The build-up to Christmas in the United Kingdon is pretty hectic and can keep foresters on the private estates busy as staff split firewood to order, collect holly and ivy for wreaths, branches for decorations, and fulfill orders for Christmas trees. A couple of the private estates I worked on in the UK had Christmas tree plantations whereby folks ordered a tree and had them delivered to their house.

One year we got an order for a 40ft tree that was due to go up in the local town. This required heading out of the usual Christmas tree plantations which had trees up to about 15 feet tall and into older plantations which had trees that were now part of a commercial plantation. We went out with the tractor and trailer and after walking through the plantation for around an hour the head forester found a decent tree.

We felled it and moved it into a place, then gently picked it up and placed it on a tractor-trailer. The three of us involved took utmost care not to damage the tree, it was felled slowly and we avoided snapping branches and dropping needles while we moved it in place. The whole operation had taken a few hours and had gone well. It was at this point the head forester thought the tree was laid crooked on the trailer.

He grabbed the leader to pull the tree around and it snapped off in his hand. We had to start all over again… a broken leader was the second disaster of the day after the e-brake cable on the tractor snapped while waiting at the gate on a steep road into the plantation.

Sam Coggins PhD, RPF
Director, Investigations
Forest Practices Board