Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Winds knock over Trees in thinned areas!
http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/art...cle_type=news&
article_path=/news/news030722_8.htm#top Watch for falling trees in forest, town By Patricia Miller Herald Staff Writer Dave Parks, of Durango, looks over the mess of a spruce tree in his back yard on West Second Avenue on Monday that recent high winds tore in half. The tree had been first damaged about 25 years ago by winds and then again this past Wednesday and Thursday. Trees are falling. Are wild microbursts of wind with a ferocity we haven't seen until the last few years knocking them over, or is it just nature as usual? Dave Parks, of 2575 West Second Ave. in Durango, attributes his appalling luck with falling trees to the microburst theory. His venerable, 70-year-old blue spruce is finally gone. The 90-foot-tall tree was first weakened 25 years ago when wind snapped off its top 30 feet. The spruce grew back with four separate tops. At 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Parks watched one of the four tops blow down into his neighbor's yard. It was a microburst, he said. At 3:30 the next afternoon, the second microburst got another of the spruce's four tops and carried half of a neighboring elm along with it, as both trees toppled into the neighbor's yard. Now the spruce is lopsided and leaning toward Parks' house, so he is regretfully having its remains taken out. "I've lived in Durango all my life, and we've never had winds like this until the last two or three years," Parks said. "Luckily no one was hurt, but anyone who'd been out in that yard could have been killed," he added. On Saturday afternoon, more than half of a ponderosa pine fell on a modular house on Alpine Forest Drive in the Forest Lakes subdivision. Again, no one was injured. Fire Officer Corolla Hanks, who answered the call with a crew from the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District, blamed a combination of factors. "The tree had a damaged place on it and the drought wasn't helping. Then the wind was the final blow," she said. Dan Wand, of the state forest service, couldn't comment on the tree blown down in town but warned that too much thinning to ponderosa pines in the forest can create conditions for wind damage. If trees have grown in a competitive environment for a hundred years, and then the forest is thinned, the tall, skinny trees that are left aren't supported and winds can knock them over, he said. Wand encourages landowners to be thoughtful when thinning their trees so they don't take too many at once. Durango's city arborist, Ron Stoner, agrees with the combination theory. Wind has a big part to play, he said, but it's a natural occurrence. Drought means that as the ground dries out, roots are less bonded into the ground. And disease and decay weaken areas of trees. Has he been having an unusual number of calls about hazardous microbursts? "Not any more than normal," Stoner said. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Winds knock over Trees in thinned areas!
Aozotorp wrote:
http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/art...cle_type=news& article_path=/news/news030722_8.htm#top Watch for falling trees in forest, town Sometimes you just have to say "Duh!" |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Winds knock over Trees in thinned areas!
mike hagen wrote in message ...
Aozotorp wrote: http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/art...cle_type=news& article_path=/news/news030722_8.htm#top Watch for falling trees in forest, town Sometimes you just have to say "Duh!" Old trees in town are always subject to blowdown by being exposed to winds without other trees sheltering them. "Preservationists" can't say that thinning CAUSES blowdown or wind damage. OVERCUTTING causes that. It was a poor attempt at discrediting the thinning concept. Shelterwood or seedtree cuts often result in significant blowdown. Those types of management shouldn't be used anymore except in extreme cases of poor stand health. Larry |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Knock knock.... | United Kingdom | |||
reseeding thinned lawn | Gardening | |||
Do you think these trees need to be thinned? | alt.forestry | |||
Prescribed Burn stopped Colorado's Hayman Fire - not Thinned Areas! | alt.forestry |