Killing trees and drinking blood, METAL!!!!

I'm evil for posing the question I know. I'm going to hell, it's cool, all my friends will be there too.

So the top out of two routes 'rond these parts has a beautiful thank god tree. The route initially had nothing and was apparently harder, this was 3 years ago.

Last year when I got here, the cedar tree was as thick as a skinny girls wrist, I'd grab the tree to top out and ponder ending up in the water with it.

It's had a great year, it's maybe 5" thick and solid. It's getting big enough that I'm beginning to worry that it will start breaking up the cliffside it's residing on. Remember, the rock quality is esoteric here, it's not like some crazy dense piece of granite (of which a tree can also break). It's also on one of our most classic and beloved DWS routes, if it starts falling apart I will be sad.

I'd rather kill the tree and have a hard topout than leave the tree and risk losing the cliff. This is public property, with literally thousands of other cedars in the area.

I could make a mission with a saw, I'd rather cause it to die rather than getting cut down immediately though. Ideas?

Sounds reasonable, but without balance:

Get five bare-root stock cedar trees and plant them in locations where they can be expected to survive.

Wait at least one year for these new trees to get established. If at least two of the five trees you planted survive you have the right to kill the tree that threatens the stability of the cliff.

Sounds like your on the right track looking at the title of your thread.

Get fresh blood, livestock blood will do if your in a pinch but theres no substitute for good ol' homosapian. Use it to drink, and also to lube up that saw.

Your also going to need some heavy duty tunes. There's many selections that could do you good, if your feeling nostalgic, go for some sabbath, or maybe some old slayer. Personally I think that some Meshuggah would be fitting.

Have fun! If you leave no visible stump and burn the remains in a firepit, technically you've left no trace.

i think the john i used to know would be pretty against this sort of thing, but i guess people change.

'cut down all the trees and name the streets after them'

Top it. Leave a branch or two so it doesn't die. Keep topping it over the years so it doesn't grow. You save the tree, the hold and the rock.

If you do kill the tree, leave a nice stump jug to preserve the thank-god hold on the route.

I just put up a route this past weekend, which we had to chop down a dead tree next to in order to access it. I wanted to call the route "Arborcide," but we decided since the tree was already dead, we'd call the route "Abuse of a Corpse."

If it's on public land, you might be facing some sort of fine or misdemeanor charge for cutting down the tree. Have you talked to the land manager?

I would say don't do it, let the tree live, we need more of them anyway.

If you do end up chopping it down though make sure you at least bury it, to sequester the carbon.

If you taunt it like an emo kid it will eventually cut itself down.

Round-up

we need all the trees we can get, remember they help absorb all the bad shit in the very air we breath. it sounds like you've already made up your mind as to what you're going to do, so why the hell ask the masses? but then again, people sometimes feel they own the earth instead of being one with it.

i also disagree with the notion of planting how ever many trees you want to plant for the sake of one that you kill/chop/destroy. let mother nature take care of itself. besides the land your talking about is admittedly not yours, so what and who gives you the right?

my .02$

Juan

Listen to the Collie Budz CD backwards to find the answer you seek.

no1nprtclr wrote:we need all the trees we can get, remember they help absorb all the bad shit in the very air we breath.

I love how lots of people on here are freaking out about a single tree. Especially when they probably use electricity, drive a fossil-fuel consuming vehicle that puts out the "bad shit we breath" and then some, and live in a house made of lots of trees! Yes, if everybody cut down one tree, that could be a problem. But chances are, he is one of very few people who are considering to kill a tree that's threatening a climb. I'm all for environmentally friendly practices, but you have to realize what is significant and what is not. The thing is, the significant problems to the environment are things 99% of the population, at least us Americans, are not willing to give up. Go figure.

JJ Brunner wrote: I love how lots of people on here are freaking out about a single tree. Especially when they probably use electricity, drive a fossil-fuel consuming vehicle that puts out the "bad shit we breath" and then some, and live in a house made of lots of trees! Yes, if everybody cut down one tree, that could be a problem. But chances are, you are one of very few people who are considering to kill a tree that's threatening a climb. I'm all for environmentally friendly practices, but you have to realize what is significant and what is not. The thing is, the significant problems to the environment are things 99% of the population, at least us Americans, are not willing to give up. Go figure.

+1

Tree!? What tree? I never saw any tree at that top out...(plausible deniability). Are you sure it was at the top out? It must have been somewhere else I'm sure. Anyways, be sure to get to the "root" of this problem or it may reoccur.

I like to use garlan...it gets the roots and all...ring it and in time it will dry-rot...and it'll look like any other dead tree that abounds on the cliffs...seriously...look how many trees have died because people simply don't know how to use them to set up top-ropes properly...or you could simply dissect it out and camo the stump with indigenous rocks...the junipers in my neck of the woods are invasives anyway, as well as buckthorn and Japanese honeysuckle...