We had the massive Ponderosa Pine that was located on the south west corner of the vineyard. We had been wanting to take this tree down for some time as it is leaning south and seems to bee leaning more and more each year. If it were to come down it would happen in a big storm and likely take out the power lines for everyone up the road from us. So we had Loki Tree removal come to the property and they took it down in sections. They did and excellent job, and cut the trunk into 8-10 foot lengths. Great service from Loki and they are very reasonable in their price and serve much of the West Kootenay region check out them through the link to their web site in links section.
We're also lucky to have such great neighbors who came along with his skid steer and moved away all the trunck pieces and cleaned up the tree linbs, piling them into a big burn pile for later in the winter.
While we new the the tree needed to come down, we also knew it shaded the south west corner of the vineyard and lowers the head accumulations at that point. however, in the fall, during the ripening period when the sun is lower in the sky the tree shades the entire vineyard as the shadow moves in relation to the sun.
What we didn't realize was how much that changes the ripening of the grapes until this year. The tree came down when we were just putting the bird nets up (Sept 7-8th). over the next month we had excellent heat in September and this was maximized by not having the tree to block the sun.
Sad to see the tree go as it was a beautiful old tree (about 100 years based on the rings) but we're glad it doesn 't pose a danger anymore and happy with the extra heat in the vineyard.
