Wrap around skyline Glenbranter Forest
Photograph is courtesy of John Ireland, who is currently based at Lochaber Forest District.
Unusual tail spar tree setup with skyline wrapped around the stem rather than led through a metal sheave or guide. Not really recommended practice.
Note that the spar tree has been topped to reduce the possibility of it blowing down. A difficult task and again these days requires special training and equipment.
The author recalls in Ratagan forest at one time in the 1970s, to save all the climbing, a Forest Ranger was asked to take his rifle - go into the forest to locate all the spar and support trees and fire a shot into the stem well up into the crown. Apparently this worked well as when a strong wind came along rather than blow the tree down it broke the tree at the bullet entry point! Needless to say the practice did not continue for long. However there were certainly tales in other areas of wrapping Cortex explosive cord around the tree at the same point, lighting the fuse and retiring smartly to watch the results. Very effective I was told. Apparently the same technique could be used to split a concrete culvert pipe around its waist.
Any such tales of other and these methods would be very welcome.
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