When camping out be wary of dead trees!.

Submitted: Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 18:04
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Doing a small clearing job to-day, just bumped the bottom of a dead tree and the thing crashed to the ground!{ not that small a tree either)..White Ants are the best engineers out there!, they can eat something out to a point where the thing is just balancing there...Seen this a few times over the years,.and don't be like my Bro/inlaw and throw a rope over a branch on a dead tree to get dry fire wood, Very risky business!

Cheers Axle.
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Reply By: Mudripper - Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 19:57

Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 19:57
Axle

I'm just sitting back and waiting for all the environmentalists to pipe up and condemn you on even daring to touch a dead tree.

And all the insect activists crucifying you over all those poor defenceless little insects you killed taking that tree down…

LOLOL 'ave a good one mate.

Tim.
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Follow Up By: Axle - Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 20:05

Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 20:05
Lol Tim.....Yeah I know!,,.....But human life is important to if a tree is ready to fall over at any stage!.


Cheers Axle.
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Follow Up By: Mudripper - Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 20:40

Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 20:40
Absolutely. Unfortunately not all share those sentiments.

Cheers.
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Follow Up By: Neil & Pauline - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 04:41

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 04:41
I my previous days on local Gov we were told by a greeny delegation our problem was we had our priorities wrong, we put human life in front of tree life. And we were only trimming limbs off trees so 2 vehicles wide could fit on the road.
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Follow Up By: Bazooka - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 11:09

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 11:09
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Anything is possible but I place that firmly in the Ripleys Believe It Or Not bin Neil.

The vast majority of people are "environmentalists", only a complete fool wouldn't be. Some of course only become concerned when it suits their own selfish needs or when things deteriorate to a ridiculous level. Some see it as their life's calling and lose a bit of perspective.
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Reply By: Rod W - Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 20:57

Saturday, Jun 14, 2014 at 20:57
I always try to never set up camp under trees that are dead or alive for that vey reason.
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Reply By: The Bantam - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 11:02

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 11:02
Back when I was in scouts all those years ago, we where warned about the issues of dead trees and falling limbs....and to camp in the clear.

this hazard is so very much worse in this country.

many of our native hardwoods drop limbs and a matter of course even while thay are alive.

and as the op mentioned, many of our native trees can stand dead for dacades and fall over with little of no notice.

Fast forward a few decades and now living on mostly treed acerage this hazard becomes all to obvious every time the wind blows..and often when it does not.

branches comming crashing down in the still of the night and the odd whole tree comming down with a great WHUMP.

reminds me...It's time I fired up the chain saw and took down a few standing dead tree near the house and the driveway..

cheers
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Follow Up By: The Bantam - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 11:04

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 11:04
OH and not to mention the amusing habit that dead trees have......if you go and push on the base...the tree may not fall.....the fragile top of the tree will fall on your head.

cheers

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Follow Up By: Axle - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 13:44

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 13:44
Know all about that,....Good friend was killed instantly on a excavator when a large tree he was pushing at sheared three parts of the way up,.. the cab was totally squashed, I still shudder thinking about that,.....the only good dead tree is one that's cut up and in the fire.


Cheers Axle.
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Reply By: Bazooka - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 11:34

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 11:34
Yep, even the live ones can be deceptive Axle. Friend bought a rural property a while back with a lot of large gums. He wanted to keep as many as possible but it was obvious that many were dangerous so he got advice and knocked some over, keeping the viable ones. He's no "greeny" but he was quite upset when he saw a family of gliders swiftly depart one tree when the dust settled. Ironically one giant gum he left later fell over his fence onto the adjacent road. Fortunately it was a road less travelled and he was able to get the local council out to clear it within a few hours.

Our suburban neighbour had a beautiful, huge gum in his back yard next to our fence line. Birds of all sorts visited it - it was a favourite spot for the much loved warbling maggies - but he was desperate to get rid of it despite my encouragement that he leave it. After a few years he got permission to remove it and you guessed it - it was mostly very solid and healthy but inside was a large termite nest. Might have taken a decade or more but it was only a matter of time...
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Reply By: Bob Y. - Qld - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 13:12

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 13:12
Axle,

They don 't call the River Red Gum "widow makers" for nothing!

Spent my early years in the Blue Mountains where, as the area became more settled, many of the larger trees were left, and the houses virtually built around these old timers. These were havens for kookaburras, dollar birds and in later years, bloody starlings. The Old Man got into strife from a neighbour, when the starlings he used to shoot with an air rifle, fell on neighbours roof. These days they'd call the police, or SERT teams or whatever.

Often wonder what damage these old trees did, and whether they're still there?

Bob

Seen it all, Done it all.
Can't remember most of it.

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Follow Up By: Axle - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 13:36

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 13:36
True Bob, ...There paying for it in other ways up there over the years as well with fire, all those old tree close to houses plus everything else.

I see finally your allowed to clear a decent fire break with out permission ,common sense has finally prevailed.


Cheers Axle,


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Reply By: Member - Terry W4 - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 17:54

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 17:54
I love gum trees - in the bush - not the back yard. Had 5 in my suburban back garden when we bought the house and one on the nature strip. There are none there now. Two in the back garden were very dangerous - one almost hollow and full of water. Cost a heap to have removed. The ACT Govt agree that the one on the nature strip had also been hollowed pit and was dangerous. It was so big its boughs went across the road. They took it down.

In the bush I am very wary about here the camper is set up.
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Reply By: Ron N - Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 21:59

Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 at 21:59
I've never forgotten an episode when I lived in a country town in the SE wheatbelt of W.A.
Two elderly bachelor brothers owned a farm about 40kms away.
They had a gate on the front track into the farmhouse, like nearly all farms - plus a few nice trees near the gate and up the driveway.
They'd shut the gate when they drove out, and stop to open it again when they came home.
They'd been doing that for probably 50 yrs. Then one day, they came home, it was a gusty day, and the old fella in the passenger seat got out to open the gate - and a big limb on one of those lovely trees tore off with a gust of wind, and nailed the old fella to the ground, right at his front gate!! Talk about that thing with your name on it!
I guess he would have been well advised to check those trees pretty carefully on a regular basis, as it turned out.

A few years later, there was a big group of people watching football in their cars at the local sportsground - which contained a large number of huge old shady Salmon Gums.
Suddenly, with no warning, and with little wind, a huge limb fell off one of the Salmon Gums and crushed the roof of one of the cars!
The bloke sitting in the car was really badly injured, and the Shire has inspected all the trees regularly since that episode.
Salmon Gums are one of the worst for termite attack, the termites love them like they love Pine or Karri.

I've knocked over thousands of Salmon Gums in my bulldozing career and probably more than half were infested right through the centre with termites.
Often, a huge Salmon with a metre diameter trunk would snap off clean just above ground level just as I pushed on it.
It wasn't unusual to have a Salmon Gum snap in half and fall back on the dozer. Thank God for solid tree canopies.
You're a fool to mess with trees above 3M high if you don't have a decent canopy on your machine.

Lemon-scented Gums and Redgums are two of the best-known dangerous trees for limb-shedding.
Always check in any fork in a tree to see if it's been holding rainwater and encouraging dry rot and termites.
Termites need water regularly, and if the tree has a pool of water in a fork, that will provide them with water as it percolates into the pith of the tree - which is quite often where the termites like to start from.
If the termites start from the centre and eat outwards, that then becomes a dangerous tree.
If it's a tough wood, the ants will often chew the outside and leave the centre, leaving the tree basically solid.
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