Widow Makers

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WoodenChicken

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Sep 11, 2008
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I take a short jaunt (sometimes longer jaunt) in the woods with my dog every day. I seem to know every tree in that area. Sometimes, after a windy day, you will see a big branch or even top of a tree that has fallen.
I always think, how lucky that didn't fall on us.
So, is there any way to protect oneself from "widow-makers" falling down?
I can't think of any way except running away, but it could be too late.
Is there a survival method to avoid these?
 
It has been many years since I played with widowmakers,but as I recall there was noise first. Then you look up (if for some reason you haven't been already) and note which way its falling and then step lively out of the way.
 
every year I hear of at least 1 person in NYS being killed by a widow maker. I think when hiking just keep your awareness up...when camping your odds of being injured are far greater as you are spending more time in a given spot. so careful attention needs to be paid to where you set up. leafless branches looming above your campsight in the middle of the spring are a bad sign.
 
when hiking, just keep an ear out mostly. you will probably hear snapping as the wood seperates as well as when it snaps past all the other branches.

if you have time, get out of the way fast. if you don't have time...i guess just tuck and roll. better to take some broken ribs than a broken skull...

like Riley says, watch where you setup camp.
 
I have had a few close calls over time. There is little warning; If you hear the 'crack' its already too late, by the time you raise up your head to see it coming, its hitting the ground. Luckily these just missed me, as I could feel the breeze coming from the 6 foot length of white birch coming down like a lifeless jumbo jet.

Most of these were birch trees, as they have the tendency to rot and die and fall down in chunks like large clubs.
 
I've worked for a tree service the past 3 summers, and I almost got taken out by a widow maker. We were taking down this big pine tree and I was underneath taking branches to the chipper. There was a branch that was cut, but had gotten snagged in the other branches so it didn't fall. All of a sudden it fell down while I was there, and the base of it grazed my back. Very close call and I'm really lucky it didn't hit my head.
 
Yes, the widow makers from trees that you are taking down are one thing--you know something is coming. It's the ones that come out of the blue that worry me--and I guess it is something of a irrational fear, but whoa....those are some scary stories.
 
They just had a Catholic Priest in Maryland a couple/few days ago get out of his car to move part of a tree that had fallen and another one got him. Well, Catholic Priests don't have Wives, so I guess it's something else when it hits someone who has taken a Vow of Chastity. 8-)

Last year, again in Maryland, a little kid saw one coming down and pushed his younger brother out of the way and it hit him and killed him. The branch killed the older brother that saved his younger brother, I heard it on the news and damn near cried. No greater love...
 
A friend of mine was bow hunting from a tree stand in upstate NY a couple of years ago and was hit by a small branch falling out of a tree (maybe 2" diameter). If it was not for his safety harness he wouldn't be here. The branch knocked him out.
 
WoodenChicken said:
I take a short jaunt (sometimes longer jaunt) in the woods with my dog every day. I seem to know every tree in that area. Sometimes, after a windy day, you will see a big branch or even top of a tree that has fallen.
I always think, how lucky that didn't fall on us.
So, is there any way to protect oneself from "widow-makers" falling down?
I can't think of any way except running away, but it could be too late.
Is there a survival method to avoid these?
Click to expand...

"Stay Alert, Stay Alive"

Make a practice of observing your entire environment.

Take great caution during winter, snowy weather.

I've started to examine trees more closely. And am devolping an eye for trees pocked by beetle holes, or a pine leaning to an extreme degree, and has scarring/damage around the base of trunk. Or the branchs that are dead, and awaiting to fall.

Sometimes it is hard to tell...

I live in the woods, and am surrounded by talls oaks and 200 ft pines. I've had pine cones weighing a few pounds fall from great hieghts right near were I'm standing. Thats when accute hearing comes into play. One landed on and cracked the windshield to my car. Thats no joke.

The other day I discovered a 10 ft+ pine branch directly behind the house, that had fallen from high above. It looked green and healthy, most likely a victim of the heavy snow. Same for this healthy, small pine in my front yard. It shook off its snow, and in the process 6 ft tip of the crown broke off, falling to the ground. The branch was frozen and weighed 40+ lbs easy.

Also recently we had a oak make a dramatic fall. There were carpentar ants gutting it, yet it still had green leaves/looked healthy. It landed across a small hiking trail. I knew about its bug probelm, but a hiker unfimilar w/ the area obviously wouldn't, specially being off the trail.

So fimiliarize yourself w/ the area in which you travel.
 
I run saw in the woods. Been hit by a 1" thick x 6 foot long branch. Knocked me out cold and that was with a fallers hardhat on. Torn shoulder and facial scraps from falling on the ground. woke up to idling of the chainsaw (chain brake on) next to my face.

Imagine what a large limb or top will do and be really aware of your surroundings during breezy times/snow times/ fall in the woods......dont just look ahead or to the rear while walking, look UP.
 
A few years back we had a severe ice storm (for Arkansas at least) and among the other tons of wood in my yard was an oak limb about 4" diameter and maybe 18 feet long that broke on an angle and was buried over 2 feet deep in the front yard. THAT is a show stopper for sure.
 
For those of you who get out and about in Texas we have the Hackberry. These will split in half in the middle of summer with full leaves on them and come crashing down on a calm day. The bigger the tree gets the weaker it gets. Makes you a little skittish about resting or sleeping anywhere near one. At least it does me. Saw a 30 footer split and crash in Pflugerville park outside Austin a few years ago. No one hurt.
 
What makes me think about widow makers are all the fair sized Limbs that I see stuck in the Ground like Spears.

BTW I have seen the whole top half fall from a Tree on a windy day. It makes you stop thinking that your work truck is a safe place to be on a windy day.
 
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