Ordered to remove a huge oak

[Kalvin Gore]

The city has ordered me to remove an Oak at the edge of my property which the local utility claims is too close to their service lines. The tree is old but healthy. I would guess that the trunk is about 16 feet in circumference and the trunk is about 31 feet long from the base to the split. I have heard claims of astronomical prices for quartersawn oak, and wonder if I could recover the price of a portable sawmill if I were buy one for this task. Can anyone comment on this?

I'm off to price a woodmizer...

-- Kalvin Gore

[Arvid Sorsdahl]

[Woodhead]

Don't buy one. Hire one. Woodmizer will give you the names of their customers near you. You will also have a hard time handling a log that big. You will need a big Woodmizer. They charged me $.18/bd foot + mileage + $25/dinged blade. It comes out to be very cheap and very nice lumber. It may be a year or two before you can use it though.

Jim

[Doug Miller]

You will definitely NOT recover the cost of buying even a used one. However, if you contact Wood-Mizer customer service

they can put you in touch with owners of their mills in your area, and you can hire somebody to cut it into lumber for you -- and you definitely WILL recover that cost, and then some.

[Dave Jackson]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

What was there first, the tree or the utility lines? Maybe you can get the utility to move their poles instead of taking down the tree. Is it on some sort of easement?

[Andy Dingley]

If it has to go, then phone Woodmizer. They're very good at telling you their local owners, many of whom will dispose of such a tree for you (or at least the trunk). Although they're a great machine, you don't ned to own your own.

[Charlie Self]

Around here, the utility company has been cutting down massive numbers of trees for years: we were glad to see ours go, particularly since they replaced the larger trees, 15 year old hybrid poplars, with smaller shrubs my wife selected.

They are the ones who get primary benefit, with no having a dozen 30+ foot tall trees drop across power lines at a time when they can't keep up anyway, usually during ice storms.

[Limey Lurker]

Anyone even thinking of felling an Oak tree of that size and age should be pushed through a Woodmizer. Here in the UK the city could have you imprisoned for felling a tree of that grandeur. Make the bastards move their lines.

[Joe Bleau]

Make them put their lines underground where they belong.

[J. Clarke]

But they they'll have to saw through the roots to make the tunnel to hold the lines.

[B A R R Y]

Underground lines work better in some locales than others.

[Lou]

Since the city has ordered you to do this, doesn't it become tax deductable? That should help with the recovery. Lou

[lwhaley]

The city order my mother to move her fence so that the street could be widened. She told them to go to hell and have ignored them since. It seems to have worked and she guesses they will not widen the road because there will be too many angry property owners and lawsuits. You could try ignoring them.