Khaya senegalensis - how the mighty have fallen

[tropicbreeze]

With all the talk of felling and falling of trees thought I put up some photos of the demise of some of my African Mahoganys, 6 to be exact. They were around 30 metres tall (about an 8 to 9 storey building height) with a spreading though not really dense crown. There'd already been damage from falling limbs and one came down in a cyclone a couple of years back, though it was far enough away from house and garden to cause minimal damage.

Finally decided that living under the Hanging Sword of Damocles any longer wasn't conducive to a long healthy life and peace of mind. So, organised to get them cut down a week or so ago. It was an interesting exercise, though painful. Despite all care being taken there were a number of casualties in the garden. Just have to keep telling myself that each cyclone season the risk of one or more coming down uncontrolled was getting greater.

Anyway, it's nice to be able to walk around parts of the garden and know your life's not hanging on (the fate of) a limb. In 2 weeks another 6 to come down, roughly same height. Only 3 are Mahoganys, other 3 are Casuarinas which are tall, spindly but with negligible canopy. Then there'll only be 3 left that could still be a problem to the house. Bottom line is, it's far more preferable for them to come down controlled rather than during cyclonic (or even lesser) Winds.

The first tree had 2 leaders from very low down. Seen from below it looks quite dense higher up.


Man Vs Epipremnum, if you can see him in the middle of it all.


The reductionists waiting on the ground.


Working towards the top


Sawdust flying.


Out on a limb. The lower limbs were cleared out first.

Edited August 13, 2014 by tropicbreeze

[tropicbreeze]

The top's a long way up, but looks a lot further down.


Bit like a scene from a Malaysian or Indonesian rainforest.


More carnage.


Hauling out some of the logs


Woodchip pile getting bigger by the day.


Difficult retrieval

Edited August 13, 2014 by tropicbreeze

[tropicbreeze]

Some were easy, provided not too much more than a tonne.


"Only yesterday there was a canopy overhead!"


Improvised shelter for newly exposed plants


Local inhabitants appear to be taking it in their stride.

[DoomsDave]

Whoa

Looks a bit like my Cedar of Doom, though a lot larger and more tropical

Looks like the palms came on through unscathed.

Bravo!

[tropicbreeze]

Yes, I saw that old thread. Unfortunately there were a number of casualties amongst my palms. But no where near the amount of damage there'd have been if the trees had come down in a cyclone.

[Pedro 65]

Hi Zig, this big slab on our dusty back vndah came from Darwin when lots of street trees where cut down and slabbed up, its beautiful timber, are you going to get yours slabbed? Pete

[Justin]

I was going to ask the same question - is the chipper just for the small stuff? The big logs should be usable for some awesome furniture or posts.

[Really full garden]

It has beautiful wood.Here its called African Mahogany. We have planted 3,000 of these.

[DoomsDave]

So, tb, what happened to all that great wood?

[Daryl]

I remember back in the late 70's this tree was introduced to Darwin in a big way as a great shade tree that would be perfect for local conditions. They planted them throughout Smith st Mall when they closed the road off...how things have changed!

Daryl

[Tropicgardener]

Was recently given a quite a few young trees but I have no intention to plant them, have been trying to find someone with the room who wants them !!

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

There were several planted in South Florida, I would guess, in the 1960's. Not a huge number. All of them went down in Hurricane Andrew in 1992. They were large trees by then with 80'- 100' tall canopies and some as wide with 3' - 5' boles. Andrew was an extremely strong storm in Homestead, maybe 150 mph winds there, but trees were toppled 60 or 70 miles north of there in Parkland where I would guess the wind was maybe 90 mph or so. They evolved in a place with no hurricanes and cannot withstand them.

[tropicbreeze]

I ended up getting 4 more Mahoganys down and 4 Casuarinas. This time used a 45 tonne crane. Should have done that the first time. But anyway, have a lot of good timber logs, stacks of very large limbs, and tonnes of wood chip.

I'm going to mill it myself, but in a year or two. Should get a lot of really good stuff out of it. Every cyclone a stack of Mahoganys come down so there's always some available. One of the blokes doing the felling said the taller trees were about 45 metres tall, going by the lengths of the ropes they used for climbing. But I think he was exaggerating a bit, I don't think they would have been much over 30 metres.

A couple of hundred kms south west of here they planted 3 million Mahoganys some years back. A couple of years ago they took the first cut (apparently a "thinning cut" to space them out a bit). It's all supposed to be for the export market, none for local consumption. Not that there's much of a size of a market here with our low population. It's called African Mahogany here too, and everywhere else.

After TC Tracy they tried to "tree up" the place as fast as possible, and African Mahogany became the tree-of-choice. They put them in all over the Top End. Most damage in Jabiru and Kunbarllanja from TC Monica was from falling Mahoganys. The ones in Smith Street went long ago, even the huge stilted Pandanus. Now the Mall is all concrete and steel.

The Mahogany's weakness is when they're grown in shallow soil or get irrigation during the dry season. Their root system stays close to the surface, and then with their huge canopy they're a 'push-over'. Because they grow extremely fast they can get up a good size between major cyclonic events, and then they wreak havoc.

[Gtlevine]

I really like the Mahogany trees, i have a couple in my garden in so cal. One in particular is Swetinia mahogany, its a beauty.

[Laisla87]

Love this post. Interesting to see how they grow. I love your garden in the territory

[Alicehunter2000]

Wow....would be really cool trees to have for canopy...but I can understand the 'widowmaker' concept.....you gotta do, what ya gotta do. Must of cost a small fortune to cut trees that large.

[tropicbreeze]

Thanks Laisla, but quite frankly I'd rather see them growing elsewhere than on my place.

Alicehunter, without that canopy it's made quite a change to parts of my garden. Some plants are suffering, but you can't keep living under the Sword of Damocles. "Small fortune"? The ouch made it feel more like a large fortune.