"Forestry Field Day....."

At Friday nights Happy Hour, Don and I were told of and invited to an event that our neighbor Michael had organized the following day. It was a Forestry Field Day at the Bock Community Forest in Middleton, WI. Here we have Don at the entrance to the park.......


As we arrived, Michael was giving a short overview of what everyone could expect and introducing the event participants. The guy in the fluorescent green tee shirt is the major player of today's blog entry. He is a tree climber/trimmer.......


When beginning a tree trimming job, the men throw a weighted bag with attached small line, up and over a selected branch of the tree. The line is also attached to the "man supporting" heavier rope, which will then be pulled up and over the branch. This is brought down and then the process of going up into the tree begins. The men pull themselves up along the rope using equipment that allows them to grasp the rope, pull themselves up a number of inches, bring their foot bracket up and clamp in place, which then begins the process once again to gain a few more inches........a slow but safe and efficient procedure.


As he goes higher........


And higher.....


Until he reaches his chosen spot from which he will then haul up his chain saw and begin the job of trimming.


He will remove what he can from there, then lower himself to another part of the tree and again remove what is up above/around him safely. This procedure of moving again and again continues until he has trimmed what can be safely removed, then the rest will be done while on the ground.


This is the last photo that Don took of him, but you can see that the tree is well on its way to being taken down.


More of Forestry Field Day to follow......