Peter Berry 
Drone pilot with first pine tree down in the neighbor’s driveway. By Peter Berry
If you live in a house, whether as a renter or owner, it is bound to happen to you. Someday, you’ll look outside and that big ole tree will look a little different. Somehow, something isn’t quite right. Or perhaps when the wind blows, it looks a bit closer than it used to be.
My wife and I are lucky enough to live on a rather wooded lot. Thankfully, most of the trees on our property are not those 80-to-100-foot-tall pines. In our area, you typically find pine, red maple, oak, sweetgum, poplar, and hickory. Some others include dogwood, beech, and holly. With all those trees, we have had to deal with our share of downed limbs, dying trees, the occasional removal, and of course leaves – lots and lots of leaves.
There are several stories I could tell that would make you sit up straight in your seat with a shiver running down your spine. Our first tree experience together began the night before I moved in with my soon-to-be new wife. She sent me a text at 11:30 pm saying that there was a tree on the house and that we would have to deal with it in the morning. Another time I was sitting on the couch, and out the window she spotted a 50-plus-year-old tree next to the house, slowly falling into the woods. Thankfully that one went the other way.
When the tree fell on our house years ago, I am thankful that our neighbors all gathered together to help with the removal and clean up. Luckily the only damage was a small dent in the gutter.
From that experience, we learned to be a little more proactive. With the help of a big tough firefighter family member, we decided to take down a portion of a tree that was leaning over our deck. With a line attached to a four-wheeler and a chainsaw buzzing, we were sure that we could convince this hunk of sweetgum to fall in the right direction. Well, we were somewhat correct. 😉
As you might imagine, I own a few chainsaws and other tools for the regular clean up that is required. But from time to time, the job that Mother Nature throws our way is a bit bigger than this couple can handle. That’s when we call in the experts!
Doing it yourself is not always the wisest choice – for your wallet or your safety. OK, one more little story before I move on to the purpose of this article. Way back in the early 1960s, my dad – who worked for the local power company – decided to cut down a dead tree in the backyard. The tree came down, luckily missing the brand new house, but it fell across the electrical transmission lines, taking out the power for a good portion of the city of Syracuse. I can imagine the conversations around the water cooler on Monday morning. However, that is not the end of the story; a few years later, my dad did it again.
So, back to my current tree woes: a dozen years after that first tree landed on the edge of our deck, the rest of that big ole thing needed to come down. Enter SA Arbor Care Tree Service. Several trucks pulled up, and more than twice as many men piled out with a serious sense of purpose. As I walked up the driveway to greet them, some were already inspecting the trees I had marked, while others tilted their heads skyward. One checked out the base and another scoped out the structures in imminent danger from the soon-to-fall tree.
A few days before their arrival, I contacted my neighbor to inform him that we would be taking down five trees between our properties. He and his wife were pleased to hear that we would be including a few of those tall pines so common in our region. Without hesitation, they granted permission for SA Arbor Care Tree Service to use their driveway as part of the process.
The guys moved a boom truck in place and set up a station for the wood chipper. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a drone lifting off the ground. The gentleman working the controls explained that the birdseye view helped to assess the situation before, during, and after the process of bringing down trees. My wife and I also had our phones out to capture the experience.
First to come down was a pine that surely could have caused serious damage to either my house or the neighbor’s shed. Catching that on video was cool, but it certainly didn’t capture the entire experience. The thud of the weight of that monster as it made contact with the ground, limbs snapping milliseconds before, vibrations through the earth shaking your entire body, and the cheers from my wife and me. Then came the smell of fresh cut wood; a fragrance that I have always loved.
No sooner had the last longleaf pine needle stopped quivering before the crew was gathering limbs and debris to feed into the wood chipper. A couple of smaller chainsaws buzzed, and within moments yet another vehicle was picking up the trunk of the pine to be taken to a mill to be turned into lumber.
While the cleanup from the first went on, others were working on the problem tree. This one came out of the ground with two trunks at its base. Originally it had been three, with one taken down more than 10 years earlier. With the drone still floating overhead, the man in the boom attached several lines to the two portions of the tree, securing them to other trees nearby.
With the first tree completely removed, the crew stood around inspecting the lines attached to our problem tree. It wasn’t long until a chainsaw started way above in the bucket of the boom. As one section of the tree top was cut free, it came to the ground slowly, guided by others with one of the lines.
At the same moment I could see my wife gasp. She and I had taken up positions, out of the way but on opposite sides of the action. Both of us had phones in hand to catch the spectacle and both of us were hoping that there would not be a call to the insurance company. That is when the other trunk of the tree gave way in the direction of our deck. Even members of the crew made audible acknowledgement of the tree’s unexpected movement. However, that was obviously not completely a surprise. Those several safety lines ensured that the tree did not move far at all. Hence, the reason for calling in the pros!
After that bit of excitement, the rest of the time SA Arbor Care Tree Service spent on our property seemed anticlimactic. They took down another tall pine, which we caught on video, then picked up after themselves. A little extra dirt on the gravel driveway and a few stumps that we opted not to have removed were the only signs that they had been there. That and the old tree leaning over my deck was no longer a problem.
No matter how well the crew cleaned up, we had the smell of fresh cut wood lingering in the air for several days. Then the rain came and washed away the last signs of SA Arbor Care Tree Service. Except of course that cracked stump from the old tree that threatened our happy home. And as for the other stumps? My wife has decorated them with pots of flowers!
(336) 504-4923
www.SAArborCare.com
