For conventional falling, there are several ways to "nudge" a tree in another direction than which it leans. Reasons for doing this include falling a tree into an opening in the stand to avoid residual tree damage or falling a tree outward from a buffer strip to avoid pollution problems and to meet forest practice regulations.

For ordinary situations, the faller will use wedges, holding wood manipulation, and chainsaw technique to direct the tree where desired. For a more complete understanding of this visit the links for the terms: undercut, holding wood, backcut, and wedging.

For situations where wedging is not sufficent, the faller can resort to two other methods. the first alternative is to use hydraulic falling jacks. A couple of models are shown below:

1a) Silvey Tree Saver -

1b) Jacks in tree before face cut is made.

2) Silvy Featherjack-Light weight, self contained, hand pumped.

 

The next alternative is to use Line Pulling with a Cat or other power source. Below, the cable is being worked up the tree 30-40 ft. where it will be fixed. As the faller completes the undercut and partially puts in he backcut, the Cat will then pull the line snug, but not tight. The pulling line has been routed through a block on another tree or stump so that the Cat will be out of the line of the tree's fall. As the faller progresses with the remainder of the backcut, the Cat keeps the line tight until the tree falls in the desired direction.