The Fall of the Lombardy Poplars

I think it was the summer of 2003 that a big wind came out of the northwest to blow over a poplar tree that fell over the back fence into our neighbor's yard to the south and the top on to the east into Michie's yard. Fortunately both neighbors were away, so I hiked over the fence and cut up the limbs and trunk and tossed them over the fence into our yard.

It was easy to see that the seven very tall poplars were slowly dying, which would put other trees in line to be toppled by wind or other means. Fearing that some of these trees might cause damage or injury to my neighbors and their yards/houses, I determined to fell them inside our back yard as they withered and died.

The seven trees were shorter in the east and had grown bigger and higher to the west. I seem to remember that in the summer of 2004 I invited Steve and Margaret to help me to bring down the next three trees, progressing from the east to the west. We tied nylon ropes to the trunk of the tree being felled to the a greener tree next to the west. Then we cut the felled tree near to the ground, causing it to swing to a horizontal position and suspended by the rope. If we miscalculated where to tie the rope to the fallen tree, the top might descend into our neighbor's yard. Then Steve and Margaret would endeavor to counter-balance the weight so that we could swing the top of the tree back into our yard. The next step would be to either cut off a chunk of the tree and/or lower it to the ground for further cutting. I never knew what our neighbors thought of our crazy operation.

The next summer (2005) brought David to stay with us and to down the next two trees. One of them caused some unwelcomed result. I think we miscalculated the height and where it would fall. Instead of falling onto our patio, it veered to the west over our garden and crashed into the shed behind our garage. It smashed the plastic roof as well as our raspberriy bushes. Every time we felled a tree there would be a depression in our lawn where the trunk hit. Needless to say, I, and also David, enjoyed cutting up these trees and then splitting the sections into smaller blocks for eventual burning in our fireplace in ensuing winters (a big saving on heating costs).

Now to the good part! In the summer of 2006 I decided to take down the largest tree (80 feet), without any help from family eager beavers. After the crash onto our shed with a shorter tree, the felling of the grandest of all required careful engineering. I decided to cut only the top half (40 feet) so that it could fall onto the lawn and not endanger our house. So I took our two 20-foot aluminum ladders to allow me to ascend 40 feet to the mid-section of the tree. The first ladder was extended up the tree. Then I took apart the other ladder and raised a ten foot section next to the tree and wound a nylon rope through the hollow steps and tied them with strong knots. Holding fast to the tree I then repeated the rope up the ladder until the section was secure to the tree. Then I repeated the procedure for the second 10-foot piece. I should say that in this dangerous arrangement I tied my body to the tree with a bow-line knot so that I would not fall to the ground due to some careless movement.

So now I have secured the two ladders to the tree, allowing me to position myself at the mid-section of the tree at 40 feet. I recall how high that was, so that I could look over the roofs and most of the trees in the neighborhood. The next in this master plan was to put the nylon rope as high as possible on the tree above so that there would be leverage to pull the trunk to the ground and in a line that would not endanger the house, i.e., to the northeast toward Mt. Timpanogas. Tied to the tree, I tied the end of the nylon rope to a padlock, and then put the end with the padlock on a long (7-foot) pole over a crotch in the end of the pole. Now I looked high above for a branch where I could knock the padlock over the crotch . Then the weight of the padlock would cause the rope to fall on the opposite side of the tree. Eventually I could reach out and grab the padlock and pull the rope to me and then on to the ground below. Because of the size of the tree, I determined that it would be necessary to pull the rope again over the crotch so that there would a double strand for pulling the top section down. This was a nervous activity, especially when the wind blew and caused the tree to sway.

The next step was to cut the trunk at about the 40-foot level before pulling it over. Needless to say I decided that it was too dangerous to cut it with the chain saw. I had had some close calls with chain saws before when I was standing on the ground, so I wouldn't want to try it tied to the tree. First I tried to saw the trunk with hand saws. Hah! Then I had a great idea of bringing my electric hand drill up with the long electric cords so that I could drill half inch holes all around the trunk. This procedure took hours which weren't sufficient to allow me to pull the section over, particularly since I hadn't much leverage 100-feet away on the ground. I even tried cutting the notches between the holes I had drilled but the section remained firm and unwilling to fall. I guess I must have climbed the tree a hundred times over several weeks and my neighbors probably thought I had lost it!?

I knew that I had to find a way to exert more power in pulling the 40-foot section over. Ahah! Did I have enough rope to extend across the back yard, over the fence into the front lawn? The rope would have to be four strands, so I guess there must have been 400 plus feet of the nylon rope. Now the rope must be tied to something that had sufficient power. That was provided by the Lincoln Mark VII with a trailer hitch on the rear. I backed the car up near to the fence and tied the rope securely to the hitch. I drove so that the rope was tight and would not tear off the corner of the house or the fence. Then I eased forward without success. The tree section held firm. Then I backed up a few inches and then gunned the engine two or three times. Then I heard a crash and the rope slackened. Dry leaves and dust filled the air in our back yard. When I got through the gate I saw that the tree had fallen exactly across the yard toward the cherry tree and not causing any damage except to the deep dents in the lawn where the trunk had fallen.

What a thrill it was to then cut up the 40-foot section with the chain saw so that it could be removed for the fall of the next 20-foot section in a similar manner. And then the final 20-foot section. The cutting the large and heavy sections was a huge task. Then it was necessary to split the huge blocks so that they could be stored in our back shed for drying and eventual burning on cold winter nights. Some of those splittings are still being fired today (winter 2010).

There was enough danger and patience in this project to make it the most satisfying of all my ventures. It also reaffirmed my belief that anyone can do marvelous things, if they are willing to plan carefully and are willing to spend the time and energy to make it work.