Tree Felling is a potentially hazardous operation. However felling is routinely carried out by our trained tree surgeons in Richmond and other areas.
Where space and safety permit a tree may be felled in one piece. This is known as Directional felling

Trees with no lean and an even weight distribution can be felled by using a standard 45 deg scaf (notch) and back cut on a calm day or when the wind is blowing in the direction of fall.
More advanced technique can be used by our trained staff to fell trees which are heavily weighted in the direction of fall or even heavily back weighted IE weighed against the direction of fall.

Good felling work aims to bring the tree down as close to the intended position   as possible without causing damage to the tree or the saw.
The tree surgeon has to master many different natural forces which can often be difficult to assess. A tree may weigh well over a ton . The wind is a fickle factor to deal with and can often create difficulties as the crown of three acts as a sail. The inclination and crookedness of the tree and the shape and degree of overhang of the crown make the center of gravity and consequently the direction of fall of the tree hard to assess. The assessment of the direction of fall involves the weighing of many factors.

The fact that between 5 and 10 forest workers are killed every year in Sweden in felling accidents provides somber evidence of this.