How To Fell a Coconut Tree

Coconut trees are a resilient and hardy type of plant that can resist severe weather, drought and even the occasional abuse from us humans. We here in fact, view them as an utter nuisance, because apart from the occasional fruit which is nice to drink and has medicinal properties, the plant has a habit of dropping its waste on peoples heads, or more precisely on my poor roof sheeting. Look at all that damage from just one of them!

Enough is enough, and now its time for Mr.Tree to say Goodbye.

In fact so resilient are the trees that the roots make them very strong. If I were to remove such a tree I would need a Tractor and those cost money. So here is a simple guide to removing such pestilence permanently without resorting to hydraulics.

1. Get a guy to Climb the tree.

Get someone who can climb such trees (and there are plenty of them here that can do that) with a rope. Once he gets to the top of the tree, presumably where all the coconuts are, loop the rope securely to that part of the tree. Make sure that the bloke gets down alright, because if you need him to climb another tree, you need him in one piece.

2. Get a gang of tuggers to pull the other end of the rope.

Stationed on the other end of that same piece of rope, is a gang of people to pull the tree away from any structure, object or persons that could be in the way of the trees path down. Make sure that this gang is using a very long rope, so that if the tree falls, its top will fall a considerable distance from them. The best of course is to pull the rope at an angle and this would avoid any such near misses completely.

3. Have a go at the bottom of the tree trunk with a chainsaw or a machete.

This part is the tricky part. You need to have someone who can do damage to the bottom of the trunk. Whilst this is going on, the gang on the other end of the rope should maintain a constant tension on the rope. In order to do maximum damage, you need not go beserk of course, just cut out 2 wedges from the trunk, one on the side facing the tuggers and the other, on the reverse side. If all goes well, the tree will fall down.

4. Pick the tree apart when it is on the ground.

Once the tree is on the ground, it can easily be hacked to pieces using the same chainsaw/ machete collecting up coconuts and in my case, coconut branches that can be machined for Animal feed. The tree trunk is also a good source for wood, just make sure that if you cut  it up that you leave several days for the wood to dry up, making it easier to dismember. Also note that, the wood at the base of the trunk will be very much harder than the softer flexible tree top.

Have a Nice day. ;)