Article Barrio

There are many times when limb removal is necessary during Irish forestry operations. Forestry pruning is required in order to try and produce a better quality timber. During forestry pruning operations, the goal is to remove the branches of the tree in stages. The first stage of timber pruning for conifer trees is to remove the branches up to a height of 3 1/2 meters. After this is done, a period of time is allowed to go by before the second stage of pruning is undertaken, known as the second lift. This second lift takes the branches of the tree up to a height of six meters.

The way in which any branches are going to be removed from the tree is very important, this is specially so since the advent and availability of different types of power saw. The problem with the power saw is that the can be proved to be of excellent value in the hands of a professional, but can really start to cause problems when an amateur tries to use them. For a start, a chainsaw makes light work of most woodcutting once the chain is sharpened and these saws are therefore very easy to use. This means that because there is very little physical effort in the act of cutting into a branch, many branches will be cut unnecessarily. This in effect means that the tree surgeon must stand back and make a careful assessment of exactly which branches and limbs are going to be removed from the tree before the chainsaw is applied. Hasty decisions should not be made. It is very easy to go back afterwards and take a further limb off the tree, it’s impossible to replace a limb.

Another reason for removing limbs from trees is to allow for Forest access. Usually, Forest access paths are needed once the trees have closed in sufficiently to prevent anyone from accessing anything but the outside trees. Forestry inspection paths are created at this stage to open up a grid of walkways through the forest. These are usually placed 100 meters apart and allow the inspecting forester to be able to survey the forest very thoroughly.