Cutting Down Pear Trees
Maintaining a healthy landscape sometimes means cutting down trees.
I love trees and always feel bad when trees are cut down. Trees are crucial to our environment - they provide breathable oxygen, they absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, and they help create an ecosystem of food for birds and other animals. However, occasionally trees need to be removed. Behind my gym building, near my Stewartia garden, is a grove of pear trees. Yesterday, I instructed my outdoor grounds crew to take a few down because they were dying and crowding some of the healthy fruiting trees nearby. Fortunately, the trees can be repurposed as perches for my peafowl.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
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- The common pear tree, Pyrus communis, is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 40-feet tall or even more. Some of the pear trees in this area are full of delicious fruits, but a few others were bare and needed to come down.
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- Chhewang is our resident “tree manager” – he has become an excellent pruner, and oversees a lot of the smaller tree pruning and cutting projects at the farm. Here he is donning his safety equipment – chainsaw apron chaps, a hard hat with eye and ear protection, and gloves – safety is very important.
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- Chhewang tackles the smallest of the trees first. Notice, this tree is quite bare with no fruit and not many leaves.
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- In just a few minutes, the tree comes down. This tree is shorter than the others, so it is easy to determine which way it would fall, but never turn your back on any tree that is being cut.
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- Most of the time when a tree is removed, its root system remains alive. To help the tree rot more quickly, we make an “x” shaped plunge cut in the center of the leftover stump.
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- Chhewang moves onto a taller tree. Using a chain saw, Chhewang cuts a notch toward the bottom. The notch should always face the felling direction. A back cut is then made to make a hinge so the tree could tilt.
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- Common pear trees have broad crowns, straight trunks, and arching branches. Here is the tree just after it has fallen to the ground. Fortunately, it is a calm day with no winds, so the tree falls in the perfect location.
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- Chhewang cuts bigger branches into smaller pieces to make everything more manageable to discard.
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- Meanwhile, Fernando gathers the cut branches and loads them onto the dump truck.
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- Here’s Chhewang working on the next tree. This one is a bit larger, so he removes some of the lower branches first. When using a chainsaw, always be sure it has a sharp chain, a full tank of oil and gas, and that the operator is wearing the proper safety gear.
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- Look closely – a rope is connected to the tree to help guide it in the right direction, so it falls in the flattest, most level area away from other garden beds. This also prevents it from rolling or bouncing and causing injury.
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- Here it is after it came down. It was a clean cut, and the tree fell in the area that was planned.
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- Pearwood is dense, heavy and clean. The timber doesn’t have lines running through it but instead has an almost flesh-to-pink color.
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- The bark is dark brown with small scales.
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- And the leaves are oval with pointed tips and fine teeth along their edges.
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- Classic pears are widest toward the tip and narrow toward the stalk. They mature in late summer or autumn depending on the variety. The average pear tree is able to produce a notable quantity of fruits for up to 40-years or more. These trees are loaded with fruits. Soon, we will be harvesting many apples and pears here at the farm.
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- My longtime crew member, Fernando, blows all the debris from the area.
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- All the branches are ready to be taken to the shredder, so they can be repurposed into wood chips – nothing is ever wasted.
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- I always try to reuse or repurpose everything I can and decided these trees would make wonderful perches for my peafowl to use during the day. Two of the cut pear trees were gently placed on the ground near the peafowl coop. They will be “planted” in this area, where the peacocks and peahens can access them and roost.
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- Back at the pear grove, the entire area looks different, but also very nice – now there is more light and more air circulation getting to the remaining trees.
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- The ground is raked and any dropped fruit from the trees is taken down to the chickens. The area looks great. Now, onto the next project. What are some of your fall chores? Share your list with me below.
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