A real one, a proper big fully functional tree – well not any more I suppose…..

I dont know about you but when cycling or walking I sometimes see trees which have fallen over and always imagined a bit of warning when a trees about to go to ground, some creaking – that kind of thing

WRONG

Its been hammering it down with rain all day so if a tree is ever going to lose a fight with gravity its today

Whilst minding my own business walking the dog earlier I noticed a sudden “smash/crack/thwack” kind of a noise and realised that a fully grown tree type thing had just narrowly missed killing me and/or the hound

It was pretty big, Id have been seriously hurt if not completely toast

All a bit weird, like I said I thought there’d be more warning and if it ever happened you could take avoiding action but one minute it was there and the next it was lying across the path 20 feet in front of me. I had no idea something that big could just topple over so quickly

I’m OK but Fido is a bit dehydrated after mercilessly peeing on it in some sort of dog justice scenario

That is all!

always imagined a bit of warning when a trees about to go to ground, some creaking – that kind of thing

Haven’t you heard ? ……..if no one is looking a falling tree doesn’t make a sound.

Try having one fall on your car…..

Trees are my business so I’ve felled a few but I still vividly remember the first time i saw one go of its own accord.

Big powerful stuff!

I’ve felled a few but I still vividly remember the first time i saw one go of its own accord.

The one who gave up without a fight ?

I had a massive beech tree fall 2 meters in font of my car a few months back. If I hadn’t been slow off the traffic lights it would have landed on the car. Also saying that, a tree saved my life in Austraila when I was swept off the road by a mudslide down a huge ravine to land back end on the only gum tree growing out of the cliff, either side a very long way down.

A 30′ tree, roughly 6′ in circumference, would weigh, very roughly 4500lb, so you’d be geography if you were unfortunate enough to be under it when it fell, a 60-70′ beech, is going to be much heavier, and they’re buggers for either blowing over, because of their shallow root structure, or bloody great branches breaking off.
Lots of beech around my area, it’s not unusual to see broken ones or fallen ones, the nagging thought of what might happen on very windy days lurks in the back of my mind quite often…

I grew up in beech forest, on a stormy night you could hear the branches crashing and trees coming down. We had a 1/2 mile track through the woods that was forever getting blocked.

I watched 26 massive Nordmann firs play dominoes outside the window at work. It was the middle of hurricane bawbag however, and by the end of the day I had seen about 40 trees come down….

You’re doing nothing to reassure me

Im now thinking of avoiding the woods completely – dangerous places it seems 🙂

I was out on my trails in the local woods earlier t’night making the most of the dusty conditions and whilst it was pretty windy (kirkcudbright, sw scotland) the temps were still high enough for shorts n’ t shirt, did one run of my trails from the start as a sighting run beforehand as there are usually the odd windblown branch lying just where you don’t want it but all was clear so i carried on to check the rest of my singletrack which is only a few miles in total, it’s a small wood so i’ve made trails that criss cross back n’ forward and provide alternate lines to try and made the most of what i’ve got.

Got back to my starting point and took advantage of the dusty dry conditions by perhaps going faster than usual and came into a downhill section with a small compression berm that kicks you out if you hit just right and at a decent speed, Arghhhh….Shit!….Treeeeeee….there’s a kin tree!!…………

You can see my the tire track from my first succesful run 15 mins earlier and above that there is the scuffed top of the berm from my second fast run where i managed to get the brakes slammed on as soon as i could which sent me into an ungraceful headfirst dismount over the log and sprawling further down the hill.

Damn… that was lucky, not just the otb and uninjured dismount but the fact that i had missed a tree falling on my head, there are two similar sized trees hanging precariously over the berm as well so i taped off the area and i’ll have to head up with the chainsaw t’morns night to clear the path and make the overhanging trees safe as other folk use my trails which i’m more than happy with as long as they don’t let their dog crap right on the trail.

Try having one fall on your car…..

Tempting, but no thanks.

Also, is it just me who has an irrational hatred of people calling their dogs ‘hound’?

Try having one fall on your car…..

I remember those dreadful gales (1990?) – was working in Cheltenham at the time. Huge old chestnut tree by the fountain on the Prom fell across the traffic lights. I (fortunately) didn’t see it happen but as they were removing the tree I saw the MG Midget that was crushed. The body of the poor driver had been taken away. The steering wheel was embedded in the tarmac. But forget whole trees – a relatively narrow, long branch came off a local tree, only about as thick as my forearm. The impact of the drop turned some sturdy wrought iron railings into an abstract curly ground sculpture.

All of this informs a sensible Hobbit that it is much safer undergound. If on a bicycle – just keep moving!

I watched lots go down in the storm of 99. We were driving through Les Landes, realized it was getting dangerous so found a clearing to stop in. The bigger trees were uprooted while the smaller ones bent at remarkable angles with their tips nearly touching the ground before breaking. The road was soon blocked and many people just sat in their cars on the tree-lined road.

Heard them all the time in the French Guiana jungle, but that’s not surprising given that it’s basically a swamp, and rains a lot.

They tell you there that you probably won’t die from malaria… it’ll be falling trees that kill you. Indeed our guide’s predecessor was fatally treed whilst guiding tourists.

On Devils Island of Papillon fame, we stopped to admire this huge spider with a 4ft diameter web. 10 seconds after setting off again there was an almighty crash, on the path, where we had just been standing. Chain reaction of 1 tree falling and then relieving other trees of their coconuts.

Walking through a gorge in Romania I had a pine tree fall off the cliff above and land right in between our group which was me, my wife, her brother and mum.

The tree passed close enough to my wife on the way down to give her a skint knee 😯

My mother in law dived out the way and broke her collar bone, me and her brother got a couple of scratches from the twig and branch shrapnel flying everywhere.

It was a big old tree about 2 feet across the widest part of the trunk.

I guess each one of us was inches – or less – from death or crippling injury that day

Kind of makes you stop and think!

Never ever seen a tree fall down.