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RE: pine tree removal

I guess it all depends on your view of 'small' Tony. The last Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) that I saw blown down here in Upper Hutt had a root mass about 15 feet across. They are renowned for having a very shallow root system though, and big ones in exposed sites blow over frequently. 

Like you, I have never seen a Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata) blown down, and if my old trees are typical I never will. There are some pretty major roots breaking the surface over 20 feet from the trees, beyond the drip line. Whether this is because they are growing on a slope, I don't know. I agree with your idea of using a stump grinder if you want to get the roots out. 

My neighbour helped me remove a ten year old P. radiata recently by knocking it down with his bulldozer. It actually snapped the trunk at ground level, leaving the roots firmly attached to the ground, and I had to use an axe to chop the stump and surface roots away enough to level the ground for the path that I wanted there. I wouldn't try it by hand with a mature tree (mine are over a metre across at ground level)!!!

Tim Dutton
"Raindrops", Main Road North, Kaitoke, Upper Hutt, New Zealand

The Bay Area Gardener wrote:
> 
> A friend just cut down three big old Monterey Pines out of his yard. > Does anyone have thoughts about much of the root structure to get out > and short cuts for doing so?

Hi Carol,

Monterey Cypress definitely has a quite small, quite shallow, root mass,
sounds like the ones you saw uprooted were typical. Not sure about the
M. pines. Although these are the major forestry tree here in NZ, we have
not seen one uprooted. At a guess, they may be fairly similar.

Rather than trying to dig the roots out (a terrible job!) do you have
people who bring a "root grinding" machine to your site?

This is quite the normal practice here, there are both large and small
sizes of machine, according to the size of job and the availability of
access to the site. The machines are something like an enormous
chainsaw, but adapted to the job of following the roots down into the
ground and grinding them up into chips. AFAIK, it is not ridiculously
expensive to hire them.

Try your "Yellow Pages" for arboriculturists. Any you find should either
be equipped for this job themselves, or know who is.

Tony
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand/Aotearoa ("Land of the Long White Cloud")
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