Several alders leaning over a horse pasture, felled with precision so they dropped away from the fence line — protecting the fence and the horses.
These alders were leaning out over a fenced horse pasture. Left alone, a failure would have dropped them across the fence — destroying it, and potentially hurting a horse. The owners wanted them gone before that happened.
The trick with a leaning tree is making it go where you want, not where gravity wants. Using a proper face cut, hinge wood and a felling wedge, DirtRaptor steered each alder to drop clean into the open pasture, away from the fence line. Fence intact, horses safe, trees down.
Project at a glance
- Service
- Tree Removal
- Location
- Arlington, WA
What the job involved
- Assessed each leaning alder and where it needed to fall
- Set a proper face cut and hinge on each tree
- Used a felling wedge and back cut to steer each alder into the open pasture
- Dropped every tree away from the fence line, with the fence intact and the horses safe
Leaning trees over fences, pastures and livestock
Red alder is everywhere on rural property around Arlington, and it grows fast, leans toward light and often fails in winter storms. When it leans over a fence, a barn or a paddock, a failure can take out the fence and injure animals. Taking it down on your schedule is far cheaper than cleaning up after a windstorm.
The skill is in making a leaning tree fall where you want instead of where it leans. The face cut, the hinge and the wedge decide the direction. Watch for a lean that is getting worse, cracks near the base, dead tops or mushrooms at the root flare, and call before the next storm season.
Planning something similar? See our tree removal in Arlington page for local ground, permit and timing details, or everything we do in Arlington.
Questions about jobs like this
Can you fell a leaning tree away from my fence?
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Usually, yes. With the right face cut, hinge and wedges, most leaning trees can be steered to fall into open ground. Where there is no safe drop zone, we take the tree down in sections instead.
Do I need a permit to cut alders on rural land near Arlington?
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Usually not for a few trees on unincorporated land, but larger removals and anything near a stream or wetland can need approval. We check before we cut.
