Ironwood

Today I began the first training session on the Kona side of the Big Island. The wind is much higher here, about 30 to 50 mph gusts across the top of the ridge road. We held the classroom in Waimea at about 2500 ft and then went up on the ridge above, about 3500 ft to cut the trees on an old road bed they plan to use for material storage for the upcoming repaving project.

The trees are Hawaiian Ironwood. A tree that looks like pine with needles but is a very dense hardwood. The cutting site is going to be interesting with these trees growing off the road banks and heavy lean, not to mention again the tops whipping around at high wind gusts.

This however is a common working condition for these crews. The majority of regular tree work is done from bucket truck but we are concentrating from the ground for the initial training. Focusing the planning from a storm perspective we are working from the ground and discussing bucket truck planning and techniques along the way.

Gonna be great! Good Sawing! Tim Ard