Big japanese cedar

[Lucas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcGiVGN8LJM

[Rand]

I looked the video up on youtube, and best I can tell from the google translate, the tree was felled because of a cavity up in the crown. Makes me feel a little better that such a magnificent tree was felled for a good reason.

Anyway, they planted a couple of cryptomeria at Dawes arboretum in Newark (around their japanese garden of course). It's surprising how similar their growth form is to giant sequoia. They are doing quite well too.

[Don]

While I can't speak for arborists, but I suspect if there are any professional fallers in our group, there were a number of unsafe practices employed. That said, they combined simultaneous sawing and wedging in an effective manner. Humility is a hard lesson to learn in all cultures...
-Don

[Lucas]

Click on image to see its original size

Sugi avenue at the Togakushi shrine in Nagano

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... hrine1.jpg

Click and click on pic to see big version

Sugi is the national tree of Japan, commonly planted around temples and shrines, with many hugely impressive trees planted centuries ago. Sargent (1894; The Forest Flora of Japan) recorded the instance of a daimyō (feudal lord) who was too poor to donate a stone lantern at the funeral of the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) at Nikkō Tōshō-gū, but requested instead to be allowed to plant an avenue of Sugi, "that future visitors might be protected from the heat of the sun". The offer was accepted; the avenue, which still exists, is over 65 km (40 mi) long, and "has not its equal in stately grandeur".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomeria

Very impressive trees that I didn't know about.

[bbeduhn]

Wow, those cedars are magnificent!!! I call them Japanese redwoods as they are closely related and have nothing to do with cedars. They look like redwoods on that avenue. Japanese redwoods grow well in the southern Apps. There is a 90' in Black Mountain, NC and 60's and 70's can be found in Asheville.

[Lucas]

Click on image to see its original size

http://www.city.izu.shizuoka.jp.e.jj.hp ... p?pid=4108

nice pic

[mdavie]

While I can't speak for arborists, but I suspect if there are any professional fallers in our group, there were a number of unsafe practices employed. That said, they combined simultaneous sawing and wedging in an effective manner. Humility is a hard lesson to learn in all cultures...
-Don

Yes, that could have been done safer and with much less collateral damage. To be honest, it looked so healthy that it seemed there may have been some other recourse, but really it's impossible to get much of an opinion on structure from that video, besides a couple of little clues. Beautiful trees.