James KIlpatrick

James Kilpatrick

Scott Forest

kiwi climbers in harlem

James Kilpatrick, Scott Forest. two amazing climbers from New Zealand who came to work with me in the spring of '08.

Russell Plumb

Russell Plumb, a professional tree climber from England. Russell just arrived in september of 2008 to begin working fulltime with me.

London Plane tree

Giant london plane tree near mosholu gate at NYBG. I had the pleasure of being one of many people who have worked on this tree.

paperbark maple/Acer griseum

Acer griseum, paperbark maple.

one of my favorite trees when i worked at the NYBG. I had the pleasure of pruning this one.

Dyckman Gingko

One of my favorite neighborhood trees. this is a huge gingko biloba growing near 207th street and broadway.

Thilo Beeker

Thilo Beeker, working with crane.

Thilo Beeker splicing.

Harlem dead tree removal

yikes!! the tree was dead for many years. about 6-7 stories tall. 2 dead stems. small backyard, fences, gardens, no drop zone anywhere. unfortunately i was the only camera friendly person at the jobsite. so, i took pictures before and after ascending the tree. luckily, there were 2 large trees to the left and right of the removal. the following set of pictures illustrates how i got this thing on the ground safely and without damaging anything. actually, this job was a really interestng rigging challenge. which made it quite fun. i was able to create a rigging scenario using the live trees on either side of the dead one.

looking up at the big dead monster.

the base of the tree.... probably not much support from the root system.

probably...no root system.

notice a large ash tree to the left, and an ailanthus tree to the right of the dead tree.

a detailed shot of the rigging opportunity afforded by the large ash tree to the left of the dead tree.the red rope at top is a 1/2 static line which was taken over to a large ailanthus tree on the right of the hazard tree, then hoisted up with two pulleys attached slightly to the left and right of the removal tree. the other rope, with the blue block attached, provided a rigging point to the left of the hazard tree.

a static line was placed thru the ash tree on the left and threaded thru a large ailanthus tree on the right. two butterfly knots were created on the static line. one had a pulley attached to provide an overhead anchor point for me to be tied into. the other provided an anchor point for rigging to the right of the dead tree.

the rigging point from the ash tree on the left, and the rigging point on the right off the static line both share the load.

this is basically how the tree was taken down from top to bottom

Marlies Laser, Kiah Martin

Marlies Laser, former womans European wide tree climbing champion. Kiah Martin, former womens World tree climbing champion.

Chrissy Spence from the New Zealand chapter, she has just won womens world tree climbing championship week before.

chrissy showing me latest version of retrievable redirect.

retrievable redirect

Kiah Martin

throwball practice...check out that pendulum!!

i can't hit that target..you do it Kiah.

whoosh....

Padillatree crew april 2006

Tree crew under Brooklyn bridge. we did this job with my bud, Chris Roddick . he's been arborist at Brooklyn Botanic Garden for over ten years, actually more. i don't work in Brooklyn, but chris got this job pruning at a restaurant located right below the Brooklyn bridge.

the Padilla tree crew. Me, Apollonio, Ambrocio, and Efrahim.

My pal Chris Roddick took all the brooklyn pictures...... he should have been working instead.