High Stakes White Oak

This white oak was struck by lightning and it had a lot of dead wood in the top. Chunks were falling regularly and the tree was a hazard. As trees die they lose their grip on the soil, so they are a hazard to houses. This one would have needed a wind out of the southeast to push it onto the cabin, but we get storms like that occasionally, so you can't count it out. We evaluated the weight and lean, and this tree wanted to fall away from the cabin, plus we chose a day with a north wind to help us. All we had to do was not make any bad mistakes. We shot this with two cameras, the GoPro, plus the video camera on tripod. It was great having Susan run the camera for me so we are zoomed in for closeups. Susan stayed tucked behind a tree when I cut the white oak loose, so she was out of harm's way.