Bond's Mill Tree felling last weekend
by: Jon Pontefract
Here’s what we were up to at the weekend:
On Saturday, 10 March we had a visit from 8 members of the WRG Forestry Team led by Nigel Lee. They had been booked for some time to come and deal with a problem tree at Bond’s Mill. The offending pollarded Willow was leaning over the
car park, and the 1.5m diameter trunk was rotten, hollow, and had a ‘doorway’ in the side. Steve Pickover had booked a MEWP (mobile elevated working platform), or ‘cherry picker’, from Ermin Plant, as WRG Forestry had experience of equipment. The pollarded
Willow had more than 50 branches that had to be removed first, before the trunk could be felled.
Then, the hollow trunk was carefully cut away to prepare the tree for the final act.
A Tirfor winch was then attached to the top of the trunk, and the tree was ‘encouraged’ to fall into the car park for disposal.
Everything was packed away and the MEWP parked up for collection by 6pm. Thanks are due to Clive and Jill Field for making the Bond’s Mill Gatehouse – a.k.a. the Gun Turret – available as a welfare facility. And, if you’re short of
a log or two, there’s a fair few stacked up behind the fence for collection!