Is this the BIGGEST maple tree yet?! Massive, rotten maple removal!!

Watch the massive removal of one of the biggest, rotten maple trees with expert rope climbing and detailed tree care techniques.

Key Takeaways

Large, rotten maples can be challenging and dangerous to remove but require careful planning and rigging.
Rope walking and climbing are essential skills for big tree removals when bucket trucks are unavailable or inoperable.
Maple wood quality varies greatly; not all maple trees yield valuable lumber, especially if rotten.
Communication gear like Sena helmets improves safety and coordination during complex tree work.
Teamwork and experience are critical for safely dismantling massive trees near structures.

What the video covers

The video features the removal of a massive, rotten, multi-stem maple tree estimated to be around 100 years old.
The crew helps a friend, Hunter, with the challenging task of taking down this large maple near a house.
The maple wood is noted to be of little commercial value due to decay, despite maple sometimes being valuable.
The removal involves advanced rope walking and climbing techniques using specialized gear like Petzl knee ascenders and lineman boots.
The team discusses safety, rigging strategies, and the importance of cutting branches carefully to avoid unpredictable tree behavior.
New Sena helmets with communication systems are introduced for better coordination during the job.
The video includes lighthearted moments, gear discussions, and camaraderie between the climbers.
The tree removal process is detailed from climbing, cutting, rigging, to lowering large branches safely.
The crew shares insights into tree age estimation, wood value, and challenges of working with rotten maples.
The video ends with successful removal and appreciation for the teamwork involved.

Chapters

How old is the maple tree being removed?

The maple tree is estimated to be around 100 years old, though its hollow and decayed state makes precise age determination difficult.

Why is rope walking used instead of a bucket truck?

The bucket truck was not operational due to a motor issue, and rope walking is preferred for such a large removal to access the canopy safely and efficiently.

Is the wood from this maple tree valuable?

No, this particular maple wood is considered worthless due to extensive decay, and maple wood buyers are very selective about the quality.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

That was sick. This is one of the biggest maples ever. Look at this thing.

Speaker A

This thing is so big. I don't even know what the diameter is, but it's freaking huge and it's got all kinds of decay in it. We're helping Petrick's Arborcare. We're helping our friend Hunter today. He texted me a

Speaker A

picture of this tree. He started on Friday. Today is Monday. And he's like, "Check out this maple." And I was like, "Dude, I want to come see that. I want to come help." I actually rescheduled my Monday job

Speaker A

just to come hang out and help with this thing because it's not very often you get to take down one like this. It's a big rotten tree and there's the house right there. They're actually, I think,

Speaker A

going to log this lot out, too. The logger hired Hunter to take this out and then he's going to come and dump everything else and harvest it. But it's a big rotten, multi-stem, just monstrosity of a maple

Speaker A

tree. I'm super curious how old it is, but it's probably hollow. It's probably hard to tell, but it's got to be around 100 years old. But I don't know. I've had such mixed results counting tree rings. Sometimes they just shock

Speaker A

you. Sometimes they're so small. Sometimes they're so big, depending on location, species, all that stuff. But this thing is just an absolute hog. He cut on it all day Friday. Got a bunch of the lateral branches off. And so now it's really

Speaker A

just kind of getting the tops out and getting the wood down. Hunter's already got his line up there. He's going to go up the tree and then he's going to set a line for myself and then I'll join him

Speaker A

in the canopy. But yeah, I was like, "Dude, this is like 2 hours away from my house, but I want to give you a hand with this tree. This thing is crazy." Believe it or

Speaker A

not, this wood is worth nothing. Everybody thinks it's, you know, maple's real hit or miss. He told me he did a job, this company, go be walnut, but a big maple just like this from them. Maple buyers

Speaker A

are really picky. Nobody wants this one. Real gamble with the maples. I've never been able to sell a single piece of maple. But if you do have the right one, allegedly I've heard, it can be worth a

Speaker A

lot of money. Like you hear tall tales of what people sold maple for, but I've never done it.

Speaker A

Anyways, the wood's staying, the brush is going. I'm going to get geared up and help Hunter wreck this beast out.

Speaker A

All right. We're going to be doing a little bit of rope walking today. I don't even know if I'm set up for them. Done it forever.

Speaker A

Shout out to JK Boots. These are my 16-inch Bison lineman boots. They're really good for spurs. I am rope walking today.

Speaker A

Oh, put on the wrong foot, dude. I'm so out of practice. Putting the knee ascender on the wrong— [laughter] That's exactly what we want to hear.

Speaker A

Dude, I so rarely do this. When was the last time you did this?

Speaker A

Yeah. Don't even know. [laughter] Yeah, just ascended. I'm trying to think. I honestly can't remember.

Speaker A

Feel like if you ever have a job where we need to do it, you just bring me company.

Speaker A

Yeah. [laughter] That's my knee ascender. I'm going to flip your ascender and slide it over there if you want to.

Speaker A

You have to have such a big removal for it to be worth rope walking up.

Speaker A

Like this one. It's got to be like 10 feet wide right there. I was wondering about how wide it was.

Speaker A

I mean, we'll know at the end of today. Yeah. I know. I can't wait to see it hit the ground.

Speaker A

Bucket truck would be really nice right about now. Hunter has one. But I guess [snorts] the motor's shot on it. So, it's down.

Speaker A

No, it's fun though. Yeah. All right, you guys can pop that leg or the ladder out of there.

Speaker A

I miscalculated that. It's so awkward. Yeah. I mean, I assumed the top third of the tree is going to negative rig down and then you'll probably just be picking like 4 or 6 feet.

Speaker A

Okay, heavy. I mean, that machine's doing it, but it's like heavy. It'd be like two Caesars are on the way.

Speaker A

It doesn't like it at all, but it will do it. Oh, it looks like a heart.

Speaker A

You want to keep that one? Yeah. Put it in the something of that. Put it in the service truck.

Speaker A

Tie it to the ladder rack. You want to be in one of these, Jacob?

Speaker A

Yeah, that'd be great. Anywhere in there is good. Got the reon rounds, tether right here in my 10-year-old zigzag.

Speaker A

Is it an OG? Yeah, dude. I've had this thing for so long. I don't know, it seems to work just fine still.

Speaker A

I had to retire mine. It was slipping bad. Mine was slipping and then I just lost some weight and then that fixed it.

Speaker A

Oh, yeah. Just throw them in there. They're the best. Yeah, twice. Yeah, Randy can't use mine.

Speaker A

All right. Let's get the slack out. All right. Oh, thank you. It's like pedaling a bicycle but backwards.

Speaker A

Damn, look at that cedar. That thing's got that gnarly deformity. Well, you make me look really bad at that.

Speaker A

[clears throat and laughter] This is a super simple setup. It's just the Petzl knee ascender.

Speaker A

I like it because you don't need a chest harness. Oh, you don't? See, it goes over your back like that.

Speaker A

Oh, that's what I need right there. It's not like the most dialed system, but it's super simple.

Speaker A

What is this in the Haas one? It's a pain to get over your foot.

Speaker A

Yeah. Hey, my uncle watches your shows. It'd be so crazy cool if you gave him a shout out in one of these.

Speaker A

Like, what's up Uncle Jeremiah? [gasps] I'm not going to shout out Jeremiah. No, screw him. You're right.

Speaker A

[laughter] Almost tip-tied that thing. Tip-tied the cedar? Yeah, like cut it at the bottom.

Speaker A

I kind of thought about that. I don't know. It might be kind of heavy.

Speaker A

All right. Big Flav, I will take my saw now. Now, you're on. [clears throat] Dude, I'm like [laughter] I'm like I'm missing the bag. I'm trying to look through the prescriptions. My depth perception's off.

Speaker A

[laughter] Like, I literally look like my hand clipped through the bag. So, I'm just going to go get tied in so I can have maximum mobility.

Speaker A

The idea is to go as high as you can, but trying to be somewhat central and not going so high as to select a weak branch.

Speaker A

Ready? Not as graceful as I wanted. Can I cut a big branch? On the backside? Okay, headache.

Speaker A

All right. So, I could cut this here. This would fit, but that would put a tremendous amount of pressure like halfway on the stem.

Speaker A

By climbing up 6 more feet and cutting those tops individually, much less likely that this splits or the tree tears, does something unpredictable.

Speaker A

Cutting right in the middle of the stem is a lot of times a dangerous spot to cut.

Speaker A

Yeah, so we just got four new Sena helmets from Arb Session. They're like professionally installed. It's really slick. They do a really nice job.

Speaker A

The Senas are always like kicking people out of the conversation. The Packtalks have had more hardware issues. And also, like nobody has Packtalks. So, it's a constant struggle keeping the mics going. But now I have a full set of

Speaker A

Packtalk helmets and Sena helmets. So, Hunter already had a Sena, so, you know, that's why we are wearing these.

Speaker A

But now they keep kicking us out. Look at my welt the other day. That's from that speedline branch last week with Kaskey Tree Service. I speedlined that one and smacked my arm.

Speaker A

Got a fat bruise. Like I used to tell people that you got hit by a car when you were five, I tell people I got hit by a branch when I was 34. I'm up in the ante now. I'm going to

Speaker A

tell people I got hit by Jacob. Feel like I need a few more cameras on me.

Speaker A

All right. And I see that broke into like five pieces. That was perfect. That was sick.

Speaker A

That was awesome. Thank you. I took a pretty massive amount of weight off that. That's pretty wild.

Speaker A

Yeah, that thing stood up a lot. [laughter] So, you want me to just come and start videotaping you from in the trees?

Speaker A

[laughter] Yeah. That'd be great. You seen this big wave? There is. [laughter] I like it.

Speaker A

It'd be funny if you learned how to become like a really good climber, but only for the sake of getting you s—

Speaker A

That might not be the worst option. Just covered in GoPros, like all around me.

Speaker A

The chest cam, the head cam, reverse cam. Reverse cam, the 360 one. Yeah. Man, cedar is so good.

Speaker A

Yeah nice. The animal. Nice. Did I get you? Yeah, no, we're we're good. Almost knocked the phone out of my hand.

Speaker A

I'm not used to this. You have that luxury. Okay, so I can dump this one.

Speaker A

No problem. I've got two branches right here. See that? And they're going that way. And I'm 90% sure I can just cut them and they'll hit the ground, but the problem is they do when they're that long and they're in

Speaker A

that fur, they have a tendency for the tip to grab and then the butt swings out. So, there's a possibility these could swing towards the house down there. So, I've got ropes on them. I'm going to cut them and just have the guys

Speaker A

pull them. I really don't need that much control. I just need the butts away. Like I said, it doesn't really matter what way the branch falls, obviously. I just don't want the butt uh sliding out. So, I've got two ropes. I'm not lowering

Speaker A

these. They're just there for uh reassurance. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Works good. Yeah. [laughter] Works nice.

Speaker A

Ready? For the top? Yeah. Whole thing jolts. Crazy. Yep. Now, just yard that out. Probably might need a couple guys.

Speaker A

It works. But we're going to do the same thing, but this will be a bigger branch, but I don't think it'll be as tangled.

Speaker A

All right, same thing. Perfect fall. Oh, yeah. Nice. Six. Boom. Boom. That's only my back cut, but I nailed the face cut. I was like pretty stoked about that cuz I was I couldn't really see it that well.

Speaker A

Oh nice. No. Oh, dude. There's no way. That's crazy. I was wondering if they were going to catch or not.

Speaker A

Who left those stubs? Uh dead guy. Dang. [laughter] I can't believe it didn't break the the bridge.

Speaker A

Yeah, that's what being lazy gets you. I should have took them. Nice. Nice. Look how wide [clears throat] this is.

Speaker A

Just look at all this. This is crazy. Oh, oh, you're going for that. Nice.

Speaker A

Wow, I felt that in the roots. Yeah, you thought that was cool? Check this out.

Speaker A

It looks like you Jacob. It looks like we could just bonsai that down or should we swing some of those over?

Speaker A

That tall one over there? Yeah, I mean everything looks pretty good. I just would hate to have one piece hit and roll onto the opposite side of the cedar.

Speaker A

I know, but the cedar's also pretty good barrier. Feel like we could even maybe put a rope in it and like pull a good size top over.

Speaker A

I don't know. I think it'll piece out. Hang dude. I wish the folks at home could feel this whole tree shake.

Speaker A

When you cut that? I'm debating so hard about cutting that first one up. You think it'd be good for your YouTube video?

Speaker A

[laughter] Poles on? Yeah, cuz I can easily reach that. Definitely. It'd be great for my video and I don't have to do it.

Speaker A

I'm so tempted to cut this, but that's kind of a tight. I probably shouldn't.

Speaker A

Yeah, that's comfy. Nice comfortable position. Like a springboard. I wasn't joking when I said three to four loads, huh?

Speaker A

[laughter] I usually I undersell the trees. I'm like, "Oh, it's not even that bad." Nice.

Speaker A

You sure you're good? Oh, yeah. All right, one more? Yeah. All right. All right, have fun.

Speaker A

Oh, it is. That's a bummer. [laughter] That's some interesting never before seen perspective. Oh, you guys got this mounted on backwards from how I mount it.

Speaker A

Good eye, Big Flav. I didn't even notice. I've been filming him. It's been a long time since I've done anything with the GoPro on. They always screw up and Woah. Oh, I missed.

Speaker A

[laughter] Scary. That was freaky. There you go. I'm going to change my tire. To over here.

Speaker A

What's up? All right. Nice. I think I got the wood. Just got one top left.

Speaker A

You ready for your back yet? I'll take it, sir. We're going to send log.

Speaker A

That was sick. Can I get my 462 big flip? All right, I got it.

Speaker A

Thank you. Yep. Whenever you're you're ready big flip, just let me know. I will let you know, yeah.

Speaker A

Are you just going to send that top on Titan? All right. Yeah, I'm trying to do it, too.

Speaker A

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Steel. MS 462 is supported by It's not supported by Cal Fire rigging, but I bought it from there. There's a the mechanic that saw dude there. This is a 325 chain.

Speaker A

So, it's like a really small chain for this saw, 28-in bar. You want to warm up the saw?

Speaker A

[groaning] You ready? I put myself in a pickle. [laughter] I might need to borrow your saw.

Speaker A

It's going to go. Oh, nice. [laughter] Nice. That was a perfect day, too. Yeah. That was a first for me.

Speaker A

That whole That whole interaction. Oh, yeah. Holy crap. That cavity is no joke. You weren't kidding.

Speaker A

Sink it in real hard. Damn. That's crazy. That's cool. Woah, this thing is jumpy.

Speaker A

I think we I think we could fall that thing after you cut that line. We go that way. I don't know. It's hard to tell which way it leans. It's like so stout and stocky.

Speaker A

Nice. [snorts] Boom. It'd probably be smart to put a rope in that thing. Well, we don't need it, but [clears throat] it it might be stubborn.

Speaker A

Nice. Nice throw. Nice throw. That cedar's got such a gnarly like defect right there.

Speaker A

I can't believe we climbed that. Yeah. That was weird. Nasty. It looks like it folded on itself and then kept going.

Speaker A

Definitely a cool-looking tree. Like I think it looks sick. I might put a big old conventional in this one.

Speaker A

Wow. Incredible. Well, that That was the easy one. This next one's going to be crazy.

Speaker A

What a weird defect. The maple must have like wrapped around it or something at one point.

Speaker A

Wow yeah. That's so bad. This face cut's going to take me a minute. I'm thinking I'm going to do a big old conventional cut in this.

Speaker A

Then I can get really low. The lower the better for this wood cuz it's so gnarled.

Speaker A

And it's probably rotten. The lower the better. The thicker, the stronger, but and we're not hard to see this so I can get a little lower with the big This This line right here has got us a little worried. Like maybe these were

Speaker A

two distinct trunks at one point. And sometimes you cut this one and it falls that way. That's typical of these codominant stems, but you know, it's been 100 years for them to really grow and twist together. So, they physically

Speaker A

like they they have to go even if they were distinct at one point. They're They're so tangled. They have to go together.

Speaker A

I think it's going to take It's 20 minutes. All right, 120 cc, 50 in.

Speaker A

My bar is already buried. Look how short I am. I'm not even a quarter of the way through the tree. Look how short I am already. That's crazy.

Speaker A

The chips are surprisingly still pretty solid even in the middle. [snorts] Dude, that was so much wood.

Speaker A

[laughter] I think you're looking at a picture inside. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. She busted in, too.

Speaker A

It's broken. Yeah, dude. The money log. Look at that. That's actually a lot more spalted than I was expecting.

Speaker A

I I I thought it was going to be totally hollow. Oh, IT'S STUCK NOW.

Speaker A

OH, WHO LET THE COWS IN HERE? OH, it stinks. I mean, that's me. Man.

Speaker A

Ew. Ah. It's super good. It's absolute fertilizer. I really thought it was going to be way worse than that.

Speaker A

I did, too. I'm surprised It's two logs. It's like two distinct It must've been [clears throat] That's what I was saying at the beginning. This one's got all the spalt.

Speaker A

That's why they don't have no spalt, really. Yeah, I'll send pictures to the Goby guys and when he took the face cut out, I was like, "Ooh, that's a lot of spalt." I was like, "I'll take a picture

Speaker A

and send it to him and see again if they're interested." I mean Yeah. You want to come say hi, buddy?

Speaker A

That big tree. Yeah. Yeah, this is my son, Liam. Yeah. You say hello? Hello.

Speaker A

It's amazing that running that saw like chain was sharp, very little correcting. Like that went as smooth as it could have and still it was like little little just such a such a drag cutting that much.

Speaker A

That was that was a huge piece of wood. That was like really short on my It's a 50-in bar.

Speaker A

You were right. You called it. It was like Wow. I said it's going to take me like 20 minutes.

Speaker A

And I And I did it in 19. [laughter] That one as smooth as it could have really.

Speaker A

Very little clean up and it still took 19 Not 20 but 19 minutes. You buried your 52-in bar sideways to do the back cut and it was still like a foot I know. Yeah. Once I switched to the

Speaker A

other side it was like I was still cutting a hole. I mean look at that.

Speaker A

That's a 50-in bar. We got to measure this. It's 8'2" there. 8'2"? No way.

Speaker A

8'2"? [laughter] Lay down on it. That's 98 in. I mean it makes sense. My bar is 50.

Speaker A

It's like halfway. 100 in. 98. We'll call it 100. [laughter] 100 in. The stump itself I give you had to grind it. It's like a 10-ft stump at least. That's nuts.

Speaker A

That's so crazy. Thumbs up. Nice job today. Yeah. Thanks for having me out. Yeah. I appreciate you coming with it.

Speaker A

Could not have done it. [laughter] I shake it in my nuts. Yeah. Nice job big blade.

Speaker A

Thank you. Nice job today. Yeah. You too. And that is one full dump trailer.

Speaker A

Woo. All right. Another big tree in the books. Got a big pine tree coming down in Auburn actually. Should be pretty good one. So See you guys on the next one. As always thank you for watching.

Topics:maple tree removalrope climbingtree cuttingarborcaretree riggingtree climbing geartree removal safetyrotted mapletree cutting techniquesSena helmets

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