Tree felling vids

Here's a couple I dropped the day after Christmas.....


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Keep the videos coming Randy! I am picking up a lot! If i ever get to New Hampsha i would be a volunteer ground man for ya. I dont know anything but i am a large useful mammal!
 
You personally stuck in the ground over 6 million trees??

Oh no, sorry to mislead. I managed hand planting crews that put that many in over my years as a reforestation specialist. Personally, it's probably more like 50,000 or 60,000.
 
The 50-60,000 number already boggles my pea-sized brain...please don't start counting seeds!!! :D

If you add a zero to that, you get the number that I have personally stuck in the ground, ballpark figure.
 
:thumbup: looked fun. Nice setup also Scott. Your using a drill in a gcrs correct?

Yes, part of the time. The drill had (unknowingly) gotten bumped into high gear, and wasn't doing very well....I though I'd burned it up. Once that was straightened out, it did great. (That , coupled with the fact that the Harken 48 is geared backward from the 46...)
 
Burnham, we talk endlessly and happily here about the rigors of tree cutting. I have never planted trees but have read snippets here and there that it is brutal work. Can you write some about the work and perhaps give us tree guys an appreciation for what it is like and why it has a somewhat legendary reputation for being hard outdoor work.
 
In a flat country like this, it ain't that bad. We usually manage to plant about 1000 a day per person.

I imagine it is a somewhat different scenario around Mount Hood.
 
Yup.
It is all about rythm and cutting away unnecessary moves.
Usually apprentices will hit the 1000 mark after a few weeks ( Maybe because I tell them , that someone who can't stick 1000 trees in the ground a day has no place in the woods:lol:)
 
Its making my back seize up a little just thinking about it.
 
Bend your legs, not your back.
Also it is good to ease into it, like maybe start out by doing 800 a day for a couple of days, when the season starts.
That is the number that pays a decent days wages, which is why we always aim for 1000.

On good soil I can set 1000 in about 6½ hrs, then I quit for the day.
That is my preferred way of working, set a goal, reach it and go home.
 
It goes pretty quick with the right tool and soft ground. Now, if you hit a lot of rock, it sucks. Better if you can just push the ground back a little with the little spade and stick the tree right in...
The larger "little" trees we have done with the post hole auger sucks in a way. Can't get nearly the planting if two guys are drilling holes. Few hundred perhaps. Depends on who is planting behind you and again, the rocks...
 
There are a variety of tools and methods for hand planting tree seedlings. Here in the Cascades, rock and roots are common, and the best way to get it done is with a planting hoe, aka hoedad. The hoe has a scalping, cutting edge on the back end, making it much more effective than a narrow bladed shovel, which is also popular.

Frankly, most planters prefer to work on anything but flat ground, Stig. The "work site" is closer to you, with less bending over involved, as you always plant with your body oriented to face uphill. Your daily numbers are about the same as what we see here too.

Seedlings are carried in a single or double bag belted around the waist, bags to the rear. Commonly a bag-up is 200 to 300 seedlings, which will weigh from 35 to 45 pounds. Of course, the more you've planted, the lighter it becomes...until you bag up again :). You scalp off the duff and slash, swing the hoe into the soil once or twice or thrice to get deep enough (about 12 inches), and open a wide slot, slide a single seedling into the hole keeping the roots straight down all the way to their tips, then pack the soil carefully with the hoe tip, bottom to top. Takes a good planter 20 to 30 seconds per tree, like Stig says.

It's hard on your hands, elbows, shoulders and back.

I should have a few pictures somewhere. I'll see if I can find 'em.
 
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