Limbing or delimbing is the process of removing

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...

es from a standing or fallen tree trunk. In logging, limbing follows

felling Felling is the process of cutting down trees,"Feller" def. 2. and "Felling", def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009 an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the trees ...

. Limbing plays a role in

fire prevention Fire prevention is a function of many fire departments. The goal of fire prevention is to educate the public on the precautions which should be taken to prevent potentially harmful fires and how to survive these fires in the event that they do o ...

by removing branches from live trees that can otherwise serve as part of a

fuel ladder A fuel ladder or ladder fuel is a firefighting term for live or dead vegetation that allows a fire to climb up from the landscape or forest floor into the tree canopy.tree canopy In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant cropping or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns. In forest ecology, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns an ...

. A California fire prevention guide recommends to "Remove all tree branches at least 6 feet .8 metersfrom the ground" and "Allow extra vertical space between shrubs and trees."Maintain Defensible Space
Ready For Wildfire,

CAL FIRE The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various areas under state responsi ...

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

, limbing can be synonymous with

snedding Snedding is the process of stripping the side shoots and buds from the length of a branch or shoot, usually of a tree or woody shrub. This process is most commonly performed during hedge laying and prior to the felling of trees on plantations ready ...

. Alternatively, limbing can be used to describe the operation on larger branches, and snedding on smaller.

In logging

Options for cutting off the branches include

chain saw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pruning, ...

s, harvesters, stroke delimbers and others. Limbing can happen at the stump in log/tree length systems and cut-to-length systems or at the landing in whole-tree logging. When the tree is lying on the ground, branches may be storing enormous potential energy through mechanical strain. When a branch is cut, often with a

, this energy can be released suddenly and the branch can jump dangerously. In addition, a branch may be supporting the tree, and the tree can fall or roll when the branch is cut. For these reasons, limbing is a skilled operation requiring careful safety planning.

References

{{Lumberjack sports Logging Lumberjack sports Sustainable forest management Environmental terminology Sustainable gardening Wildfire suppression

In logging

See also

References