Sudden death of White Oak?

[B737]

i saw signs of black inside the 20" or so, but i assumed it was black from the chainsaw
https://flic.kr/p/2jspZVx

 

[ayak]

Was that all the hinge they had left on that takedown cut, or did they clean it up some?

 

[B737]

haha that was it! that part was about 4' high. it was leaning hard in that direction already though

i assumed the darkness in the middle was from the chainsaw...

 

[Tornado]

Your thread has jinxed me B737. This weekend I discovered I have another large, 70 foot tall pine tree that has been hit with what Im pretty sure is southern pine beetles, and it is dieing. The needles will likely go red in the next few days. My heart just fell into my stomach when I realized it. It means I have to go rent that man lift again. This pine is about 25' from the house, and it has a slight lean toward the house so if it falls I know exactly where its going. Im so fed up at this point with these pines that when I rent this man lift this next time Im taking down every single pine within striking distance of my house. Thats gonna be like 15 trees, all of them huge, and will turn my property into a disaster site until I can clean it up slowly with the L2501, but I am so sick of these pines dieing right near my house. They cause me so much anxiety. I've been in a sour mood all weekend since noticing the issue with this tree. I think a large part of the anxiety is that these trees are just so freaking massive, and I have to max out the 65' straight boom and then get creative to make sure I dont cut the top back on myself. I hate heights. I get a little squeamish up that high up. I feel like if these pines were just 50 foot trees or so I would feel a lot better about it.

Im glad you got your trees down. Im sure you had a nice weight off your chest to get them down.

 

[B737]

ughhhh its always something. Seeing a dead tree within striking distance is very unnerving, i'ts like I can't look away (sounds like for you too).

how big around are these things? Do they die from top down?

 

[Tornado]

ughhhh its always something. Seeing a dead tree within striking distance is very unnerving, i'ts like I can't look away (sounds like for you too).

how big around are these things? Do they die from top down?

The pine look like this here:

The trunk diameter depends on the age of course, but most of these on my property are probably about 18" to 20" thick trunks, and they maintain that thickness all the way up. They are like a massive, heavy light pole that is 70 to 80 foot tall. They are by far the most annoying tree to take down to me, because you literally have to go to the very top and take it down piece by piece. With an Oak tree, you typically have several big branches and forks, so you can often just go up 40 feet and cut in those forks and just take the whole tree by sectionioning off the branches and segments. Pine trees are such that there is no fork or branching, its a freaking pole. They also do massive damage when they fall because there is no branches to break the fall. If It was oaks I was dealing with I wouldnt even sweat it.

EDIT: Just would add that the only positive to pines like this is they are easier to clean up, as its mostly just tons of big trunk sections, rather than tons of branches to clean up, so in that sense they do clean up faster once on the ground.

 

[Captain13]

That's actually not true. At least explained by my insurance company. If my neighbors tree falls and lands on my house. It's on me. Actually had a top come out of the neighbors tree during a storm.

If they cut the tree and damage my property, the liability is on them.

Had a neighbor who was at her brothers house and had a tree land on her vehicle during a storm. Her vehicle insurance had to cover it. Her brother tried to run it through his home owners insurance to help his sister out and the claim was denied.

Here in Georgia, the rule is “where it lays, that’s who pays”.
Even if the tree is dead and you get a certified letter from a neighbor expressing concern, most of the time that does not stand up in court. Two years ago, I had five large pecan trees go down across my neighbors fence during a hurricane. It was a lot of damage. His insurance had to pay because mine wouldn’t. The damage was on his property. As bad as I felt, I wasn’t about to cough up $5,000 for the fence, tree removal and some other things that were damaged. I had to clean up the damage on the other side from trees that fell from my other neighbor onto my property.

 

[Daren Todd]

Here in Georgia, the rule is “where it lays, that’s who pays”.
Even if the tree is dead and you get a certified letter from a neighbor expressing concern, most of the time that does not stand up in court. Two years ago, I had five large pecan trees go down across my neighbors fence during a hurricane. It was a lot of damage. His insurance had to pay because mine wouldn’t. The damage was on his property. As bad as I felt, I wasn’t about to cough up $5,000 for the fence, tree removal and some other things that were damaged. I had to clean up the damage on the other side from trees that fell from my other neighbor onto my property.

Neighbor had a tree fall on my fence and tried to claim it on his insurance. Neighbors insurance told him that my insurance would take care of it. We happened to have our homeowners insurance from the same company.

Tree actually damaged about $50 in wire and a couple steel drive posts. I laughed (full on belly laugh) when he told me what had happened and I found the tree in the yard. He was so embarrassed I told him not to worry about it.

I had the posts and a partial roll of wire in the garage. Took less then an hour to fix and didn't cost either one of us anything more except time.