Falling and G.R. Beranek’s The Fundamentals of General Treework, but those are way too advanced for the casual reader.  Then, there’s Frank and Stephen Philbrick’s The Backyard Lumberjack that is so riddled with bad techniques and misinformation I would not force it on my worst enemy.  In To Fell a Tree, Jepson expertly presents the elements of treework from equipment and situational awareness to felling, limbing and bucking.  He includes all the newest techniques like bore cutting and has a useful section on pulling trees using mechanical advantage. Most importantly, it is fun to read and lavishly illustrated by ISA certified arborist Bryan Kotwica. Unlike other books on treework, To Fell a Tree appeals to both beginner and expert alike and is a must have for anyone running a chainsaw.

Also, check out Jepson’s other book, The Tree Climber’s Companion, which, not surprisingly, is the best tree climbing book available.

Herbie the Elm

There is nothing as stately in the tree world as the American Elm, Ulmus americana. Unfortunately, there is also nothing as vulnerable.  Elms that once lined Main Streets across New England are largely gone and most people today cannot even identify an elm.  This post is about Herbie, New England’s oldest elm, who, after surviving 14 bouts of Dutch Elm Disease, finally succumbed.  It is also about Frank Knight, 101, who, on a diet of beer and raw spinich, has been taking care of Herbie for the past half-century.

Click here for the full story.

Where to Buy Arborist Equipment

Customers sometimes ask me where I purchase equipment.  Like most arborists, I am obsessed with gear and can spend hours chatting about what to buy and where to buy it.  When it comes to chainsaws I buy everything locally.  There are Stihl, Husqvarna and Jonsereds dealers in the Mount Washington Valley and I recommend them all depending what brand of saw you want.  As to which brand is the best…you’ll have to ask me in person.  These dealers carry all the tools you need to keep your saws tuned and sharp and can outfit you with the latest safety equipment.

While I like to shop locally when possible, most specialized arborist equipment is simply not available here. Luckily there are several excellent online arborist suppliers who carry everything from ropes and saddles to pruners and handsaws.  I have listed my favorites below:

Nice Ash!

An enormous white ash, Fraxinus americana, is growing beside our house.  It is so large that two lanky people holding hands cannot reach around it.  Unfortunately for us it is hollow and partly split open, but luckily it leans away from our (new) house.  It is the biggest ash i have seen so i did a little research to find out if it is a champion tree.  A champion tree is the largest tree of a particular species in a given area, and yes, someone actually does keep track of this information.  The University of New Hampshire cooperative extension keeps tabs on  big trees around the state and ranks the champions in each county.  Unfortunately my ash did not make the cut, but you can view the list and  nominate a big tree of your own at the big tree program website!