Removing Tall Trees

March 15, 2025

Protecting homes and maintaining the landscape sometimes means cutting down trees.

I always feel badly when trees are cut down. Trees are extremely important to our environment - they are the world’s single largest source of breathable oxygen, they absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, and they create an ecosystem to provide needed habitat and food for birds and other animals. However, like all living things, trees do not live forever, and occasionally they need to be removed. Trees that are dead, diseased, or growing improperly can fall and cause injury and damage. Recently, several trees were taken down from around my property because they were deemed unsafe by the town.

Here are some photos, enjoy.

: This grapple loader is attached to a knuckle boom and truck. It is controlled by computer and an operator on the ground.

: The machinery is brought in to remove this maple and several others marked with green. All the trees being cut down are large, dying, and pose a risk of falling.

: This is the foreman, Massimo, from Bizzee Bee Tree Service in Mahopac, New York. He is holding the computer that controls the knuckle boom and grapple loader.

: Massimo directs the grapple up to the top of the tree getting cut down first.

: The grapple is positioned tightly around the limb as an arborist in the bucket cuts from below using a chainsaw. Every precaution is taken to do this safely and efficiently.

: Once a limb is cut, the grapple carefully lowers the limb to the ground.

: The grapple is able to safely maneuver in tight spaces and carry very heavy loads.

: Because the tree is large and near other trees and power lines, it is taken down in sections.

: It doesn’t take long before most of the tree is cut down. For smaller caliper trees or limbs, the grapple is also equipped with its own computer operated saw.

: As branches and limbs are brought down, they are put straight into a chipper, which is a machine used for reducing wood into smaller, more manageable wood chips. The machine consists of a hopper, a collar, and internal blades or cutting teeth.

: Massimo controls the grapple very carefully, but also watches that his crew is safe at all times.

: Here is another 15 to 16 foot section of the tree now cut. There are only a few feet left of the trunk to remove.

: Here is Massimo bringing the grapple loader back down for the last time – it has done its job.

: It is returned to the knuckle boom truck and locked into place.

: The rest of the tree can now be cut from the ground. It is sawed as close to the base as possible.

: Big trunk pieces are shortened even more at ground level.

: Then another grapple picks them up…

: … and puts them into a nearby truck for hauling.

: Sometimes a grapple can pick up multiple pieces at a time.

: And then all that’s left is the stump. A stump grinder will be brought in next to grind the wood into chips taking the stump down to below ground level so it is not visible. And that’s one down, several more to go.