I am not a forester so take this as opinion, not fact.
But is is my observation that the ‘impaling’ is generally more from ice than just a random falling of a dead branch. I live on about 100 acres and we had a bad ice storm last year and there were bungy sticks everywhere the next day. Generally they do not occur. If I can figure out again how to post a picture I will put one up of an upside down tree. My partner and I were out walking and she was like ‘is that tree upside down’ and sure enough, the top of a fir tree had broken off and impaled itself. It must have been 20-30’ tall.
On a hike up to Tumalo Mt. in the spring, the trees were still loaded with show and ice crystals because of the usual melt/freeze cycle. A bit of snow/ice fell and hit me on the head, breaking the skin and causing a small cut. My adventure companion asked me what to do. I said, “Put ice on it.” … Okay, it was funny at the time. I guess you had to be there.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
You can see the tree it broke off from. It must have broken twice to have the ‘tip’ be solid enough to penetrate the ground.
There would have had to be a child in need of rescue for me to go out there when everything was breaking. You could hear things breaking and falling all around all night. Nothing hit the house badly so we were lucky. One area my oldest kid said it looked like a giant had walked through. We did lose power for about a week but I use wood heat and have a generator for the house when needed so it was not that big of a deal. This was about the time Texas had their debacle and some people at work were worried about me. I was like, I do not live in an apartment with baseboard heat. I live in the woods in the coast range and this kind of thing comes with the territory. Lost power with wildfires last year for about a week as well. Those are scarier though I think I have a good defense plan.
Last edited by Sean McC; 09-07-2021 at 19:20.
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