Yeh eucalyptus trees are interesting. The fact that they shed their bark instead of their leaves is a hoot and in Uber dry periods they cut off the moisture supply to their limbs in order to maximise the moisture supply to the trunk which subsequently causes the limb to die and ultimately fall off (hence the widow maker reputation). Great firewood opportunity in the dried out limbs.
Last edited by Rushy; 23-06-2022 at 06:30 PM.
It takes 43 muscle's to frown and 17 to smile, but only 3 for proper trigger pull.
What more do we need? If we are above ground and breathing the rest is up to us!
Rule 1: Treat every firearm as loaded
Rule 2: Always point firearms in a safe direction
Rule 3: Load a firearm only when ready to fire
Rule 4: Identify your target beyond all doubt
Rule 5: Check your firing zone
Rule 6: Store firearms and ammunition safely
Rule 7: Avoid alcohol and drugs when handling firearms
@Flyblown , I knew you must never camp under Eucalypts because of that but didnt know they were called widowmakers there.
Jared Diamond wrote that the Papua New Guinea highlandrs would never sleep under a tree because of that. Only 1 in a thousand chance of it happening each night but you want a life expectancy of more than 3 years…
Fabulous trees in your pictures @Bagheera.
I found this amazing Puriri tree in the Puketoki Reserve a couple of years ago when I was trapping – the Reserve is a 100acre block of bush left virtually untouched for the community by the original logging company that cleared the east side of the Kaimai Ranges a hundred odd years ago. No one has any idea of the age of the Puriri tree – but my research of old Puriri trees in NZ indicates it is likely to be more than 1000 years. It has huge widow makers all around the trunk – a common feature of large Puriri trees that I have seen in the BOP. We cut a track to the tree from one of the main walking routes so the public can visit and view in amazement.
Watch for browse on fresh ones on the deck. (wee hint)
Summer grass
Of stalwart warriors splendid dreams
the aftermath.
Matsuo Basho.
Young dum and full of yip lol.
My mate [who was used to riding his 125 BSA bantam] borrowed his mates Suzuki Titan [500 twin 2 stroke] and we did 100mph 2 up with a strong norwest wind up our arse blowing us all over the road the day before "bloodbuckets" became compulsory.. I shudder thinking about it.
Sorry to hijack the thread.
About 20yrs ago I was in Clements Mill mid winter with other hunters doing a post 1080 deer repellent trial. The search exercise was to find paper clean sacks stuffed with sticks/fern etc dropped at pre GPSed spots to replicate a dead sika deer. Each clean sack was numbered so if we searches found say 80% of the clean sacks our searchers would have found 80% of any sika that may have been poisoned.
Well it rained then snowed but the search went on. I'd got a bit hot so when our team stopped at a find I took 2 layers off put it in my pack then I'd just put my pack on when there was a loud crack above me and a crashing of limbs falling directly above me.
I was facing uphill but knew I must head down and as I was going my feet were slipping and I knew I had to go flat. I remember I was telling myself "my pack will protect me".
The snow laden limbs hit the ground 2 metres behind my feet as I hit the ground. The beech limb that broke off was about 7metres long and I would say 300mm dia at the base where it had just snapped clean off the tree with the weight of snow.
I've heard limbs come down in dead calm as it was that day, but always away off.
I was a lucky boy that day.
When you look at a stand of mature Eucalyptus trees it's not uncommon to see dead straight trunks for a long way up, some of the tall Aussie forests can have trees with no branches at all for the bottom 50m of their trunks. Guess what? They did have branches once. Lots of branches. The amazing abillty of the genus to self prune is also why they are commonly called 'widow makers' in Australia. Unlike Astelia, Euc branches can fall end first, impaling anything underneath very cleanly. There are some horror stories from Australia about people impaled by branches. Big branches are very heavy too, many of them are about 1.3X the weight of water per volume. Big wind here last week and I found some Euc branches impaled into the paddock looking like dead trees 4m tall. I don't go under them during wind events, but unfortunately the branches shed whenever they are ready, not just during wind, so you're not likely to hear it coming.
Eucalyptus have a bad reputation for this but the reality is all trees do the same thing and they can all kill us unexpectedly. You would need to be ludicrously risk averse to not walk into a forest for fear of falling branches.... people also get killed by bits falling off/from aircraft and from the tops of buildings too.
The local walkway here is being closed until October due to the risk from the gum trees. They are huge, for many years one was thought to be the tallest tree in NZ. Apparently longtail bats are semi-hibernating under the peeling bark so the council can’t do anything to the trees until spring.
Walked along a lesser used but still popular doc track in beach forest and marveled at just how many sketchy hung up limbs, snapped hung up tops, heavy leaning and swaying rotted out trees were not just within striking distance, but directly over the track. Seemed like every time our group stopped we had to move them away from digging through their pack underneath something dangerous or leaning against something that was barely hanging on. Got some grief from them about being paranoid so I ushered them back out of striking distance then dislodged one with a gentle push...
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