Pine tree removal in Maynardville

Several dead pines on a wooded slope running down to a creek, and every one of them leaning.

A dead pine is a different tree to work than a live one. The wood has gone brittle, limbs let go without warning, and the lean tells you which way the tree wants to go without telling you when. Put that on a grade with loose footing under the leaf litter and there is no drop zone worth the name — anything that gets away from you keeps going downhill.

So none of them came down whole. A climber went up each one, roped in, and took the top out first, then worked down, cutting the limbs away a section at a time until there was a bare spar left and then nothing. The clip on this page is drone footage of one of those tops coming out.

Half a crew day, start to finish.