NickfromWI
King of Splices
I need some TreeHouse brain power on this one. Some of you may know Javier from the buzz. He's the head arborist at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. He has a very unique job when it comes to trees. He gets to wrap them with chicken wire to keep the giraffes from eating them. His crew has to deal with pesky, curious ostriches while at the me time managing rigging lines. They always have to watch their back when working around the rhinos.
Occasionally I get to help out. We spoke yesterday about a ropes course they are installing. One prob is that the giant birds (turkey vultures) leave giant crap piles all over the trees. No good for zoo visitors. So they are installing a system of water and air jets throughout some of the trees and at certain times of the day, the jets will blast shots of air and water to scare the birds away.
The system basically looks like a lightning protection system where it runs along the tree branches all the way to the tips.
So the question is: what is the best way to attach the PVC pipes to the trees?
Initially I recommended bolting or nailing- just like the lightning systems. He said they've done that in the past, but the ficus grow so fast that you soon can't access parts for upkeep.
Here's the best I came up with: a 1" webbing strap with a easy to adjust buckle that can be loosened each year to grow with the tree. I'll check later to see if it actually can hold a pipe to a tree.
Can you think of something better? I think I have tunnel vision right now because I'm focussing on the system I could come up with the parts I use regularly.
Strength isn't a huge concern- but it has to be able to handle full sun and weather exposure for a few years.
It needs to be able to grow with the tree some how.
It needs to be paintable so the crew can camouflage it with the tree.
love
nick
Occasionally I get to help out. We spoke yesterday about a ropes course they are installing. One prob is that the giant birds (turkey vultures) leave giant crap piles all over the trees. No good for zoo visitors. So they are installing a system of water and air jets throughout some of the trees and at certain times of the day, the jets will blast shots of air and water to scare the birds away.
The system basically looks like a lightning protection system where it runs along the tree branches all the way to the tips.
So the question is: what is the best way to attach the PVC pipes to the trees?
Initially I recommended bolting or nailing- just like the lightning systems. He said they've done that in the past, but the ficus grow so fast that you soon can't access parts for upkeep.
Here's the best I came up with: a 1" webbing strap with a easy to adjust buckle that can be loosened each year to grow with the tree. I'll check later to see if it actually can hold a pipe to a tree.
Can you think of something better? I think I have tunnel vision right now because I'm focussing on the system I could come up with the parts I use regularly.
Strength isn't a huge concern- but it has to be able to handle full sun and weather exposure for a few years.
It needs to be able to grow with the tree some how.
It needs to be paintable so the crew can camouflage it with the tree.
love
nick