Tree felling across slopes| down hill drift

Eric Frei

Just bit of an observation over the many years of felling.

On reasonable to strong slopes I have noticed with well balanced symmetrical trees and palms that if you scarf and back cut them to fall parallel with the slope (nice even hinge) often they drift off a few degrees down hill.

Has anyone else noticed this?

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newguy18

Yeah i've noticed it,even had a few try and roll down the slope,just until they settled.

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old schooler

Eric Frei

Yeah well, not so much them rolling down hill more like they just kink over a bit.

I'm going to have to carefully video and fell a few next chance I get, even palms drift off a bit, I mean I'm talking no more than 5 degrees but it's there I feel.

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JohN Dee

My guess would be the uneven distribution of downward air pressure (caused by the tree falling) hitting the ground creating a cushion of air - being more of a cushion with the pressure on the high side of the slope and less on the low side. Equating to a slight nudge down hill.

I havn't felled many trees like the one you have illustrated above Eric, but that would be my theoretical guess.

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Eric Frei

Could be something to do with compression/tension wood also as the tree grew on a hill. Just a guess.

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JohN Dee

Could be too, I didn't think of that. Think of how you feel when you are standing on a hill toes pointing down... Bit hard to hold your balance...

Would be interesting to compare stats from felling the tree up hill / hinge thickness compared to felling a tree in a flat environment.

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newguy18

I undestood your firstpost,I was just saying i've had a few trees actually roll down a hill when i wanted them sidehill.

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chadd

i think the compression/tension makes alot of sense, but it is also harder to pick a lean on a hill. your sense of level is always going to be off, if only by a degree or two. so more often then not the tree would tend to lean down depending on the environment and weather conditions around it. also like heavy limbs that bend under weight, the tree would have more gravity pulling it down the hill to account for the slight difference of a degree. just a theory.

newguy18

Good theory,makes a lot of sense to me.Maybe adjusting the gun of the undercut and the hingewood distribution would help.

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OutofMytree

I hadn't really given this much thought. I just figured everyone adjusted for it, but I havent any guess as to why. I just always got the groundies to walk another 5-10 degrees further around.

I have noticed a distinct difference in the "twist" of the fibres on cocos palm trunks. Almost always where they turn white just below the aquifer. You think the same sort of thing occurs where trees have uneven pressure on their root systems? I wonder what bearing this has on the trees long term viability if this is true?