Reducing Acacia hedge, Bishopscourt (Tree work with a view)

Here we had to reduce the height of an Acacia hedge that has previously been reduced. The client wanted it even lower.  We explained to the client the dangers of the requested operation, as it is essentially “topping”.  Just as we do not live in a perfect world, so we also always need to do what the client wants, and in this case, this is what they wanted.

Since there was no side branches/lateral growth there was nothing to reduce, except for taking out the tops.  We left as good of growth points as we could.

Working in close proximity to power lines, Bishopscourt.

This was a storm clear up, of a Liquidambar styraciflua (American Sweetgum, Redgum, Liquidambar ) tree.  We worked on the tree in the past, its branches touched the power lines, and we had to clear them away.

During a big storm, the whole top blew out, and we had to take the stem down in sections.

The tree was very close to the power lines, so they had to be switched off for safety reasons.

Felling dead, rotten and very dangerous Oak tree, Constantia

This tree was far to rotten to climb, and there was no possibility of lowering any pieces to the ground, as the frame of the tree would not have carried the load/weight, and the tree would have failed at the point of lowering. As you will see in the photos, space was very limited, and we had house walls on 2 sides.

Due to the very prominent danger, we decided to rather use a Mobil Elevated Working Platform (MEWP), instead of climbing the tree.

Doing the face cut/gob.

Using wedges to push trunk over.

The rotten base of the tree.

 Cutting up the tree.

Felling big Pine at Royal Cape Golf Club

 Felling this dead Pine was hard, as it was right up against a fence, with a road on one side of the fence, and a concrete walkway on the other.

Cleaning palms from the top down.

Cleaning palms on Signal Hill.

Before, during and after.

Felling 2 Oaks over power lines.

This job was very demanding, and took a few months to get done. It was done in stages, and the 2 hardest trees were left till last. Working with the electricity dept was very challenging, as they seem to have no motivation to do their job.

Our first attempt was in May 2010. I personally arranged for the lines (4 in totals) to get switched off. It was supposed to get turned off at 09:00 till 16:00, giving us enough time to work. The people who were suppose to turn it off only arrived at 11am, and did not know where to turn it off. Once the power was off, we only had a few hours in which to do the work. Not enough time to do it, so then we had to leave it. On top of this, the electricity dept did not warn the residents that the power will be off, and there was numerous people complaining about us cutting the trees down, making our job very hard.

The trees had to come down because their tops had big cavities, and was hanging over the power lines.

After months of organizing, I managed to arrange once again to get the power switched off, and get the residents warned in time. Once again the electricity dept did not really do their job, and made it very hard for us to do our job, but in the end, we managed to finish the work.

Felling Quercus Robur (English Oak) stump.

This was a very interesting job. The tree was not dead for a long time, the result was that the wood was solid, but EXTREMELY heavy; it is not common for Cape Town to have such dense Oak wood.

There was not a lot of space, as it was next to a hotel, with a brick walk way on the ground. There were good trees next to it to lower from, but in the end it was mainly chucking pieces onto a mattress.

Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) reduction in Bantry Bay

Hi all.  Wow, was this a tricky one.  We had a big gum to reduce, with no access whatsoever,
The tree is between 2 buildings, there were almost no anchor points, we had to work across 2 roofs, and three vertical levels.  Below were terraces and pools, electric fences,, plants, etc.

It took some time, and innovation, as there was no way to remove the branches.  We hopped and skipped over walls, and roofs.  No damage, job well done.

Reducing a Pine tree.

Coming soon

Hi all

This Blog will be the home for updates on Willem Avenat Tree Specialist.