Biggest Poplar I've Ever Seen

I get the whole not having a ton of money tied up into a bunch of different saws, that's why I keep it simple. But having 10 chains doesn't matter much because at some point you're going to need them anyway since they are consumable products and don't last forever.

 

I had one tulip poplar cut down at my house that was on the order of ~120 ft tall, and had to be every bit of 3 feet in diameter. I still have another one up almost identical to it.

 

I have three back-up chains for my 026. Two hit spikes and I just haven't gotten around to all the heavy filing that might add some more cutting life to them. One is New In Box - seems like ever since I've been prepared I haven't needed it. Go figure. I used to cut a lot of dead standing red oak and one chain for morning, one for afternoon worked well for me. I could sharpen the morning chain, but I'd rather do that at night and use Winter daylight for cutting. Yeah, sharpening doesn't take too long, especially just a quick touch up, just not my favorite thing to do out in the cold in January.
I have a spare bar, never used, too. When I had just one saw I got it pinched and needed a hand saw and a bottle jack to get it out. I swore that would never happen again. Of course, I also learned not to get a bar pinched. But it could still happen.

 

Poplar and cottonwood, also a poplar, regularly get 36” plus up here in Michigan. I removed one that was in the 42-45” range for a client a couple years back. Log chart said each round was in the 800# range. Which checks out because my Dingo was a full capacity lifting them.

 

Tulip isn’t a poplar. Different tree family.

 

The first log I milled was a 20" Poplar. I cut down a few in the 18-24" diameter range around my house.

 

Have one in the front yard that is much bigger and I had it trimmed 3 years ago and gave all the crap wood away. Popular is nasty to split and stinks anyway. Weed tree. campfire wood for people who have no idea what good wood is versus bad wood.

 

Its really the only thing i "spoil" myself with. Years back i only had one chain and once observed another guy switch to a back up chain in the field so i started rotating a couple. I will field sharpen when needed but sometimes i hit a nail, rock, dirt etc and it is nice to swap out a chain. Plus when i buy them in bulk its cheaper...and im cheap!

 

Well my sciatic nerve has been crushed and partially severed leaving one leg partially paralyzed. As a result sitting is not a position I do well with for any length of time. Normally results in muscle cramps between the over burdened muscles lying next to the atrophied muscles. A painful screaming experience that scares the crap out of people and dogs. Bending over isn’t much better. The reason I don’t wear socks LOL
Also the reason I built equipment to lessen my burden and like long bars. I know if I mess up felling a tree I’m not getting out of there anytime soon
We all do what we have to do. Or want to do may be more apropos.

 

After reading this, I went to my National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees, Eastern Region to do some reading on this.

They officially do list it as Yellow poplar and then list common names such as Tuliptree and Tulip poplar. It belongs to the Magnolia Family.
All the other poplars listed (White, Balsam, Cottonwood, Bigtooth Aspen, Swamp Cottonwood, Lombardy and Quaking Aspen) all fall under the Willow Family,

I found all of this to be really interesting. I had once studied this type of stuff but that was about 25 years ago when I first bought that book.
What I also found was that oaks are all part of the Beech Family...I thought they were their own family.

 

Well there you go, brining an off topic thread right back (almost) on topic...

That being said, the Beech/ Oak family thing, I was not aware. My dads property is covered in (dying) Beech, but only 1 or 2 oaks on 40 acres.

 

Way back when I purchased this place, I planted some hybrid poplars that were advertised as grow your own firewood. I thought, yeah right.

Well these turned out to be just awful yard trees as the roots surface but they did GROW!

In 21 years the biggest was 40 x 44". A buddy cut them for me, he is a class C feller, good examples of bore cutting technique.

 

Outstanding stump full of saws there!!

 

Poplar bark can vary greatly in my experiences. Most have paper thin bark with minor ridges and furrows. Others can almost look like Black Locust bark.

Check out this Poplar tree just over my property line. This is all ONE tree.

 

Big Tulip Poplars are fairly common around here. Most folks just call them Poplars. There are several 100 footers in my yard. I bet one has a 4’ dbh. If I can remember, I’ll bring a d tape home and check it.
Old neighborhoods and parks around here will have monster poplars.
A 24” Poplar I recently turned into splits

 

Yup.

 

Looks like its in love with the black birch?