Switched from a handsaw to a pole pruner for my dead ash trees

Used to climb up and hand saw every dead branch on these ash trees in my backyard, took me a whole Saturday afternoon just to get three trees done. After the emerald ash borer hit hard here in Wisconsin last summer, I bought a 12-foot pole pruner and stripped all the deadwood in under an hour per tree. Anyone else find pole pruners change how you approach cleanup on those bigger dieback jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_anthony3d ago

Oh great, so you're telling me I could've saved six hours of my life and probably one near-miss with the ER if I'd just bought a pole pruner sooner. Guess I'll go yell at my past self now.

nathan_bailey2d ago

Man, the "near-miss with the ER" line hits home. I was the same way, used to think pole pruners were just for people who couldn't climb or something, you know? Then I got one for a different job and tried it on a big dying maple. It's night and day, I was actually mad at myself for all the mornings my back hurt after hand sawing stuff I could've reached from the ground.