c/arborists

Unpopular opinion: climbers shouldn't use spikes on living trees for removals

Watched a crew in Austin last month spike up a healthy oak just to take down a few dead limbs. I've been climbing for 13 years and never once needed spikes for a removal that wasn't already dead or hazardous. If you're spiking a live tree, you're leaving permanent damage for the next guy. Who else thinks footlocking and proper rope work should be standard on live removals?

My brand new Husqvarna chain saw seized up after 2 hours of use last Saturday

I was cutting up a big fallen oak in a client's yard near Springfield, running it like normal, and then it just locked up tight. No warning, no weird noise, just stopped. I pulled the starter cord and it wouldn't budge. After about 20 minutes of swearing I got it apart and found the piston got scored up bad. Pretty sure it was either a bad mix ratio from the factory or a lubrication issue. Anyone else had a new saw die on them right out of the box, and did you fight for a warranty replacement or just rebuild it yourself?

Pulled a rope wrong and sent a chainsaw 15 feet through a garage door

I was at a job site in Clifton last month, trimming back a big silver maple that had grown into a power line drop. My climber had the saw tied off on a throw line, but I had the wrong knot on the tag end. When I yanked to free it up, the whole setup slipped and the saw swung hard into a neighbor's garage door. Fiberglass and aluminum everywhere. Cost me $400 to replace the door and a half day apologizing to the homeowner. Now I always double check that my hitch is a friction knot, not just a half hitch. Anybody else have a tool slip that turned into a mess? What do you use to keep rope tension right on a bucket truck?

The guy who argued with me about a dead oak for 20 minutes

I was marking a dead oak for removal outside a diner in Billings, and this older fella walks up saying I'm wrong, the tree is just 'resting'. He pointed at a single green sucker sprout near the base as proof... I offered to let him climb up to check the hollow trunk himself, but he just huffed off. Anybody else get armchair experts on every single job?

Had a ladder sink into soft ground during a takedown in Austin last month

I was doing a live oak removal and one leg of my extension ladder just disappeared into the turf mid-cut. Had to climb down, wedge a 2x12 under it, and finish the job sweating the whole time. Has anyone else dealt with surprise soft spots on an otherwise solid lawn?

Found out a single oak can support over 500 different species of insects and I had no idea

I was reading through a guide from the Arbor Day Foundation last night while looking up pruning tips and stumbled on that stat. 500 species! I always knew oaks were important but that number blew me away. Made me look at the old red oak in my client's yard totally different. Has anyone else run into a fact like this that changed how you talk to customers about tree value?

Had a chat with a local logger that flipped my view on stump grinding

I've always been a 'just leave the stump, it'll rot' kind of person. But last week I was talking to a guy who does logging up in Washington state, and he pointed out something I never thought about. He said leaving big stumps near oak trees can actually spread root rot fungus for years. Apparently it can travel underground and infect healthy trees like 20 feet away. That stuck with me because I'd ripped out three oaks last spring and left two stumps in the ground. Now I'm wondering if I should grind those stumps out sooner than later. Has anyone else seen root rot jump from a stump to a nearby tree like that?

Gave up rope saws for pole pruners on storm damage calls

I used to swear by my rope saw for clearing broken branches after storms. Last week I had a job in Cleveland where a big maple limb was hanging over a garage. After 20 minutes of fighting the rope saw with no progress, I grabbed my pole pruner and had the limb down in under 5. The control and speed were way better and I didnt have to worry about the rope binding. Anyone else made the switch for cleanup work?

Visited the Portland Japanese Garden last month and changed my mind about bonsai maintenance

I always thought bonsai was way too fiddly and time consuming for my arborist work. But watching their curator trim a 50 year old juniper with just hand pruners in 10 minutes showed me how precise and efficient it can be. Has anyone here ever tried offering small tree pruning services to local bonsai clubs?

Old timer told me to flush my big saw with bar oil before storage, thought he was crazy

Changed my mind about stump grinding after a job in Marietta

Everyone says to always grind stumps down deep, but I had a job last spring in Marietta where the homeowner wanted me to leave 6 inches above grade. He planted flowers right on top and it actually looked better than any flush ground stump I've done. Has anyone else tried leaving stumps a bit taller for planting?

The day I realized I was cutting branch collars all wrong

I had been pruning trees for maybe 8 years before it hit me. I was out on a job in Dayton last spring, trimming a big red oak for a repeat customer. A guy from the county extension office happened to be walking by and stopped to chat. He asked me why I was cutting flush to the trunk like that. I told him that's how I learned it. He spent 20 minutes showing me how I was actually removing the branch collar and leaving the tree open to decay. I pulled out my phone and looked up some photos later that night and felt like an idiot. Has anyone else had a mentor or random stranger correct a bad habit you'd been doing for years?

Stumbled on a 100 year old oak in Savannah that changed how I look at branch unions

I was down in Savannah last month for a family visit and got to talking with a local arborist near Forsyth Park. He showed me this massive live oak they think is around 100 years old, and pointed out something I'd never paid much attention to - the way the branch unions were formed with these thick collars that looked almost welded on. He told me they never get included bark like younger oaks do because the tree has had time to build strong attachments. It made me realize I've been too quick to judge older trees as risky without really looking at the union structure. Has anyone else noticed this difference in older trees versus younger ones in your work?

Had a 5 year old saddle fail on me mid climb last Tuesday

I was up about 30 feet in a big oak doing some deadwood removal when I felt a weird shifting at my waist. Looked down and the left D ring connection point had torn clean through the webbing. Scariest moment I've had in 12 years of climbing. I had to use my lanyard and a footlock to get down real slow and careful. Threw that saddle in the trash as soon as my feet hit the ground. It was a Weaver I'd been using since 2019, always hung it up in my garage between jobs. Must have gotten some UV damage or maybe the stitching just gave out. I picked up a new Buckingham from the local supply shop the next day and took a full afternoon to break it in before going back up. Anyone else ever had gear fail on them out of nowhere?

Found a hack for cleaning chainsaw chains with a pressure washer

I tried blasting the gunk out of my chainsaw chain with my PW last week after a big job, and it actually worked way better than the brush and solvent method. Just held it about 6 inches away at 1500 psi and spun the chain by hand. Has anyone else tried this or am I gonna mess something up long term?

Rope got pinched on a white oak in Asheville. Thought I was fine.

Was working a white oak in a backyard off Patton Ave. Tied my climb line through a crotch up top. Got about 30 feet up and the rope jammed between two limbs. Couldn't go up or down. Had to cut my lanyard loose and tie a second line with my hands shaking. Took 45 minutes to get out of that mess. Now I always run a redirect on anything tight like that. Anyone else had a rope pinch that bad?

Hot take: the climbing arborist at that job site in Austin was right about rope walking

After watching him bomb through a 60 foot oak in 20 minutes while I was still fiddling with my lanyard at that commercial job off Lamar last spring, I finally admitted that footlocking every tree is just wasting energy on smaller stuff.

Old timer told me to stop babying my oak tree pruning cuts

Guy who's been climbing since the 70s said I was making too clean of cuts on a red oak in Denver and that a little tear out helps the tree compartmentalize faster. I thought he was nuts but tried it on a big lateral last spring and the callus rollover is way ahead of my other cuts. Any of you guys use a rougher cut on purpose or is this just old school thinking?

Warning: don't bother with those cheap pole pruners from Harbor Freight

Lost $35 on a pole pruner that snapped on the second branch I tried to cut. The locking mechanism stripped out and the blade bent like tin foil. I figured for light trimming around the house it'd be fine, but no. Ended up having to climb a ladder anyway to finish the job. Has anyone found a decent budget option under $60 that actually holds up?

Shoutout to the guy who told me to stop pruning live branches in summer

I had a big elm tree in my backyard in St. Louis that was dropping dead branches every time the wind picked up. Last June I got up there with my pole saw and started cutting out what I thought were bad limbs. Problem was I took off too many live ones too. By August the leaves on the whole south side looked thin and brown. A retired arborist I met at the hardware store said I basically stressed the tree out by removing too much leaf surface when it was trying to handle heat. I never thought about how summer pruning messes with photosynthesis that bad. Now I only do deadwood removal in summer and save the big cuts for late winter. Has anyone else dealt with leaf scorch after a heavy summer trim?

Always laughed at guys who talked about tree sex, then saw my maple do the tango

I thought the whole concept of trees communicating through roots was pure hippie nonsense. My neighbor kept going on about it at the shop, and I just nodded politely while thinking about my lunch. Then last spring I had to trench for a new water line about 30 feet from an old sugar maple I'd been nursing back to health. Cut through some roots, nothing major. Within a week that maple dropped half its leaves and looked like it was giving up. A certified arborist buddy came by, pointed at the trench, and said I basically cut the tree's internet. He showed me how the roots from that maple connected to three other trees on my property, and those trees started yellowing too. I dug up a root connection and saw these weird fungal threads linking everything together. Three months later after some compost tea and careful watering, the maple bounced back. Has anyone else seen this root network thing happen in a residential setting?

Six years ago I climbed my first 80 footer in a thunderstorm and swore off tree work forever

It was a July afternoon out in Medford, Oregon. My boss sent me up a dead oak after the rain started, with lightning maybe 3 miles off. I got about 60 feet up, a branch snapped under my foot, and I hung there for what felt like 10 minutes waiting for the rope to catch. It held, but I came down shaking and told him I was done. That was the worst day of my career, but now I look back and laugh. Any of you ever had a moment where you almost walked away for good?

Had to choose between dropping a 400 pound oak limb on my truck or across a neighbors prize rose garden

Picked the rose garden, spent two hours apologizing and helping replant things, but at least my F-150 didn't get a new sunroof how would you have handled that split decision.

That guy who asked me to "thin out his oak tree" so his satellite dish would get better signal

I showed up to a house in Austin last spring and the homeowner pointed at this massive live oak and said he wanted me to just "trim a few branches" so his dish could see the sky, but when I climbed up I found he had already nailed the dish mount right into the trunk and wrapped the cable around a branch, so now I gotta figure out how to explain that his TV reception is the least of that tree's problems... has anyone else dealt with a customer who thinks trees are just objects that get in the way of their technology?

Found a beehive inside a sycamore I was trimming last Tuesday

I was cutting back some deadwood on a big sycamore downtown and halfway through my chainsaw hit something that sounded WRONG. Turns out a hive had moved into a hollow spot right in the trunk, and suddenly I was covered in bees with the saw still running.