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  1. #11
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    It's a tree. Trees are designed to lose branches occasionally. I cut something like 25% of all the branches off my apple, pear and peach trees every single year. You won't hurt a tree trimming some side branches. Ask anyone with a tree, they will tell you. I totally get why parks and others say not to trim trees. If everyone cut limbs for firewood that would be a problem. But cutting a few branches on one side of the tree so it works for a hammock? Meh, I do it all the time.

  2. #12
    Senior Member Hang Williams's Avatar
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    I don't carry a tool for the job, but yeah there's some dead branches that gotta go sometimes. I try to pull live branches to the side or pick different trees. Can't say with confidence I've never broken a live branch in the process. Saplings under the hammock get bent down with a rock and returned upright before I leave.

  3. #13
    Senior Member oldgringo's Avatar
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    Anyone who's ever maintained a trail knows you can't get ahead of the jungle. A snip here and there won't hurt a thing.
    Dave

    "Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self."~~~May Sarton

  4. #14
    Senior Member JollyRoger70's Avatar
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    I mostly camp with Boy Scouts, where cutting any live wood is a no-no; that being said, I certainly prune my own trees regularly, and don’t see a reason not to remove small things. Small briar bushes certainly are worth eliminating :-) . In an established campsite, though, that can add up — you should see what Cub Scouts can do to small trees, in between being yelled at not to.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  5. #15
    Senior Member WV's Avatar
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    Somebody else here posted about understory trees and branches being right in the middle between two great hanging trees, and coping by bending them gently to the side and tying them down for the night. I've tried that a couple of times, with good effect. I expect that wouldn't help with your pine branches, though. Some of my bridge hammocks have pockets at the corners to hold the spreader bars, so it's possible to hike without carrying spreaders. I've done that once, and I collected my spreaders by cutting the vertical branches of dead and down spruce trees. A branch 2" in diameter with the ends whittled down to fit the pockets works as a spreader, and then can be cut up for firewood to cook breakfast in the morning. I wish I always had the time to do that. It's good not to be in a hurry in the woods.

  6. #16
    Senior Member Hang Williams's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WV View Post
    Somebody else here posted about understory trees and branches being right in the middle between two great hanging trees, and coping by bending them gently to the side and tying them down for the night. I've tried that a couple of times, with good effect. I expect that wouldn't help with your pine branches, though. Some of my bridge hammocks have pockets at the corners to hold the spreader bars, so it's possible to hike without carrying spreaders. I've done that once, and I collected my spreaders by cutting the vertical branches of dead and down spruce trees. A branch 2" in diameter with the ends whittled down to fit the pockets works as a spreader, and then can be cut up for firewood to cook breakfast in the morning. I wish I always had the time to do that. It's good not to be in a hurry in the woods.
    That sounds a little too similar to bushcraft which is a little too similar to work for me.

  7. #17
    dakotaross's Avatar
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    The real question is it ok to "prune" someone else's trees? I understand the western dilemma with some of the evergreens, but I don't really see it as a necessity. And if you don't trim all around, its a blight. Do what you want with your trees, but if someone else will camp there - likely in a tent - and think that you vandalized those trees, then the answer is No. And that's primarily so because we as hangers need to do whatever we can to not harm a tree, including it looking to others like we did (whether its actual harm or not). Been decades of misunderstood hammock use that has built up resistant attitudes towards letting people hammock in parks, and we are only baby steps forward in terms of progress there.
    "I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
    - Kate Chopin

  8. #18

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    Dead branches, maybe. And I would still try to avoid it. Kind of like I will not use the small dead branches on tress for firewood unless it is a bad situation. And I pack in some pretty remote locations. But I still consider it bad form even when no one else is ever likely to camp there. Like everybody can't do it so I should avoid it if I can. If I can't, then sometimes exceptions to the rule are OK.

    Live branches? Never. Or close. Though I will tie them back or use dead limb or rocks to weigh them down and push them out of the way.

    FWIW, I am also really against people making structures or putting hardware (generally nails) in trees. I am pretty much on the 'leave no trace' side of the house. To the point I will even try to avoid leaving footprints in a muddy/sandy bank if it is pristine.

  9. #19
    cougarmeat's Avatar
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    I must be a glutton for punishment to weigh in on this, but just for fun, if you believe in science, google topics relating to removing dead branches from trees to see what arborists think. For the, " If I do it, everybody can do it. Then what?" people, apparently if that were to happen, you'd have much healthier trees.

    Note that I'm referring to trees in the wild. NOT trees on private property which are the responsibility of the owner. And considering all the restrictions and management of formal campsites - state, county, Forest Service - in my mind they usually fall into the "private property" category.
    In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.

  10. #20

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    I believe in the leave no trace principle and try to leave as little impact as I can. I know that I'll never be zero impact, but I try. If the thousands of people who visit a given park every year each cut a branch then what does it become. The same with a gum wrapper. One wrapper doesn't impact that much, but what if everybody left something? I guess that it is just in our nature to destroy things for convenience.

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