Comments on: Felling Trees with Explosives

By: Robert Wharton

Robert Wharton — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 01:33:28 +0000

I did a job at Stowe School many years ago to remove some heavy branches from a Beech tree where the trunk had died and would eventually lose the ability to support the weight of said branches. As the gardens were designed by Capability Brown it was decided that a gap in the tree line from removal of the trunk would be unacceptably unsightly. There had also been some research at the time showing that the tree would be repopulated faster by the local flora and fauna if what remained was explosively split rather than clean cut. Trees (and stumps) have been explosively removed for years and I do have somewhere an old ICI pamphlet on the process, I would suggest that the practice has gone out of fashion due to increased safety legislation. Bottom line (IMHO) – Yes it can be done and, if it’s not critical where the tree falls then it doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive.

By: Ed Pennington-Ridge

Ed Pennington-Ridge — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:59:37 +0000

HI There,

Clearly – felling the tree is the easy bit. Any solution would also have to look at control of the tree during its descent – and ensuring it didn’t hang up on anything – or that if it did – this eventuality had been planned for and mitigated. I fell trees in my own woodland, and also use energetic materials to solve problems – and so have some experience of both of the key areas here. I have to say that I’m far from convinced that there would be a cost effective solution to this problem, mainly because you would already have to have the equipment to control the descent in place – and use of explosives would necessitate strict and expensive access control procedures (one of a long list of issues). But perhaps I am missing something – or your particular use case could make use of explosives a sensible technique. Happy to bat ideas around if it would help – but on first sight of this problem I’m not overly optimistic. edpenningtonridge@gmail.com

By: David Marriott

David Marriott — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:54:09 +0000

I think you will have two problems:
1) The cost might make it uneconomical – You would need a specialist crew for safety reasons and of course the explosives. These would be more expensive than a person with a chainsaw.
2) Cutting the trunk in a way that forces the tree to fall in a given direction – You won’t be able to cut a wedge with a shape charge and if the wedge is pre-cut you might as well finish the job by saw.
3) The time to set it out would make this a slow process.

I am not a demolition expert but these are my practical thoughts on the matter and I happy to defer to anyone with better knowledge or experience

By: Clifford Wright

Clifford Wright — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:39:18 +0000

I would suggest speaking to Alford Technologies Ltd they have a range of user filled charges that could be used for your application.