Recent windstorms always drop large dia spruce and fir across trails. They break at the lower trunk, hang up on at the crown; usually some base rot. With serious compression and tension, they are a $#^@& to drop safely. I use wedges, bottom up cutting, but the large 18"-25" dia trunks are dangerous even though cutting slow and careful. How do you handle these ?
Depends on the situation and danger level. I may walk it down with notches or hook a chain and backhoe to it and drag it out, or hook it to winch on chipper. More than likely my situation would be Virginia Pine hooked on Virginia Pine, or White Pine.
I have gotten a number of blowdowns and I don't have any advice on specifics. It's super dangerous, you have to analyze the tree and the branches and figure out what is going to happen with a cut. But you know that. I watch videos quite often, lol. Still learning. I don't cut unless I think I can do it and not get hurt.
What Chud said about walking it down. Look at the lean. If it has a decent lean, notch on the side away from the lean and back cut so the top goes toward the lean. I use a bull rope and snatch block tied to the 4-5’ section that I’m cutting off the base. I pull the rope away from the lean but the snatch block changes the direction 180 degrees to pull the tree toward the direction it is leaning. This keeps me clear of the tree when pulling. If the tree is near vertical, I notch and back cut so as to pull directly away from the lean which ends up increasing the lean of the tree as I knock off another 4-5’ section. By alternating the direction the base of the tree is walking on the way down, it ensures that the tree doesn’t come back in the wrong direction. I use the rope and a come along or truck to pull so I’m clear when the tree is moving. Tying the rope above the cut can cause your rope to end up buried in the dirt...
Can't really give true answers without seeing situation and it is even difficult with pictures. I've never had problems with getting trees down but I also use different methods depending on the situation.
Many of the blowdowns are softwood that break near a rotted base. They rest on the base across trails and the crown is hung up on trees opposite the base. What's tough is bucking it safely and slow , since some are large dia for us in the northeast. Felling standing timber is usually simple, safe, fast, accurate with planning. The trail blowdowns don't allow access for heavy equipment. I do what Yawner recommends also.
