Widow makers!

[mountainm]

You've found a nice wood, private land with permission, lots of dead wood to use for fires etc.

Then you turn up and find out it's 95% beech. Closer inspection reveals quite a few large limbs suspended in the canopy

Do you put your hammock up?

 

[shaggystu]

any photo's?

i've camped in beech woodland in all sorts of weather, i was just as careful about where i made camp as i would be in any kind of woodland. make sure that you camp in an area of the wood with no dead branches above your camp area and you should be fine.

stuart

 

[Mesquite]

Doesn't make a difference what it is... tarp and bivi bag or hammock... golden rule is look up and don't pitch under danger.

You've still got 5% of the wood to find a safe pitch

 

[resnikov]

Found this oldish thread on beech trees here

 

[Toddy]

Birch drops live branches too
It sort of cracks under the weight of the branches. Gave me a heck of a fright when one dropped behind me just after I'd walked by it It kind of shattered too when it hit, and fired bits of wooden shrapnel about.

Lovely wood, beautiful trees, but I wouldn't be camping under them if I could help it.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[John Fenna]

Avoid pitching under hanging deadwood - other than that I would not worry overmuch...
Although I have heard Beech limbs fall and have seen fallen Beech limbs I have never seen one fall.
I have seen conifers fall in winds, I have seen Ash trees lose limbs in heavy rain and I have had a healthy Willow snap and fall in my garden (lots of Ivy on it) in a storm.
I play the odds and would happily pitch in a Beechwood, the best place being as close as posible to a recently shed limb on the basis of "if it was going to fall it already has"



And I would rather die enjoying myself in a nice wood than whimpering in my bed!

 

[Toddy]

Re that other 5% of the woodland

M

 

[resnikov]

The other 5% was very visable from the rd

 

[Toddy]

I think then your only real option is be very, very careful about checking above you. No dead standing, no hung up branches, no branches directly above you, kind of thing.

Folks do it all the time, I'm just really wary after that limb came crashing down behind me. It was a definite Woah :yikes: moment.
I kind of look on camping in beech woods the same way I look on camping against the roots of a recently fallen tree tbh. Too many warnings.

atb,
M

 

[Tilia]

i dont hang under big beech anymore, cot scarred s**t less last year when a verry big branch snapt and landed les then 15 feet next to my tarp.

i was cooking and it was not that windy and a big dud when it hit the ground nearly stopped my hart
also big sweet chestnuts are trees i wont sleep under

 

[robin wood]

I agree with John. I worked in the woods for many years and always wanted to see a tree blow down. I spent the night of the second great storm in 1989 wandering the woods on top of Toy's Hill where I worked, holding on to huge ancient beech trees and feeling then heaving in the wind. Worry about crossing the road, don't worry about beech trees falling on you.

 

[Tilia]

I agree with John. I worked in the woods for many years and always wanted to see a tree blow down. I spent the night of the second great storm in 1989 wandering the woods on top of Toy's Hill where I worked, holding on to huge ancient beech trees and feeling then heaving in the wind. Worry about crossing the road, don't worry about beech trees falling on you.

its not the tree falling down its the libs that fall without warning with beech, they fall under ther own weight even without wind
i also have a forestry past, and have seen enough examples
you only have to walk through a old beech forest and you'll see enough big limbs laying around, one will rip through your tarp en through your skull no problem

 

[Partickpebbles]

any photo's?

i've camped in beech woodland in all sorts of weather, i was just as careful about where i made camp as i would be in any kind of woodland. make sure that you camp in an area of the wood with no dead branches above your camp area and you should be fine.

stuart

Picture!

 

[mountainm]

Picture!

Note the abundance of large limbs on the floor.....

 

[Partickpebbles]

and the said loose branch was above the Chap in the Blue Jacket/jumper!

 

[Bushwhacker]

I may have made this up in my own head, but I'm sure I heard somewhere that a bad time is a bout of heavy rain after a very dry period when the tree is in leaf.
The tree takes on water like no tomorrow and creates excessive weight that its not used to.

 

[mountainm]

Just noticed - the bark looks smooth like a beech - but the majority of the leaves on the floor look lobed?

 

[robin wood]

I see a woodland like that with a few fallen branches and then think most of them show a lot of rot, we are looking at all the branches that have fallen in 4 or 5 years. That is 5 x 365 x 24 hours and quite a big area in view what is the chance of one hitting you? To get a comparison imagine if you could see your village high street with every car that had passed down it in the last 5 years still there.....it would look a pretty dangerous place which it should, statistically a village high street is dangerous and sleeping under a beech tree is safe.

If folk would like to refute this I suggest instead of looking for examples of limbs falling off trees (yes it happens) but of limbs falling on top of someone sleeping under them. The danger is so slim as not to be worth worrying about, now how do you get to your woodland? that is where you are in danger.

 

[mountainm]

I see a woodland like that with a few fallen branches and then think most of them show a lot of rot, we are looking at all the branches that have fallen in 4 or 5 years. That is 5 x 365 x 24 hours and quite a big area in view what is the chance of one hitting you? To get a comparison imagine if you could see your village high street with every car that had passed down it in the last 5 years still there.....it would look a pretty dangerous place which it should, statistically a village high street is dangerous and sleeping under a beech tree is safe.

If folk would like to refute this I suggest instead of looking for examples of limbs falling off trees (yes it happens) but of limbs falling on top of someone sleeping under them. The danger is so slim as not to be worth worrying about, now how do you get to your woodland? that is where you are in danger.

Seems we have two schools of thought - I'm tending to ally with this one now tho'

 

[resnikov]

Whilst the photo does show a lot of decaying wood there was some freshly fallen (no rot) branches there to.
I think I will take the chance again as its close to were I live and I have permission to use it.

Will go back and take a lot more pics to show if anyones intrested.