I ‘m sure every tree worker has run into a case when you get a phone call to come in and remove a hazardous tree after construction has just been finished on a building site. Of course, it would have been so much easier and safer if the contractor had just called you beforehand.

Photo 1a: Extremely dead hemlock tree lying on top of and straining a paper birch. Unless otherwise noted, all photos courtesy of the author.

Photo 1b: The author, back to camera, reviews the rigging plan with crew members. TCIA staff photo.

We recently did a job for long-time customers who just had a new house and septic system built, and the site contractor left an extremely dead eastern hemlock tree (Tsuga canadensis) directly over the new leach bed. The tree was approximately 70 feet tall with a DBH (diameter at breast height, now referred to as diameter at standard height, DSH) of around 20 inches. (Photo 1a) The homeowners did not see the tree until they moved in, but knew it needed to be removed and contacted me to come in and develop a work plan.

When I first saw the tree, I thought for sure we were going to have to bring in the crane to climb and remove it safely, but I wanted to try and save the homeowners an additional expense for the crane. The hemlock was already uprooting , and the only thing holding it up was a small American paper birch tree (Betula papyrifera), which also looked like it was about ready to snap. As most tree workers know, birch trees are not the strongest to begin with, and I am actually surprised it was still supporting the hemlock.

Thinking through my options

I went home that afternoon scratching my head and thinking of how the tree could be safely rigged down. It was obvious nothing could be lowered out of it, due to the 90% (or more) hazardous-condition rating I attributed to it. There also was no way a climber could safely ascend the tree alone, without the probability of its total failure. Most people would have said, “Let’s just fall it across the leach field and see what happens,” but I don’t think this way.

What I had going for me were several trees off to the left and right side of the dead hemlock. I started thinking about a rigging job my good friend and mentor, Don Blair, did back in 1991 after a thunderstorm with 80-mph winds barreled through the Baltimore area, uprooting a huge hickory (Carya ovata) and sending it onto an apartment building. Blair was called in as a consultant by Steve Mays Sr. with Carroll Tree Service Inc. (an accredited, 46-year TCIA member company based in Owings Mills, Maryland) to produce a work plan, and they definitely contacted the right person! Blair’s and May’s idea was to use winch trucks and block and tackle rigged from adjacent trees to lift, swing and set the hickory down clear of the building.

Photo 3: Don Blair’s memorable redwood-tree removal, described in the November 2001 issue of TCI Magazine.

Blair wrote an article about this project (“Overcoming Rigging Challenges”), along with another memorable redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) rigging job he helped out with in California, in TCI Magazine back in November 2001 (Photo 3).

Photo 2: Uprooting hemlock tree with severe root-structure failure. Paper birch is to the right.

Imitation … flattery

After thinking about that hickory job, I decided I could use the same concept, only on a smaller scale. In Blair’s project, he needed to lift the tree before he could safely swing and set it down. In our case, since I was going to have to remove the white birch before I cut the dead hemlock, I could support both trees at the same time, then cut, swing and lower them adjacent to the leach field with zero impact. Lifting the trees was not going to be necessary.

I had a nice, sturdy red pine (Pinus resinosa) slightly in back and to the right, along with a healthy hemlock slightly in back and to the left of our removal trees. These trees were large enough that I was going to be able to use them as gin poles to support the dead hemlock and birch. As Blair mentions in the hickory-rigging article, I, too, was envisioning the gin poles to be used like derricks for loading and unloading cargo ships, or as crane booms. They were also large enough that I was not going to have to add any backstays (guy lines) to support them, as I figured the bending moments and vectors were not going to be excessive.

For those who do not know about simple physics, such as bending moments and vectors, I highly recommend you educate yourselves before tackling any technical tree-rigging applications. A great article on vectors to start with, “Vectors: One System for Putting Less Stress on the Tree and Climber,” written by my friend and colleague Tony Tresselt, CTSP, is in the July 2024 TCI Magazine.

Photo 4: Backup climbing line, above, and rigging installed in adjacent red pine. Note running bowline and Yosemite tie-off on the climbing line.

Photo 5: Rigging set with five-eighths-inch Hobbs Block (WLL 4,000 pounds), three-quarter-inch Samson Tenex dead-eye sling (WLL 2,200 pounds) and five-eighths-inch Sterling Atlas rigging line (SWL 1,800 pounds, using a 10:1 safety factor).

Reviewing the work plan

The first thing I did at the job site was to go over the work plan and JSA (job safety analysis) with my two co-workers. (Photo 1b) I cannot stress how important both these things are to having a safe and successful technical rigging job, or any job for that matter. Not to mention that if an accident or fatality happens, you are going to have a lot of explaining to do to the families, insurance companies and OSHA.
Next, I started climbing the red pine to install a backup climb line and a rigging line and block. As stated before, there was no way I was going to climb that tree without having something else to tie into, and I did not want to have to rely on the hemlock alone. (Photo 4) Since I knew I was going to have to ascend afterward to derig the red pine, I decided to use an SRT (stationary rope technique) setup instead of an MRT (moving rope technique) for easier ascent, before switching over to a friction saver and MRT setup for my final descent. Note: The author uses SRT and MRT rather than the current stationary rope system (SRS) and moving rope system (MRS) as personal preference.

You also will notice in Photo 4 that my tie-in-point (TIP) termination knot is a running bowline with Yosemite tie-off. The diameter of the stem is large enough that I also could have safely used a choked-off carabiner in the right configuration without worrying it was unsafe. The rigging block I chose to use is a five-eighths-inch lowering block with a WLL (working load limit) of 4,000 pounds. Though I do like the blocks with the swivels. These come in handy sometimes, when it is hard to keep a fairlead vector angle in your rigging lines (fairlead in rigging terms means a line that passes through a block, or changes direction, without snagging or fouling).

Installing a rigging line and beginning the climb

Next, I installed a five-eighths-inch rigging line and then threw a coiled length of rope over into the dead hemlock. (Photo 5) I also made sure to set a slipknot in the line at the block, so I would not lose all the works and have to go back up before finishing the job. This usually only happens to new, “greenhorn” climbers, but can happen even to veteran climbers.

Photo 6: Backup climber Cody Leblanc setting up a second rigging system in an adjacent, healthy hemlock.

While I was climbing in the red pine, one of my other climbers, Cody Leblanc, was in the healthy hemlock installing the other rigging system. (Photo 6) He also was climbing on an SRT setup. He installed another five-eighths-inch block and a five-eighths-inch rigging line. Both of our anchor points for the rigging systems would be terminated at the base of the trees using port-a-wraps and hollow-braid, three-quarter-inch dead-eye rigging slings. (Photo 7)

Starting the climb

After our initial rigging was set, I was able to start climbing the dead hemlock. The first step I took, my spur sank right down to the shank – and showed no signs of wanting to stop! Talk about an uncomfortable feeling. That was some of the punkiest wood I had ever seen still standing. Thank goodness for the backup climbing line.

I also used my “breakaway lanyard” (Photo 8), which is an 8-foot length of 11mm rope with a stitched-eye splice on one end and no termination knot on the other end. The connector is a snap hook, and the adjustor is a basic rope grab with a carabiner. This setup has been tested by me on the ground, and allows for a quick disconnect from the lanyard in the event of a tree failing under you while climbing.

Exceptions to every rule

Now, according to the ANSI Z-133 standard, I know some people are going to say this is an unsafe way to climb, without having some sort of stopper-termination on one end of the lanyard, but let us put it into context for the situation. Which is better, riding a tree down to the ground or using a lanyard without a stopper knot (which you are aware of and monitoring as you climb)? There are exceptions to every rule, and, in my opinion, this is one of them. You also will not find any manufacturers making breakaway lanyards any time soon, as the liability implications are just too great.

Every time I flipped up on my lanyard, the tree felt increasingly unstable. Anyone who has climbed a lot of extremely dead, hazardous trees develops a kind of “spidey sense” that will let them know when they are approaching imminent danger. But I wanted to reach the point where the hemlock landed on the white birch. When I finally reached that point – at about 40 feet, where the two trees were touching – I was able to set the rest of the rigging. (Photo 9)

Photo 7: One of the anchor points for the rigging line terminated at the base of the hemlock spar tree, using a large port-a-wrap and a timber-hitch termination on the dead-eye sling.

Photo 8: The author’s “breakaway lanyard.”

Securing the rigging lines

I installed a 10,000-pound load-binder strap around the birch and hemlock trees to secure the two stems together. This would allow me to fall both trees together from the ground afterward. Next, I secured the two five-eighths-inch rigging lines around both stems and terminated them with running-bowline knots. After that, I had my ground workers take up the slack in the rigging lines and secure them to the port-a-wrap bollards using an old sailing technique called “sweating the line.” (Photo 10)

This is a difficult technique to describe on paper, but what you do is take a half wrap with the rigging line around the bottom of the lowering device, hold the tension upward on the running end of the line and lean back, pulling outward laterally with your other hand. Then you quickly pull upward with the hand holding onto the running end of the line to take up the slack you have created. Do this a few more times to get as much slack out of the line as you can. In essence, you have used a simple mechanical advantage (MA) to help you tension a line. After that, you can take your wraps and lock off the lowering device.

Ready to fall

We were now ready to fall the trees. I descended using another SRT line secured with a canopy anchor. By leaving this line in the tree, I had the assurance of having a tag line in the event I needed one while lowering the trees. When I know I will need a tag line, I always use a rigging line, but happened to overlook it this time.

Next, I first notched the paper birch and then the dead hemlock using a wide, 70-degree, open-faced notch, as I wanted to hold them as long as I could on the stumps before the hinges broke. (Photo 11) I also thought it would be prudent to add a 10,000-pound load-binder strap above the notch in the hemlock, to prevent “barber-chairing.”

Yes, I also could have used a bore cut on the hemlock, but I have never been a fan of bore cutting on severely decayed trees in this manner. One thing I did notice was that, when I first notched the birch, both trees started to pinch my kerf cut. This confirmed my suspicion that there was not much holding the hemlock, and that both trees were under tremendous pressure.

Photo 9: Rigging set at the location where the hemlock and birch were in contact with each other. Note how load binder strap and rigging lines were secured around both stems

Photo 10, at right, inset: Example of sweating a line that uses simple mechanical advantage to pre-tension a rigging line. Photo courtesy of Patrick Masterson, educatedclimber.com.

Photo 11: 70-degree open-faced notches were used on the birch and hemlock to hold them on the stumps as long as possible before closing and breaking.

It was now time to make the back cuts. First, I cut the birch and left a thin hinge, knowing it was still being supported high up with the load-binder strap. Then I started the back cut on the dead hemlock. It instantly started to open up, so I slowed down, easing the tension into the rigging lines. I continued cutting but left a much thicker hinge than I normally would, so that I would have as much full strength across the hinge as possible.

The lowering process

Once everything was cut, I stood clear of the lowering path and instructed the crew to slowly start taking off wraps and begin lowering. Everything was going fine until one side started drifting too far to the right, heading for the woods line, where it would have hung up had we continued lowering the trees. Luckily, I had left that climbing line in the tree to be used as a tag line for just such a situation. Even though we are not supposed to mix our climbing and rigging lines, this was an “emergency,” and I deemed it necessary and safe.

Photo 12: Both trees were lowered to the ground safely, adjacent to the leach field and with zero impact.

Photo 13: Hemlock stump uprooted during the lowering procedure, leaving hinge and back cut intact.

When I started pulling sideways on the stems away from the woods line, the crew continued lowering the stems, and we were able to gently set the trees down adjacent to the leach field. We could have held them suspended above an egg if we had wanted to! Everything worked out as planned. (Photo 12)

Afterward, I walked over to the stumps and was not surprised to see the dead hemlock tree had completely uprooted, leaving the hinge and back cut fully intact. (Photo 13)

Overall, we proved you can safely take down even the most hazardous of trees without always bringing in a crane. Of course, this is if you have the necessary surrounding trees, equipment, knowledge and outstanding crew. I was fortunate to have all these things on this particular job and could not have asked for anything else. Thank you to Brandon Eldridge and Cody Leblanc for making this job a success!

Chris Girard is a New Hampshire and an ISA Certified Arborist, a Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians (SPRAT) Level 1 Technician, a civil-engineering technician, a contract climber, a writer and a trainer, as well as co-owner and operator of Girard Tree Service, a 15-year TCIA member company based in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.