Getting a crane set out here is mostly a driveway problem. Rt 441 and Five Mile Line move fine, but back on Whalen or Sweets Corners the lots run half an acre to an acre and the older places are on septic — we'll find the leach field before anything heavy leaves the road. Sometimes the grapple truck stays out front and we rope the tree down instead. Slower, not worse.
Dead ash is the standing problem in this town, mixed through the white pine, black locust and oak on the Jackson Road side. Ash that's been dead a couple of winters won't hold a climber, so it comes off the bucket or the crane. Along the Irondequoit Creek gorge and the Ellison Park edge the ground is steep and stays wet, so that work waits for frost or a dry stretch. Shadow Pines streets get mats and a clean blow-off before we pull away.
Ash, wet ground and long driveways: the work in Penfield
Will your equipment wreck my lawn or my septic field?
It can if nobody's paying attention, which is why we ask where the tank and field are before we plan access. Mats on soft ground, heavy machine on the drive where possible. If the only route crosses the field, we rig the tree and carry it out.
My ash is already dead. Is that harder to take down?
Yes, and it's the reason not to put it off. Dead ash goes brittle fast — limbs shed with no warning and the wood won't take a climber's weight — so it becomes a bucket or crane job instead of a straightforward climb.