Emergency tree removal

Last week a member of my staff was picking up sticks between 1 and 18.  He noticed a large Walnut tree that had a crack running up the tree and it was making loud creaking noises with every wind gust.  We determined that the tree was hollow inside and posed a threat of coming down at any time.  This morning we took the tree down and what we saw confirmed our suspicions.

A large crack ran 20' up the tree.

After the wedge was cut, we saw there was only 5" of decent wood around the perimeter of the tree.

Falling right where we wanted it to.

Hollow core of the tree.

 

I have seen trees like this make it through a large wind storm then come down the next week on a calm sunny day.  It's unfortunate to lose a beautiful large tree, but safety comes first.